Lit Bit: The likeness of Dorian Gray and Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is probably best known for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the story of a man whose sins and age manifest in a physical portrait. The book was first published in 1890, and it carries heavy themes about the transient nature of art and beauty.

But Dorian Gray was way ahead of its time. If you read closely, you’ll find there are some ho- mosexual themes. The main focus of the book is on its male characters: Dorian, Basil and Lord Henry. Basil has quite a detectable crush on Dorian, and while Dorian and Henry do have relationships with women, they treat these women rather poorly in favor of their own friendship.

This is interesting because not even five years after publishing the novel, Wilde was put on trial for sodomy — many thought that he was getting too close to some of his male peers. It is true that Wilde had an affair with one Lord Alfred Douglas. Douglas’s father, the Marquess of Queensberry, left Wilde a note that subtly outed him, and Wilde was enraged. He accused the Marquess of libel, but that only resulted in Wilde’s bankruptcy and subsequent accusation of sodomy.

Wilde was imprisoned for two years, and he died from cerebral meningitis three years after his release — a disease that he might have acquired as a complication of syphilis.

Really, Wilde’s own life follows pretty closely to that of his most famous character, Dorian Gray. They both ran in circles amongst the wealthiest of men, making friends in high places. Their reputations were immeasurably important, and the relationships they had with their closest male friends were of utmost importance in their lives.

Another parallel one can draw between Gray and Wilde is their love of the theater. Dorian attends a production of Romeo and Juliet with Lord Henry and spends a lot of time there afterwards. Before publishing the novel, Wilde was a successful playwright, so he also spent a lot of time at the theater.

Wilde may have wished he could express his sexuality in painting. These desires — viewed as sins in the eyes of the English law — would exist only in the form of oil paint and canvas.

Oscar Wilde was just born about one hundred fifty years too early. He liked his men, his booze and his theater, and he would probably be a real fan of the one and only Neil Patrick Harris.