Gabriela Sotelo
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) 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 1895, 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 romantic attraction to, or engagement in sexual activity with, people of one’s own 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 seduction.Furthermore, 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 best known homoerotic novels ever written, the novel does not contain any explicit statements of homoeroticism which leaves the novel to be more suggestive work of such theme” (3). Although The Picture of Dorian Gray does not explicitly demonstrate homosexual acts, the language, gestures, and other visual imagery reinforce the homoerotic nature of the male characters’ relationships and, through the use of aphrodisiacs and the passionate encounters, reinforces and advocates homosexuality.
Aphrodisiacs
Many world cultures have long believed in short-term restorative methods to increase sexual appetite. These aphrodisiacs serve as instruments of seduction and are connected to themes of intimacy and eroticism. Lord Henry Wotton says, “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul” (21). Aphrodisiacs seem to dominate the senses, inducing one into a dream-like state.
While reading Dorian Gray, the reader is taken into a wild journey of self-discovery, hedonism, and sexual freedom. Lord Henry, older and well-educated, understands how to manipulate Dorian. As he controls Dorian’s environment, Lord Henry inspires sin and lust in order to seduce his prey. In the novel, the presence of flowers, including roses, poppies, and orchids, is very evident. They are vividly described, their unique shapes, colors, and scents, and often invoke sexual intimacy. Roses are traditionally a “symbol of love and desire” (“Twelve”). They increase sex drive while relieving stress. Orchids are “a symbol of desirability” due to their aesthetic beauty and production of vanilla beans. “Vanilla and orchid both produce a sexual lust.” Modern science has confirmed the Mayan and Aztec’s use of vanilla beans as a natural medicine and aphrodisiac (Rain). Poppy flowers are considered aphrodisiacs because of their vibrant colors that “boost […] sexual imagination and desire” (“Twelve”). They also lead to the production of dopamine, which enhances mood. In the novel, flowers establish sexual tension and reflect the characters’ relationships. Near the beginning of the novel, as Dorian listens to Lord Henry, a bee lands on a blossom and starts consuming its nectar: “A furry bee came and buzzed round it for a moment. […] The flower seemed to quiver, and then swayed gently to and fro” (23-24). This image creates an ominous foreshadowing of Lord Henry and Dorian’s future relationship, a bee consuming the sweet nectar of a beautiful blossom.
Dorian Gray embodies a hedonistic ideology, where the valuable life involves indulgence in the senses and pleasure.2 Dorian becomes fascinated with activities that please his senses and intoxicated by the adrenaline that his hedonistic lifestyle provides. Gray’s fixation with silk is sensual and obsessive: “[T]here was something that quickened his imagination” (117). The novel provides the reader with images of silk laid upon human skin, inducing almost a heavenly or orgasmic state. In Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde effectively stimulates the reader through such images that invade the senses.
Basil Hallward and Dorian Gray
The description of Basil’s infatuation with Dorian, evident from the very beginning of the novel, is more straightforward evidence of homosexuality: “When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. [If] I allowed [his fascinating personality] to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself. […] I have always been my own master […] till I met Dorian Gray. […] We were quite close, almost touching. Our eyes met again” (10). Although Basil learns to love in “secrecy,” his affection for Dorian is never discreet; it is passionate, erotic, and tangible. Basil’s confession confirms the speculation of same-sex desire. He admits with a fervent intensity:
Dorian, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I was dominated, soul, brain, and power by you. […] I worshipped you. I grew jealous of everyone to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you. […] Weeks and weeks went on, and I grew more and more absorbed in you. (95)
This intimate confession assures the reader of Basil’s romantic feelings for Dorian. However, Dorian never reciprocates those feelings. He reflects, “There seemed to him to be something tragic in a friendship so coloured by romance” (97). Basil represents a kind of pure idealistic love drowned out by Dorian’s lechery. However, Lord Henry’s temptation of hedonism, much more appealing to Dorian, offers temporary satisfaction but also eternal damnation.
