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Brent Romanow
Ms. Amelia Hall
ENGLISH 1183
12/8/2015

What a Wilde Time to Be Alive

The 19th Century was a time of being proper, tidy, and innocent. Sexuality and gender
norms were not commonly written about in detail and were avoided as much as possible. Even
allusions to sexual acts were few and far between. While readers in the 21st Century may look at
the film Dorian Gray as shocking for its graphic sex scenes, 19th century readers of The Picture
of Dorian Gray see it as explicit due to its mention of homosexuality. Oscar Wilde even had to
write letters justifying his explicitness to readers and critics. As shown in both Dorian Gray and
in Oscar Wildes personal life, sexual and gender norms of todays world have greatly changed
from those of the 19th century.
The film is different from the movie in many ways, but it is the scenes that are similar,
yet more explicit that show the difference in time period and audience. In the book, the reader is
introduced to Sybil via Dorians conversation with Lord Henry. Entire chapters go by before the
reader even hears about any action between Dorian and Sybil, and when it is finally discussed,
all that is said is we kissed each other (Wilde 66). Dorian even says after that he [feels] he
should not tell [Lord Henry] all of this (Wilde 66). His secrecy and discretion is far from the
bragging and boasting of conquests of todays men. Not only does the viewer see much more
PDA between Dorian and Sybil overall, they also see a sex scene that is neither short nor
censored.

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What is perhaps more interesting than the contrast between the sex scene in the film and
the one in the novel, is the contrast between the portrayal of homosexuality in both sources.
While audiences of this time period were probably much more shocked by the graphic sex scenes
of the film, audiences of the Victorian Era were almost definitely more surprised by the
homosexual acts discussed in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The reason audiences probably found
these homosexual acts so shocking is in 1885, gay sex behind closed doors was made a criminal
offence which even caused, most notoriously, to the imprisonment in 1896 of Oscar Wilde,
the author of the novel (Marsh).
While the in the film, there are multiple overtly homosexual scenes, the novel presents
homosexuality in a much more closeted fashion. The most glaringly homosexual scene in the
film occurs during the large middle eastern themed party that Dorian throws. The scene is shot
from many different constantly changing angles. There is loud and pounding music, lots of
movement, and bright and vivid visuals. This scene is clearly played up and it is evident that the
director wants the audience to focus on it. On the other hand, in the novel, homosexuality is
merely hinted at. Early on, in chapter two, Lord Henry says to Dorian in regard to pleasure and
Hellenic ideals, Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden
to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful (Wilde 19).
While there is no obvious mention of homosexuality in the aforementioned quote, it can be
surmised that what is forbidden and monstrous is homosexuality. If this were Wildes only
potential mention of homosexuality, it could very easily be argued that was not his intent, but the
entire character of Basil is one large example of homosexuality.
Basil Hallward is obsessed with Dorian. Dorian is his muse in his artwork, but also his
muse in life. While it is hinted that Dorian is definitely bi-curious, Wilde makes it evident that

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Basil is definitely gay or at least bi-sexual. Basil idolizes Dorian, bringing him to an almost
deity-like level, explaining to Dorian:
from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over
me. I was dominated, soul, brain, and power, by you. You became to me the visible
incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream. I
worshipped you. I grew 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 (Wilde 97).
From this quote it is clear that Basil is absolutely infatuated with Dorian Gray. Alone, this quote
does not explicitly make Basils homosexuality evident, but along with a line from the next
chapter, the evidence for this claim is quite strong. In chapter ten, Dorian realizes that the love
[Basil] bore him was such love as Michelangelo had known, and Montaigne, and
Winckelmann, and Shakespeare himself (Wilde 102). All four of the artists mentioned in the
quote were known to be homosexual, so it is no coincidence that this is the type of love Basil is
explained as feeling towards Dorian. This is perhaps the most glaring example of homosexuality
in the novel, and even in the most glaring example, it is shrouded in metaphors and secrecy.
The reason that the homosexuality in the film today is normal and the sex scenes are
considered explicit is because our society is greatly changing. First of all, despite the media
becoming more and more sexualized and graphic, many pediatricians still argue that children and
young adults are exposed to sex too early (Huffman 1). Dr. Todd Huffman writes that based on
the explicitness of todays media, it should not seem remarkable that todays children and
adolescents are more overweight, inattentive, violent and sexual than any previous generation
(Huffman 1). In addition, even though sex sells and most movies now have some sort of sexual
element, the reason that sex is so exciting is that it is always viewed as something forbidden and

