The picture of dorian gray gay subtext
The Tartan
By Allison Blair
If you thought we had finally gotten over Hollywood straight-washing adaptations, I fear you are gravely mistaken.
Netflix is currently developing a novel show based on Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Let’s just say, the business is taking some major creative liberties.
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” follows the story of Dorian Gray and his obsession with himself that could rival Narcissus. Dorian sells his soul to maintain his youth and beauty. He becomes the subject of a portrait for his artist friend Basil Hallward. This portrait grows ancient, while Dorian remains eternally youthful until he becomes consumed by his sins and misdeeds.
Dorian is not just a friend to Basil. Basil has a completely homoerotic infatuation with Dorian. Dorian and Basil having some sort of queer relationship is not just subtext, it is literally just the sms. Basil goes on about how he adores Dorian, going as far to describe his feelings as idolatry.
When I first heard that the novel was getting adapted, I was thrilled. “Finally, there’s going to be an adaptation that does this novel justice.” Oh, how untrue I was.
There is t
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Maja Petek | October 8,
What comes to mind when hearing about Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray ()? It is probably not the flowery language or witty social commentary, but the homoeroticism give throughout the novel, especially in the portrayal of the friendship between male characters. The implicit homoeroticism of the novel was greatly augmented in the latest reincarnation of the story, the movieDorian Gray(). Directed by Oliver Parker and starring Colin Firth as Lord Henry and Ben Barnes as Dorian, the movie failed to attract a lasting audience, despite adapting Wilde’s subtlety to the modern audience’s demands for sensation. Despite the unfiltered portrayal of sexual exploits, the feeling connection between the characters, especially between the painter Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin) and Dorian Gray, which builds the backbone of the story, is never addressed.
The most explicit scene in the novel is Basil’s confessional monologue in a private salon, where he professes his devotion to Dorian. The confession is pivotal for exposing Basil’s love for Dorian, since it creates an intimate link between the charact
Published in:November-December issue.
THE AUTHOR of this piece passed away in , having contributed many articles to this publication over the years, including this feature-length review of a book with the somewhat salacious title, The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde (), by Neil McKenna. While Hattersley doesn’t directly address the question of The Picture of Dorian Gray’s primacy as a gay novel, he does venture that it was, “while careful, implicitly homosexual”—at least for cognoscenti who knew what to look for.
This obfuscation is what makes Dorian Gray’s place in the gay canon so open to debate. The novel’s very coyness on the matter of homosexual desire, its not daring to name “the love,” is what prevents it from being a shoo-in as the first male lover novel in English. Wilde is not to accuse, of course (and notwithstanding that a few of the most suggestive sentences were excised by his publisher): late Victorian world simply did not permit for a more explicit exploration of the treasure whose name could not be spoken, much less elevated to a pivotal role in a novel. Thus Dorian’s affairs are all with women, starting with the actress Sibyl Vane, for whom he professes h "You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet -- we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the Duke's -- we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most stern faces. My wife is very good at it -- much better, in fact, than I am. She never gets lost over her dates, and I always do. But when she does discover me out, she makes no row at all. I sometimes wish she would; but she merely laughs at me." () We're not entirely sure to make of this comment from Lord Henry &#; we find out as the novel goes on that his relationship with his wife is certainly not one of common attraction. What is Lord Henry attracted to, then? "I believe that if one man were to inhabit out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream -- I have faith .The Picture of Dorian Gray Sexuality and Sexual Culture Quotes
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