Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree
Bachelor of Arts in English Literary Studies
Advisor
Dr. Cynthia Scheinberg, Thesis Director
Abstract
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) follows the life of a doomed high-class gay man named Dorian while revealing a discussion of art and the imitation of life itself. This paper reveals the parallels between characters like Dorian and Lord Henry's life to Wilde himself and how they all move through society as high-class gay men. The intersectionality of both identities provides a social commentary on societal policing, compulsory heterosexuality, and the villainization of queerness through the lives of men who lived in 19th-century England with challenges like the Criminal Amendment Act of 1885 and laws against sodomy. By the end of the paper, I explain the need for a queer death in the novel, and how the intersectionality of class and sexuality provides points of privilege while still revealing the oppression gay men faced in 19th-century England.
Recommended Citation
Milotakis, Matthew J., "The Message Behind the Aesthetic: Intersections of Class and Sexuality in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray" (2024). English Theses. 361.
https://docs.rwu.edu/english_theses/361