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naughty. Second of all, todays media is very much out of the closet, meaning that most TV
shows, movies, and other forms of media are starting to portray homosexuality more and more.
This is especially in educated and non-religiously dominated countries and regions. Even though
there has been a ton of progress in the depiction of homosexuality, and it is now largely less
audience-shocking than explicit sex scenes, it has been a long journey since the time of Oscar
Wilde.
In Victorian Era England, homosexuality was not just frowned upon, it was illegal. As
mentioned above, gay sex behind closed doors was made a criminal offence. This led, most
notoriously, to the imprisonment in 1896 of Oscar Wilde, playwright and poseur (Marsh). Lets
rewind a little though, before Wildes imprisonment, to his earlier life. Wilde grew up in Dublin.
His father was a doctor and his mother was a poet. He attended school and then college and grew
up fairly well. Wilde wrote poetry and criticism early on in his career, and after he got married,
he took a job with Woman's World magazine. His job there was editor, and this job alone rebelled
against traditional gender norms of the time. A magazine about fashion and design for women,
with a title that made it seem explicitly for women, was not the usual place for a man to work.
Wilde even went around the U.S., giving a lecture tour about interior design. While it is now
super common for men to be interior designers and work for companies associated with women,
back then, it was very unorthodox.
After writing Dorian Gray, Wilde faced much criticism for the controversial topics
discussed in the novel. He even wrote letters to defend his novel from the critics. Later on,
Wildes life began falling apart. After meeting, and presumably hooking up with, a young lord,
he was called out for sodomy. He went to court and lost and his life and exposure of his
homosexuality spiraled out of control. He was imprisoned and then upon release exiled from

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England. Not long after, he died from meningitis (Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature).
Clearly, Wilde did not live in a time that was accepting of homosexuality and he paid the price
for it. So, it is no surprise that his novel only hinted at homosexuality, as overtly mentioning it
could have landed Wilde in prison even earlier.
The aforementioned letters that Wilde wrote in defense of Dorian Gray bring up a very
important point about Victorian society at the time. The editor of the St. James Gazette describes
The Picture of Dorian Gray as a book that should be chucked into the fire (Editor of the St.
James Gazette quoted in Wilde 105). The editor says this for a lot of reasons including the
grammar and writing style, but mostly the subject matter. Back then, the novel was very racy and
edgy for the time period, even without the drawn out and explicit sex scenes of the movie. And,
the few and indirect homosexual references were very offensive to many readers. The editor feels
that both the characters of Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton are troubling and not moral
characters. Wilde responds saying that they are, in fact, troubled people, and Lord Henry is, in
fact, immoral. Wilde writes:
The painter, Basil Hallward, worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most painters
do, dies by the hand of one in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurd vanity.
Dorian Gray, having led a life of mere sensation and pleasure, tries to kill conscience, and
at that moment kills himself. Lord Henry Wotton seeks to be merely the spectator of life.
He finds that those who reject the battle are more deeply wounded than those who take
part in it (Wilde 108).
This quote discusses the two characters and how they examine real flaws and real troubles that
happen to real people. Literature of the time, while often realistic, shied away from mentioning
such realistic struggles with morality, as the government did not want people to question societal

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norms and standards. One of these societal norms was heterosexuality and another one was
gender normalcy.
Unsurprisingly, Wilde challenged both of these. His job as editor of a womens magazine
and lecture tour challenged the social norm of gender normalcy. His own sexual orientation as
well as the sexual orientation of Basil Hallward and the bi-curiousness of Dorian Gray
challenged the social norm of homosexuality. On the surface, the part about Basil in the quote
above, defending The Picture of Dorian Gray, seems to just defend the concept of creating a
character who is so infatuated with another that he raises him to a position of power and
ultimately hurts himself. Looking deeper, this could also be a metaphor for homosexuality at the
time.
If the word painters is replaced with the word homosexuals, an unfortunate sentiment
is revealed. Wilde could be directly calling attention to the plight of the gay man at the time.
While this is of course false in reality, when one grows up believing that something, such as
homosexuality, is a sin, they then are taught to think that it can lead to their demise. With this
knowledge, this quote can now be interpreted as saying The painter, Basil Hallward,
worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most homosexuals do, dies by the hand of one in
whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurd vanity. The end of the quote also has a
different meaning when interpreted in this way. Instead of it meaning that the person who is
admired literally kills the admirer, it means that the admiration, or really the adoration is what
leads to the death of the adorer. This means that Wilde could be saying that the character of Basil
Hallward is a critique on society and its treatment of homosexuals and homosexuality. Saying
that society leads homosexuals to believe that what they feel is sin and will lead to their demise,
when in reality, it is the ignorance and fear of society that leads to their demise.

