Is picture of dorian gray gay
The Gay in Gray: Homoeroticism in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
Gabriela Sotelo
The Picture of Dorian Gray () by Oscar Wilde is well-known for its sexual provocation and its underlying homoerotic element. Sections of the novel were used against Wilde during his indecency trials in , and these passages supported accusations of his partaking in homosexual acts, despite the lack of any graphic description of homosexual behavior.1 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “homoeroticism” is “[s]exual or quixotic attraction to, or engagement in sexual activity with, people of one&#;s retain sex.” Homoeroticism differs from homosexuality, which suggests a more permanent state of sexual identity rather than simply desires. Also, Wilde discreetly employs multiple aphrodisiacs such as strawberries, flowers, and silk to convey methods of rmore, the interactions between male characters in the novel suggest the eroticism of homosocial relationships. As Luljeta Muriqi observes, “Although Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is considered to be one of the optimal known
Introduction
Over time, perceptions of Oscar Wilde’s works have changed significantly. Initially considered scandalous and used against him as evidence of gross indecency, The Picture of Dorian Gray () is now regularly introduced to readers as a canonically gay novel. However, attitudes towards homosexuality had started to shift by the time James Joyce’s Dubliners () was published, as a direct result of Wilde’s sensationalised persecution. This article analyses Joyce and Wilde’s characters through the lens of necropolitics and examines how homosexual panic and gender inequality contributed to the tragic, preventable deaths of women and gay men. By depicting the effects of these societal influences, both Joyce and Wilde criticise the strict moral codes that governed the public and intimate lives of ‘sexual deviants’ oppressed within a heterosexist system, factors which can be deduced from the treatment of the era’s proscription of same-sex relationships, the colonial situation, and gender imbalances promoted by the strict moral codes of the time.
Coined by Achille Mbembe, the
Published in:November-December issue.
THE AUTHOR of this piece passed away in , having contributed many articles to this publication over the years, including this feature-length review of a novel with the somewhat salacious title, The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde (), by Neil McKenna. While Hattersley doesn’t directly address the question of The Picture of Dorian Gray’s primacy as a gay novel, he does venture that it was, “while cautious, implicitly homosexual”—at least for cognoscenti who knew what to observe for.
This obfuscation is what makes Dorian Gray’s place in the gay canon so unlock to debate. The novel’s very coyness on the matter of same-sex noun, its not daring to name “the love,” is what prevents it from being a shoo-in as the first gay novel in English. Wilde is not to criticize, of course (and notwithstanding that a few of the most suggestive sentences were excised by his publisher): slow Victorian society simply did not permit for a more explicit exploration of the love whose name could not be spoken, much less elevated to a central role in a novel. Thu In his article "The Gay Artist as Tragic Hero in The Picture of Dorian Gray" Henry M. Alley discusses the central artistic figure in Oscar Wilde's novel, Basil Hallward. As the novel's tragic protagonist, he commands the most pity and terror and serves as the most dynamic member of the dramatis personae. Alley contextualizes his discussion within Aristotle's Poetics, contemporary criticism, as well as Wilde's own comments. In addition, Alley looks at Hallward's attempt to hide or censor his gay feelings as parallel to Wilde's strife with the various versions of the novel. Nevertheless, the characterization of Hallward celebrates the workable harmony between moral and aesthetic beauty, and, further, comes to affirm gay love, such as Wilde also saw in the lives of Shakespeare and Michelangelo. As other critics have pointed out, The Picture of Dorian Gray anticipates the tragic end of Oscar Wilde's own life. Nevertheless not enough stress has been placed on the sympathy elicited by the two dramas. Yet, in both tThe Gay Artist as Tragic Hero in The Picture of Dorian Gray
Abstract