The twenty-first century is quickly becoming a safer, more accepting era for queer people than anyone alive can remember. It’s far from perfect, and one of the most notable arguments of dissenters to this new age is that it is, above all, new. That queer people did not exist before a few decades ago, because they had never seen or heard of any. Queer individuals have always existed, as anthropologists and archaeologists have been working hard to prove; as long as humanity has, arguably. But to survive in societies that were against their very existence, they had to hide, using symbols that only other queer people would be able to recognize in an attempt to find community. Those symbols have changed over and over across the eras, from flagging in the late twentieth century to the old italian circus language polari. Creatives often wove those symbols into their work, signaling to queer readers that certain characters or even the author themself may share their identity. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde deliberately placed queer themes throughout the novel through the use of key references to Greek mythology, which also foreshadow Dorian’s inevitable fate.

Two outside sources were used to help narrow the focus of this paper. The first is Kaisu Reinikainen’s article, entitled “‘All the Perfection of the Spirit That is Greek’: Victorian Hellenism and Queer Coding in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Works by Oscar Wilde”. In it, they make the claim that; “Queer coding plays an important role when examining queer literature, as it enables us to read the implicit codes that authors used in times when queerness was illegal and/or not spoken of. Examining these implicit codes is essential to the study of the history of queer fiction. Focusing only on the most explicit portrayals of same-sex relationships will undoubtedly leave other works of queer fiction unnoticed, and thus identifying these codes and what they mean in the queer context is highly important”(Reinikainen 1). Essentially, they are arguing that understanding queer coding across history is necessary for media literacy, no matter what time period the works in question were written in. Ergo, scanning The Picture of Dorian Gray without understanding Oscar Wilde and the world he lived in, along with all of the queerness in all three, would be a disservice to all three. It deserves to have context, even if that context is not especially palatable to everyone. ​​The second source was Katie Nguyen’s “Deviating from the Norm: A Queer Theory Analysis of The Picture of Dorian Gray”. While discussing queer coding, Nguyen makes this claim; “By romanticizing Dorian through a comparison to Greek figures, he becomes an embodiment for forbidden desire”(Nguyen 10). Basil, as well as most of the other characters, puts Dorian on a pedestal. To him, the younger man is as untouchable as a myth; not for him, and his imperfections and unholy love. This is the basis of Dorian’s descent; he is taught to fall in love with the qualities of himself that are naturally fleeting, so he holds to them far too tightly, considering them the only thing worth caring about.

To begin, one must understand the relationship Victorians had with queerness before they can understand the importance of queer coding during this time. According to Reinikainen’s article, they had very strict rules about what could be said on the topic; “Anything outside of this narrow norm of a heterosexual marriage was seen as reprehensible, and this certainly included homosexuality. Even legally married couples could not openly discuss sex…”(Reinikainen 9). Puritanical views ran high in the Victorian era, with sex of any kind could only be mentioned at the bare minimum. Of course, queerness and queer relationships existed, but they were essentially kept under the radar and out of polite society. Interestingly enough, no one sought out or tried to suppress the community as a whole; they were essentially, an “open secret”(Reinikainen 9). No one was reported because no one wanted to admit there was a dark, queer underbelly to nineteenth century English society. As such, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, none of the queerness is openly displayed, but it is heavily implied. For example, look at the phrasing Basil uses when Dorian convinces him to tell him a great secret, “‘Well, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I quite admit that I adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly. I was jealous of every one to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you. When I was away from you, you were still present in my art. It was all wrong and foolish. It is all wrong and foolish still. Of course I never let you know anything about this. It would have been impossible. You would not have understood it; I did not understand it myself’”(Wilde 137). He speaks of adoration, jealousy, and feelings he had no understanding of that dominated his mind. It reads exactly like a love confession would, without any explicit mentions of love. There’s a careful balancing act here of telling the truth of the characters without condemning both them and Wilde himself for writing something so unseemly for the times.