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Beyond just the sexual and gender norms that Wilde pushes the envelope with, it is
important to look at other ways in which Wilde rebelled against the traditional constructs of
Victorian writing and society. Violence was not uncommon in Victorian Era literature, yet
Wildes violence was much darker and more twisted than the violence in most other literature at
the time. The violence in The Picture of Dorian Gray serves as yet another support piece to the
underlying argument that society has greatly changed in terms of its sexual and gender norms.
The violence in the film version is different from the violence in the movie version, but both
shock the audiences of their respective times.
The film is different from the novel in terms of Sybils suicide. First of all, the method by
which Sybil takes her life differs from the novel to the movie. In the novel, Sybil simply poisons
herself, whereas in the film, she drowns herself. This difference in methods is clearly
representative of the time periods as an unseen poisoning is a lot less controversial than a vivid
drowning. In the novel, Dorian learns of the suicide after Lord Henry tells him of it, explaining
they ultimately found her lying dead on the floor of her dressing-room. She had swallowed
something by mistake, some dreadful thing they use at theatres (Wilde 84). Already, this is a
very quick and painless way of telling the reader of Sybils death. Lord Henry then goes further
when he discusses what the poison must have been, saying I should fancy it was prussic acid, as
she seems to have died instantaneously" (Wilde 85). Not only is Sybils death unseen, it is also
noted to be instantaneous.
While Sybils death is played down in the novel, it is the exact opposite in the film. Dorian
does not find out about the death from Lord Henry, he finds out from Sybils brother. Sybils
brother delivers Dorian the dress he gave her as a gift, now dirtied from the muddy water in
which she drowned herself, and tells Dorian of her suicide. The viewer then repeatedly sees

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scenes of Sybils lifeless body floating in a dirty London river. Sybils lifeless body serves as a
strong visual, conveying the tragedy of the situation to the viewer and adding to the dark and
scary nature of the movie. While seemingly just different choices on the part of writer and
director, upon closer examination the two deaths are extremely different in terms of their
political correctness and show the difference of societal norms. A 19th century reader would most
likely have been stunned just by the mention of a 17-year-old girl committing suicide, so Wildes
choice of an instantaneous death makes sense.
The disposal of Basils body is another way in which the violence in the novel differs from
the movie. In the novel, there is much talk before the body actually gets disposed of, but the
actual disposal of the body is summed up in less than a quarter of a page. Dorian calls on Alan
Campbell, an old ex-friend who has a knowledge of chemistry, to get rid of Basils body. The
reader can surmise that the body was dissolved using acid as it is explained that as soon as
Campbell had left, [Dorian] went upstairs. There was a horrible smell of nitric acid in the room.
But the thing that had been sitting at the table was gone (Wilde 147). Not only is the disposal of
the body shrunk down to these few lines, but the word body is not even used. Wilde calls
Basils body the thing, fully showing the censorship of the heinous act.
While there is not even a description of the disposal of Basils body in the novel, the film
leaves little to the imagination. The viewer sees Dorian transport a locked wooden box dripping
with blood to a close-by river and then dump out the contents which happen to be Basils body,
chopped up into many, many gory pieces. The dismemberment of Basils body is definitely the
most glaring example of the difference in political correctness in the 19th century.
The reason that this difference is so important, beyond the fact that it shows the clear
difference between societal norms at the time in terms of violence, is the difference in perception

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during the different time periods. Even though the violence in The Picture of Dorian Gray was
extreme for its time, it was still more ok than any real mention of homosexuality. Thats right,
the leaders of Victorian Era society felt that it was more acceptable for people to read about
young girls killing themselves and people disintegrating other people with acid than to read
about a man kissing another man. Compared to todays world, there is something really strange
about that. Todays audiences, while probably most shocked by the explicit and graphic sex
scenes, are probably also shocked by the brutality in the violence in the film. The viewer literally
sees pieces of a mans body being dumped into a river, as well as a young girl drowning, then
emerging from a body of water as some kind of zombie. And unlike in the novel, all of this is so
much more shocking than the scenes of homosexuality.
It is tough to argue many of these points as most of the evidence is circumstantial. All
that is known for sure is that Oscar Wilde was at least bisexual if not homosexual and the
character of Basil Hallward had homosexual tendencies. Despite the circumstantial evidence, it is
easy to see that Wilde challenged societal norms to create a better climate for generations to
come. If it wasnt for Wildes courageous writing and lifestyle, we probably wouldnt have the
same freedom in the media that we do today. TV shows such as Modern Family and The New
Normal would definitely not exist and homosexual marriage could still be illegal as well as
homosexuality itself being punishable by prison time. Unfortunately for Wilde, as shown in all of
the aforementioned examples, sexual and gender norms of the Victorian Era were extremely
different from those of today. Someone as wild as Wilde would have definitely fit in much
better in todays society, but without him, we might not be where we are today.

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Works Cited
Dorian Gray. Dir. Oliver Parker. Perf. Colin Firth and Ben Barnes. Momentum Pictures,
2009. Streaming.
Dorian Gray and its Critics Wildes letters to the critics of The Picture of Dorian
Gray
Huffman, Dr. Todd. "Sexuality in Modern Media: How Is It Affecting Our Children?"
Eugene Register-Guard (2008): n. pag. Feb. 2008. Web. 8 Dec. 2015. <http://www.mckenziepediatrics.com/shop/images/MediaSexuality.pdf>.
Kaye, Richard. "Wilde, Oscar." The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. : Oxford
University Press, 2006. Oxford Reference. 2006. Date Accessed 8 Dec. 2015
Marsh, Jan. "Sex & Sexuality in the 19th Century." , Online Museum, Web Team,
Webmaster@vam.ac.uk. Victoria and Albert Museum, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Joseph Bristow. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.
Print.