Homoerotic Desire in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
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document in English
literature
book review
published 08/08/2007
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Summary
“What if someone wrote a novel about homosexuality and no body [sic] came?” Ed Cohen writes of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (75). Actually, at the time the book was written, the term “homosexuality” was nonexistent. Wilde, himself, became one of the leaders of the movement that defined homosexuality. Oscar Wilde, one of the most (in)famous homosexuals of the nineteenth century, portrays through the three main characters in Dorian Gray, the difficulty of coping with the life of secrecy that unavoidably went hand in hand with being a homosexual male in nineteenth century England.
Table of Contents
- The Picture of Dorian Gray most likely reflects Wilde's own feelings and experiences regarding society's perception and treatment of homosexuality
- Obviously, Wilde was well aware of his society's homophobia, but perhaps he did not know exactly what he was up against
- Lord Henry Watton theorizes about indulging in one's passions but never actually does
- As the title suggests, the plot of Dorian Gray revolves around a picture that is painted of Dorian by Basil Hallward
- On the other hand, Wotton's massive influence over Dorian does lead the latter to begin to investigate his own desires
- Sensual descriptions such as the previous one, although shocking to the nineteenth century public, are quite prevalent in the novel.
- Like Oscar Wilde himself, Dorian Gray does not hold that critical distance from his passions that is so necessary to avoiding the dangerous consequences that he subsequently experiences
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