So, in order to write about queerness, authors had to be discreet if they wanted to get published. The code many of them settled on, specifically revolving around Oxford, was allusions to Greek myth. The origin of this obsession goes as follows; “Works by writers such as Winckelmann, Walter Pater, and John Addington Symonds, who all openly wrote about Greek homosexuality, were generally known to men who had studied in Oxford. A high appreciation for all things Greek thus played a part in the formation of Victorian queer culture, as queer men such as Wilde learned about factors of Greek homosexuality such as queer Greek gods (which appears to be the majority of them)…Wilde himself studied at Magdalen College, and his studies introduced him to Hellenism and ancient Greece and the way they connected to homosexuality”(Reinikainen 14). Hellenism was incredibly popular in the Victorian era, both in and out of queer circles. It was especially prevalent among men who attended and taught at Oxford, where teaching of the classics flourished. Queerness connects directly to Hellenism because ancient Greece, as scholars have come to learn, was unabashedly queer. Every god and many men besides had some relationship or identity that sat outside of Victorian beliefs about gender and sexuality. Apollo had male and female lovers, Dionysus is often depicted dressed in women’s garb, Artemis seems to reject both sex and romance entirely and supports those of either gender who do the same, and so on. Throughout the novel, references to Greek history and mythology are brought up time and time again, from specific names, to allusions, to aesthetics. Each one is used to highlight the immense beauty of Dorian, as well as subtly imply the tragedy that unfolds.

The first example of queer ideals of the time that Wilde put into the book is known as paiderastia. There is no doubt that Oscar Wilde himself was queer. He was actually charged and convicted of sodomy, as homosexuality was once loosely referred to, in 1895. Some have called him the most famous queer man of the time, being the only one to have ever actually been brought to court. One style of homosexuality and homosociality that he was obsessed with, and regularly participated in. Paiderastia is an ancient Greek ideal, defined as the relationship between a dominant, older man and a submissive, younger one. It was a fairly common practice, with everyone from notable philosophers to the mythic Herakles, better known as Hercules, participating. Often the younger of the two would grow up and take the role of the elder, entering a relationship with a younger man once more, continuing the cycle of student and teacher. Dorian is described, especially in the beginning, as boyish and immature. In contrast, Lord Henry and Basil are in a kind of teacher role for him, guiding him through their personal beliefs in life. Upon first meeting Henry, Dorian is put into a daze while Basil is painting him, “For nearly ten minutes he stood there motionless, with parted lips, and eyes strangely bright. He was dimly conscious that entirely fresh impulses were at work within him, and they seemed to him to have come really from himself. The few words that Basil’s friend had said to him—words spoken by chance, no doubt, and with wilful paradox in them—had yet touched some secret chord, that had never been touched before, but that he felt was now vibrating and throbbing to curious pulses”(Wilde 30-31). In the passage above, something that reads quite like attraction in Dorian was awakened by Henry’s philosophy, and as the novel progresses, he seems eager to learn more. Henry coaxes him along, out of his shell and into a place in high society, all under his careful tutelage. It’s a textbook example of paiderastia, even if no explicit mention of love or sex exists between them and others in the book.

Dorian’s purity and perfection is given center stage in the novel, relying on metaphors using hellenistic aesthetics. Henry and Basil spend a lot of time describing Dorian throughout the text, with the former making the remark that he; “looks as if he was made of ivory and rose-leaves’”(Wilde 4-5). The ivory is for purity, a highly sought after material made out of bone, and roses are known for love and beauty. Both are classic symbols, ones that have stuck around even as far as the modern era, but they hold their roots in grecian culture. Both materials are also known to be incredibly finicky, often doing more harm than help to those who seek them out. Ivory is from the tusks of animals, who will happily kill those who try to take it from them. Rose leaves are even closer to the thorns than flowers, with spikes of their own lining the edges. Dorian’s beauty draws people in, and destroys anyone who gets too close, including himself.

