Homosexuality in the Works of Oscar Wilde Essay

Wilde also was famous for his leading of the aesthetic movement and his imprisonment for propagating homosexuality. The Picture of Dorian Gray tells a story about a degradation of a young man Dorian Gray. At the beginning, an artist Basil Hallward paints a portrait of the kind and innocent Dorian Gray and, after seeing the artwork, Lord Henry Wotton - a vain and snobbish class man - requests to meet him. Influenced by eccentric Henry Wotton’s philosophy, Dorian begins to become vain and cruel but while his external appearance remains unchanged, his appearance on the painting alters every time he commits a sin. The novel explores many issues, one of them is aestheticism - exaltation of art and beauty, leading to the eternal question - can a beautiful person be moral and a moral person be beautiful, which always have and will stir society’s curiosity. Oscar Wilde once said that "All art is quite useless" and in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he tends to juxtapose various expressions of art with the routine of Dorian Gray and a shallow life in the nineteenth century. As a tool to reveal the concept of a life at the end of the 19th century Wilde uses art of pretty - but meaningless - things used to please one’s vanity and create a mundane environment. This raises the question: what did Oscar Wilde want to imply by and how does he use art to develop the theme of morality in The Picture of Dorian Gray? It was impossible to avoid art in any of its expressions (parties, theatre, clothes, etc.) in even the most regular lives in the 19th century and of course it influenced the way of thinking, created the social status and the image of oneself, so, after all, art had a huge impact on the individuals of the 19th century. And, as often beauty does, art encourages greed and vanity, which Oscar Wilde demonstrates through the usage of art in the novel.

Most people are taught from a young age what is right, and what is wrong. These teachings set up the basis for later discovering one’s personal values. In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, these same principles are applied and challenged by Wilde. Not only does he question morality and human nature, but also the ideas of the Aesthetic movement- which influenced the ideals and behavior of Dorian Gray. Through Dorian’s morally ambiguous character, Wilde asserts that one is not purely good or evil, but a mixture of the two; Wilde establishes this theme when Dorian breaks up with Sibyl Vane, murders Basil Hallward, and stabs his decaying portrait.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, it tells of a man's gradual downfall from innocence to corruption. Even the name of the main character in Oscar Wilde's tale, Dorian Gray, is very symbolic because ‘gray' is the combination of black and white, of good and evil. In many ways, Dorian Gray is the epitome of mankind. Dorian Gray, an innocent and naïve man, becomes corrupted after having one conversation with Lord Henry Wotton. He shows how easily people can become swayed and changed merely by the words of others. Society plays such an enormous role in the lives of people. As said by Thomas Babington, "The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out." How much of how we act is influenced

In the summer of 1891, Oscar met Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas, the third son of the Marquis of Queensberry. Bosie was well acquainted with Oscar's novel “Dorian Gray” and was an undergraduate at Oxford. They soon became lovers and were inseparable until Wilde's arrest four years later. In April 1895, Oscar sued Bosie's father for libel as the Marquis had accused him of homosexuality. Oscar withdrew his case but was himself arrested and convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labor. Constance took the children to Switzerland and reverted to an old family name, “Holland.”

The Victorian era emerged as a narrowly conventional society that strived to continue the excellence of idealistic morals and conventions that both assisted in the formation of the time period and that remained constant throughout the sixty-plus years in English history. Notable figures of the 19th century influenced how society functioned and often challenged the norm. Among these figures, Irish playwright Oscar Wilde poised his actions and writings to contest and satirise the societal customs that were existent during the era. Throughout Wilde’s workings, he both explicitly and implicitly wove myriad viewpoints into his plays and novels – these contained the satirised comments and suppositions of the Victorian era, which ranged from social

Additionally, Wilde perceives marriage as a hindrance. When Lady Bracknell tells Algernon of her visit to Lady Harbury, she mentions that since her husband’s death, Lady Harbury “looks quite twenty years younger” (line 244) and “her hair has turned quite gold from grief” (line 261). Although her husband has departed, Lady Harbury appears to be flourishing in his absence. One would assume that after your significant other has died, you would experience a great deal of stress. It is known that when someone is overly stressed they can appear aged and obtain grey hair, but the opposite is shown with Lady Harbury.

In the canonical piece, The Picture of Dorian Gray, author Oscar Wilde provides commentary on social issues during the late 19th century. Wilde provides a look at homesexual men eho, during this time period, couldn’t openly acknowledge their sexuality. Using character interactions, more specifically Basil and Lord Henry’s interactions with Dorian, as well as conversation tones between the characters Wilde implies homosexuality throughout the books. Incidentally, Basil is the first character to give any indication that he might be homosexual.

His lifestyle didn’t match up with the expectations of the time, and it has shown through in his stories. His body of work can be described as varying, slightly satirical, and sarcastic: all things that people don’t usually associate with Victorian England. In the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde says one of his most famous quotes, “All art is quite useless”. The era in which this was written was an era of advancement in literature and in art, which he openly published as useless. In the same passage, he also states that “there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book”, in a time that was highly religious and focused on the morality of the people.

