{"id":361,"date":"2016-03-30T15:17:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T15:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=361"},"modified":"2018-09-02T22:05:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T22:05:24","slug":"young-wilde-and-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2016\/03\/30\/young-wilde-and-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Young, Wilde, and Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many critics have interpreted Dorian Gray<\/em> as an autobiographical novel about artistry and homosexuality during the Victorian Era; however, the evidence that supports their claims exists mostly in \u201csubtle\u201d forms such as coded botanical language and expository dialogue. During the 19th<\/sup> century, an explicit story about romantic same-sex lovers would have too scandalous for the general population to grip because sodomy was illegal and homosexuality was seen as a crime. Yet, Wilde was sent to prison because lawyers were able to analyze and exploit the revealing dialogue between characters and the thinly veiled Victorian \u201clanguage of flowers.\u201d Henceforth, Wilde\u2019s art was wielded as a weapon against him and I will be conducting a dialogue analysis in order to emulate the techniques that lawyers may have taken advantage of during the trials.<\/p>\n

During the Victorian Era, various types of flowers held specific meanings and could convey emotional sentiments. Interestingly enough, basil is an herb that signified hatred and offence in the 19th<\/sup> century (138, Engelhardt). Wilde\u2019s choice to name the creator of Dorian Gray\u2019s picture Basil is extremely curious. If the novel of Dorian Gray<\/em> is meant to mirror the artwork in a metafictional manner through self-exploration and indulgent allusions to itself, then it is safe to presume that Basil, as the main artist, is Wilde\u2019s interpretation of himself. So, why would Wilde name himself after an herb that symbolizes hatred? Perhaps Wilde despised the artwork that Basil created because it revealed far too much information about him.<\/p>\n

When prompted to display his artwork, Basil refuses while stating, \u201cI know you will laugh at me, but I really can\u2019t exhibit it. I have put too much of myself into it\u201d (6, Wilde).\u00a0\u00a0 After hearing this, Lord Henry calls Basil \u201dvain\u201d and tells him to get over himself by saying, \u201cDon\u2019t flatter yourself, Basil: you are not in the least like him\u201d (7, Wilde). Basil\u2019s confession reaffirms Wilde\u2019s fear that he has placed too much of himself within the novel, but Lord Henry, as a representation of the general audience, fails to understand his friend\u2019s coded language because he assumes that appearance is the main indicator of likeness. Since Lord Henry dismisses Basil\u2019s statement, the reader is inclined to do the same. However, Basil\u2019s anxieties are so strong that he is determined to convince Henry that he must look beyond the surface of the painting in order to find meaning.<\/p>\n

Basil delights in his use of coded language and secrecy as he claims that, \u201cThe commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it\u201d (8, Wilde). The painting of Dorian Gray is the same as the novel in the sense that the artist who created it has infused the work with some essence of himself. Similarly, Wilde disperses advice through Lord Henry\u2019s dialogue in which he states, \u201cPeople are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one\u2019s self\u201d (23, Wilde).<\/p>\n

Since Wilde incorporated so much of what appears to have been his own personal beliefs and anxieties into his novel, I wonder if he was surprised to have been sent to prison or whether he had written Dorian Gray<\/em> in order to taunt authorities. The idea of Wilde as a supreme troublemaker is extremely alluring and far greater than the notion that Wilde was an accidental criminal who didn\u2019t conceal his identity well enough through covert language.<\/p>\n

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Works Cited<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Engelhardt, Molly. \u201cThe Language of Flowers in the Victorian Knowledge Age.\u201d Victoriographies 3.2 (2013): 136-60. Web.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray.<\/em> New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 1985. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many critics have interpreted Dorian Gray as an autobiographical novel about artistry and homosexuality during the Victorian Era; however, the evidence that supports their claims exists mostly in \u201csubtle\u201d forms such as coded botanical language and expository dialogue. During the 19th century, an explicit story about romantic same-sex lovers would have too scandalous for the … Continue reading Young, Wilde, and Free<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3046,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3046"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}