Wilde Within Dorian

Dracula and The Portrait of Dorian Gray have a lot in common. They share a fear of the outsider. Our discussion of vampires and werewolves made me think about how the fear of the outsider operates in Wilde’s novel. Given Wilde’s later trial and his sexuality, I think a lot of The Portrait of Dorian Gray exposes the fear of the outsider, or uses it to generate interest in the plot. As with Dracula and the feeling that “vampires walk among us,” perhaps in Wilde’s novel the fear is that “gay men walk among us,” or that murderers/people who look harmless but are dangerous go unnoticed in our society.

If fin de siècle fears revolved around the worry that regardless of modernization, things still fell through the cracks, then perhaps Dorian Gray re-expresses that. Everyone praises Dorian for his beauty and assumes his character is pristine and “innocent” because of his “youth” and “beauty.” But as the novel progresses, Dorian becomes more of a criminal. At the end of the novel, he has killed someone and covered up the murder. According to law, he should be in jail. But Henry continues to praise Dorian’s unblemished character, making Dorian feel unbearably guilty. “I am so glad that have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself. Life has been your art” (Wilde 207).

Vampires, homosexual men, and murderers are all illegal members of Victorian society. In Dracula and The Portrait of Dorian Gray, it is difficult to catch the outsider and tease out who deviates from society, because everyone fits in, whether by looking human but being a vampire, or by being extremely beautiful. These both represent the fear of overlooking clandestine threats to a stable society.

Another way The Portrait of Dorian Gray is another iteration of “missing” something is that fact that Oscar Wilde was accused of illegal homosexual behavior, and people used this novel as evidence in court. I believe a lot of Wilde’s feelings hide behind Dorian’s guilt. There are moments when Wilde writes something that is more of a pondering, unrelated to the story, and it feels confessional. Throughout the novel, Dorian struggles with trying to confess or unburden himself, but his friends silence him because they already believe he is so good. Perhaps Wilde’s guilt for living contrary to England’s law made its way into the character of Dorian Gray. Henry says, “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame” (208). Is this a moment when Wilde speaks directly to his reader, hoping they will understand that this book is a form of confession, exposing “shame[ful]” aspects of society and Wilde himself? Later, Dorian ponders his life. “He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that of the lives that had crossed his own it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame. But was it all irretrievable? Was there no hope for him?” (209). I view this passage as a desperate outcry from Wilde, trying to atone for his “sins” under the guise of Dorian’s character.

To me, Dorian represents Wilde’s guilt, and Wilde used Dorian’s character to try tell the world his sins, as well as to think through them himself. The book represents a fear that we cannot see what is right under our nose: people overlook Dorian’s sins and he walks free; Wilde wrote a book in which he seemingly hints at his feelings for men. The Picture of Dorian Gray is another iteration of fearing what we can’t “catch.”