The easiest allusions to Greek ideals one can find in the book are carefully named people and characters in classical studies. When talking about the painting after it’s completion, Basil has this to say; “‘What the invention of oil-painting was to the Venetians, the face of Antinoüs was to late Greek sculpture, and the face of Dorian Gray will some day be to me. It is not merely that I paint from him, draw from him, model from him. Of course I have done all that. He has stood as Paris in dainty armor, and as Adonis with huntsman’s cloak and polished boar- spear’”(Wilde 16-17). Every name that Basil drops in the section above is a famously beloved person or character from the Greco-Roman era. Antinoüs was a lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was deified upon his death, which many believe to be by suicide. Paris was a prince of Troy, best known for starting the Trojan War. He stole the famously beautiful Helen, daughter of Zeus, from her Grecian home for ten years. He was aided by Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who gave him the information and possibly power to start the beginning of the end for bronze age Greece. Adonis was a mortal who was loved by not one, but two powerful goddesses, Aphrodite and Persephone. He was killed by a wild boar while out hunting, which is believed to have been sent by one of the other gods in an attempt to hurt Aphrodite through him. All three of these young men have three attributes in common; they were beautiful, powerful, and died tragically, usually due to their own choices. Dorian holds immense beauty, and is given power by someone who loves him; Basil in a literal sense, having created the painting, and Henry in a social sense. That power leads him to make rash decisions, ultimately corrupting him and those who knew him, ending in his untimely demise. It’s as if his life was pulled from a Greek tragedy directly.

 However, the name that is referenced by far the most when describing Dorian is the greek figure of Narcissus. Henry, upon seeing Dorian for the very first time, has this to say; “‘Why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus, and you—well, of course you have an intellectual expression, and all that. But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself an exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face’”(Wilde 5). Narcissus was a famous character in myth, said to be so beautiful that everyone who ever laid eyes upon him instantly fell in love. As he was not immune to his own allure, he spends all his days staring into a reflective pool, eventually dying of hunger and turning into the flowers he is named for. Henry, therefore, is comparing Dorian to the most aesthetically gorgeous man in all of Greek mythology, which says quite a bit about his attraction towards him. Narcissus is referenced over and over in the text, but is only mentioned again by name in the novel only once, far later in the plot, when Dorian himself realizes how the image of his face had been corrupted by his life of sin and debauchery. Obsession with beauty, and the idea of that beauty corrupting its owner is perhaps the most prevalent theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Both Narcissus and Dorian are living tragedies, so captured by their own visage that nothing else seems to matter.

In that comparison to Narcissus, Dorian also fits within another queer motif; the comparison of young men to flowers. Dorian, and specifically Dorian’s youth, is regularly described with flowers; Henry says he has “rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood”(Wilde 30) within an hour of meeting him. They were often used to describe the younger member of a paiderastia relationship in the nineteenth century, often with loose references to Greek mythological characters turned into flowers. In fact, there are many Greek stories of young people turning into plants, and most of them were transformed in this way in an attempt to preserve the characters’ life and beauty. The plants then were all that were left behind by these youth, the last lovely proof that they ever existed at all. The very last passage in the novel involves those who found Dorian after his death; “When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was”(Wilde 249). Like all those characters, transmogrified to keep them alive in some way, Dorian too left the most beautiful parts of himself still captured in paint. It’s the last physical proof that someone so pure ever existed at all.

Queerness is everyone in The Picture of Dorian Gray, but it is by far the most obvious in its grecian metaphors and comparisons. Oscar Wilde took care to weave in everything he learned about the classics into this novel, from characters, to relationships, to symbolism. There is undeniable homosexual attraction between the characters who make these comparisons, as they fall in love with Dorian’s mythic beauty, and Wilde takes those symbols he’s come to adore not just as examples, but as inspiration. This text is classically Greek because it is fundamentally queer, and because it is fundamentally tragic, predicting its own grisly end in the same breath as the naive adoration. The Picture of Dorian Gray can only be understood to its fullest extent if readers take the time to understand both. In the same way, it takes someone who either truly understands the subtext, or someone who is truly willing to learn it. Queer stories are everywhere in history, hiding between the pages, buried under work trying to prove they never existed at all. From the most famous of myths and authors, to the young reader who is only just beginning to feel seen, queer people will find their own ways to live forever.

Bibliography

Nguyen, Katie. “Deviating from the Norm: A Queer Theory Analysis of The Picture of Dorian

Gray.” Aisthesis: The Interdisciplinary Honors Journal, vol. 11, 13 June 2020, pp. 9–17.

Reinikainen, Kaisu. “All the Perfection of the Spirit That Is Greek”: Victorian Hellenism and

Queer Coding in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Works by Oscar Wilde, University of Eastern Finland, Sept. 2021, erepo.uef.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/26282/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20211448.pdf?sequence=1. 

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 2008, Planet PDF,

https://www.planetpublish.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gra

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