How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists

Oscar Wilde, master of paradox and prince of wit, once declared: “How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.” Beneath the veil of humor lies a truth both ancient and eternal: that love is not content with the ordinary, and that the beloved must never be treated as merely common, but as wondrous, mysterious, and extraordinary.

The ancients themselves knew this wisdom well. They sang of goddesses disguised as mortals, yet always demanding reverence; they told of queens who desired not to be handled as peasants, but as women of divine fire. To call a woman “perfectly normal” is to strip away the reverence and awe that love demands. For when a man loves, he must see not just flesh, but radiance; not just the everyday, but the eternal spark within her.

Wilde’s jest is also a warning. A relationship cannot survive if love is reduced to routine, if wonder is exchanged for indifference. To cherish is to exalt, to look upon the beloved with eyes of marvel, even in the simplest moments. Without this reverence, affection withers, and the soul of the union grows cold.

Yet this truth speaks not only to women, but to all who are loved. Every soul longs to be seen as unique, irreplaceable, touched with mystery. Happiness in love comes not from being treated as ordinary, but from being recognized as extraordinary in the eyes of the one we hold dear. This is the alchemy of romance: the power to turn daily life into something sacred through the lens of devotion.

Let the generations remember: do not treat the beloved as “perfectly normal,” for love is the art of seeing with divine sight. To love is to magnify, to honor, to revere, to look upon another and see both beauty and miracle. Wilde’s words, cloaked in laughter, remind us that love dies in the ordinary but thrives in the extraordinary vision of the heart.