The 19th century is a period in time where homosexuality was not favored by society. It is seen as vulgar and inappropriate to behave in this sort of manner, and it results in spending time in jail. Wilde struggles to be himself when he begins his practice of homosexuality and finds himself into deeper trouble. After his wife leaves him, he develops a different view on women and begins to criticize them based on his wife’s actions. Living in a world where homosexuality considered illegal, Wilde addresses this situation by creating The Picture of Dorian Gray to illustrate his opinion on sexuality and his judgement on women. Oscar Wilde has secretly intended to write this novel to inform the reader of how homosexuality has affected him.

Dorian Gray is first introduced to the idea of Hedonism in a conversation with Lord Henry when he is told to open his eyes and do as he please rather than what is seen as moral and ethical. The first instance of the dangers of Hedonism seen in Wilde's novel is after this conversation, when Sybil Vane passes away. When Basil Howard comes to Dorian's house and break the news about Sybil's death, Dorian gives absolutely no expression and no remorse for the situation. Dorian goes from being the light hearted naive man to a soulless human being after that conversation with Lord Henry. It is inevitable that the act of Hedonism decays one's soul as stated by Oscar Wilde. As a result instead of feeling sad, praying for himself and her and talking with her family he acts as if it was just a pity. For Dorian Gray the only way to keep his Hedonistic lifestyle of constant pleasure, he will have to also cut out sadness from his life. This can be

The reason why this is significant is not only because of the time period he lived in but also because it affected his real life. However, even if Wilde was a writer who truly pulled from his own life to write. Not all the topics he wrote about, were impactful to his life. This was something Wilde himself even admitted he did, showing just how connected his life was from his writing. (Marcus 1985) This shows how even if his writing style matched his time, with his lifestyle being different; Wilde works would not always match the Victorian period. Even if during the Victorian period, there was more visibility of homosexuals, especially in males. The reason the queer population was coming to light was due to the Greek views on male relationships. Further, with all the laws forbidding it, made it more desirable for some (Marsh). As for Wilde, he was not necessarily a homosexual, but rather a bisexual man. However, as he deepens his romantic relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. This causes him to write about more controversial social issues. Further, he became more forward to the people around him, to the point where he asked an editor to change the way he reviews his work (Marcus). By being in a homosexual relationship Wilde was able to come out of his shell a bit more. Allowing him to write about issues in a manner that would fool people, into reading about controversial

In the “Picture of Dorian Gray”, Oscar Wilde prefaces his only novel by examining the value of art and the artist. After a short examination, Wilde concludes that “All art is quite useless” (Wilde, 2), contradicting the principles of the Aesthetic Movement, a contemporary to Wilde and Dorian Gray, that became popular during the fin-de-siècle English Victorian society. Aestheticism believes in imitating art and living life experiencing the pleasures of the world, adopting the hedonistic way of living. A few pages into “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, aesthetics becomes a prominent theme as shown by both the artist Basil Hayward, who uses beauty to inspire his art, and Lord Henry Wotton who praises the aesthetic philosophy murmuring to Dorian that “youth is the one thing worth having.” (Wilde, 24). This seemingly useless sentence holds the crux of the story, as it creates the atmosphere for the revealing of the painting of Dorian Gray which alter the rest of his life. Lord Henry’s aesthetic philosophy critically damage Dorian as up until this point he has lived an ethical life, but soon becomes influenced by Lord Henry’s philosophy that “we never get back our youth” (Wilde, 25) and thus becomes afraid of aging. This fear of ageing causes Dorian Gray to plead with dark forces to never grow old but instead be given the opportunity to retain his youth while the painting ages, admitting that for an opportunity like that that “there is nothing in the world [he] would not give! [He]

At the height of his success, Oscar Wilde wrote his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which follows the life of a young man living in late nineteenth-century London. The novel shares a similar storyline with that of Wilde’s life, as Wilde wrote it in attempt to justify his homosexuality. The protagonist of the novel, Dorian Gray, enters the story an innocent man, but eventually becomes corrupt due to his need for instant pleasure. Wilde recognizes that the topic of his homosexuality brings up the importance of challenging society, but he uses Dorian’s character to depict the dangers of completely disobeying society. He does so by making Dorian succumb to the temptations of hedonism, the pursuit of instant pleasure through any means possible, in this novel. Wilde faced persecution by society, and hoped that through his novel he could show society the truly corrupt actions of people, therefore proving that his homosexuality does not compare to morally wrong actions like murder. Wilde wanted society to understand that life’s meaning involves living with some rejection to societal acceptance and morals, and that people should find a stable balance between the rights and wrongs of society and live upon that as he did.

Individuals who obsess over the way they are perceived by others lose the fundamentals of their character. Dorian Gray’s temporal desires and corruption by Lord Henry and the yellow book draw him towards evil until it consumes his soul. After acknowledging the beauty of Basil’s portrait, Dorian becomes obsessed with youth and beauty, saying, "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young […] If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old […] I would give my soul for that!" (Wilde 19). Dorian becomes so consumed in transient desires because he cannot face his own mortality; he only wishes to

One thing that happens to everyone in life, is confronting the reality of growing up, which comes with the aspect of maturity. As one matures, they are subject to many things that ultimately change their very being. Oscar Wilde portrays this within The Picture of Dorian Gray by having the protagonist, Dorian, encounter a plethora of moral and philosophical dilemmas, that are represented through the physical aspects of Victorian life. Revealing that becoming corrupt in some way is inevitable if one is to live in the world of man, that which corrupts one’s self comes in many forms.