Domination is another important theme in Dorian Gray. The characters of Dorian Gray express romance, and the novel navigates its homoeroticism through dominant / subservient roles. Emotionally, mentally, and physically Basil is dominated by Dorian. Basil confesses to Harry, “As long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me” (15). In cruel subjection, Basil willingly submits himself to Dorian: “Every day. I couldn’t be happy if I didn’t see him every day. He is absolutely necessary to me” (12). Also, elements of bondage and the desire for the same-sex relations are frequent. Basil and Dorian’s co-dependent relationship resembles that of a slave and a master.
Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray
There are parallels between Basil and Lord Henry’s reactions to Dorian Gray. Lord Henry compliments Dorian’s beauty on various occasions, establishing his physical attraction to Dorian: “Lord Henry looked at him. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. […] No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him” (17). When Dorian and Henry first meet in Basil’s garden, the encounter is extremely sensual:
Lord Henry went out to the garden, and found Dorian Gray burying his face in the great cool lilac-blossoms, feverishly drinking in their perfume as if it had been wine. He came close to him, and put his hand upon his shoulder. […] The lad started and drew back. He was bare-headed, and the leaves had tossed his rebellious curls and tangled all their gilded threads. There was a look of fear in his eyes, such as people have when they are suddenly awakened. His finely-chiselled nostrils quivered, and some hidden nerve shook the scarlet of his lips and left them trembling. (21)
Lord Henry perceives Dorian as an ethereal being; at first glance he is immediately captivated and feels an intense, magnetic pull towards Dorian.
Throughout the book, Lord Henry seems to indulge himself in Dorian’s beauty, always making eye contact and admiring Dorian’s lips. As Jessica Hale notes, “In many romance novels of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the eyes were pools of desire, and the mutual glance a form of flirtatious, erotic foreplay” (13). Dorian’s eyes always seem to express his emotions. Henry “felt that the eyes of Dorian Gray were fixed on him […]. [Dorian] never took his gaze off him, but sat like one under a spell, smiles chasing each other over his lips, and wonder growing grave in his darkening eyes” (39). From the subtle glances to direct eye contact, both seem mesmerized by and infatuated with one another. In these moments between Dorian and Lord Henry, the reader feels the danger of a forbidden encounter and the magnetic pull of sin. The book glamorizes these sexual taboos and invites the reader to consider those “unthinkable” possibilities.
Lord Henry’s theories and aphorisms seem to trap Dorian’s soul in a state of insatiability. Steven Seidman says, “The individual becomes trapped in a life of sexual excess and perversion. He […] becomes unwittingly the ‘slave of his passions.’” (50). Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian is seductive, touching Dorian’s erogenous spot, his mind, and this dynamic relationship between Dorian Gray and Lord Henry was used against Wilde in the 1895 indecency trials where Wilde admitted to the court he had invited young men to his hotel room for stimulating conversations. These relationships have a common theme: the appetizing, yet taboo, pleasures of same-sex desire.
Homoerotic Male Friendships: Conclusion
In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the bonding of these three characters, the power struggles between them, and the ambiguity of Dorian’s bodily pleasures help one to speculate regarding Oscar Wilde’s homoerotic intentions for the novel. Ed Cohen says, “Wilde’s ‘obviously’ homoerotic text signifies its ‘deviant’ concerns while never explicitly violating the dominant norms for heterosexuality. That Wilde’s novel encodes traces of male homoerotic desire seems to be ubiquitously, though tacitly, affirmed” (Cohen 805). Although the text is “saturated with homoerotic sexual feeling” (Carroll 394), the obscure relationship between all three male protagonists supports the “highly emotional friendships between boys but [denies] that they [result] in sexual intercourse” (Trumbach 4). However, although no explicit sexual encounters occur, this apparent absence of explicit homosexual acts, the emphasis on aphrodisiacs, and the passionate interactions between male characters nevertheless suggest same-sex desire.
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[1] See Ellmann, pp. 435-78, for a full account of the trial.
[2] Oxford English Dictionary, “hedonism,” “The doctrine or theory of ethics in which pleasure is regarded as the chief good, or the proper end of action.”