Throughout his lifetime Oscar Wilde was known by the public for his wit and vibrant character. A self-proclaimed Aesthete, Wilde integrated his love of beauty and the arts into every aspect of his life, most notably in his writing. However, despite his generally aloof attitude, Wilde struggled with conflicting realities which, when they eventually merged, resulted in disaster. The Picture of Dorian Gray reflects the inner battle of Wilde’s multifaceted self; the man as viewed by the public, as known to himself, and as he wished to be. While many consider the character of Dorian Gray to be the sole and direct interpretation of his creator, Wilde himself once stated that:
[Dorian Gray] contains much of me in it. Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry, what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be – in other ages perhaps.
With this in mind I will be analyzing each of the three main characters as relevant components of Wilde’s overall image and, by extension, the sum total of his persona. Furthermore, I pose that, along with this symbolism of the self, The Picture of Dorian Gray alludes to Wilde’s personal struggles as a closeted gay man through Basil Hallward’s painted portrait of his unrequited love, Dorian Gray.
The first facet of Wilde, Lord Henry Wotton is the most extroverted and vibrant character, and is, as Wilde stated, a reflection of his public image. Lord Wotton is a Wildean dandy, an archetype present in many of Wilde’s works that often expressed an air of indifference and confidence through wit and humor as a method of evading analysis or outside demands. Much like Wilde himself the character of Lord Henry Wotton uses his wit to divert unpleasant subject matter from his seemingly perfect life. In other words, wit and humor are used as defense mechanisms – a technique that Wilde often employed in his public life, notably during his trials. One prominent example of this practice of self-preservation can be found within the transcripts of Wilde’s 1895 defense testimony. In one particular instance during questioning, the following repartee took place:
Mr. C. F. Gill: During 1893 and 1894 You were a good deal in the company of Lord Alfred Douglas?
Wilde: Oh, yes.
G: Did he read that poem to you?
W: Yes.
G: You can, perhaps, understand that such verses as these would not be acceptable to the reader with an ordinarily balanced mind?
W: I am not prepared to say. It appears to me to be a question of taste, temperament and individuality. I should say that one man’s poetry is another man’s poison! (Laughter.)
By noting the setting in which these quips take place – both within Wilde’s fiction and his reality – it becomes clear that the flamboyant personality employed by Wilde and Wotton is merely a mask used to evade any outside analysis. Potentially stemming from Wilde’s fear of his own unaddressed desires and lack of place, Lord Henry Wotton is immediately utilized to draw attention from the homoerotic confessions of Basil Hallward within the first chapter of Dorian Gray:
‘I [Basil] turned half-way round and saw Dorian Gray for the first time. When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself…Neither of us could help laughing, and we became friends at once.”
“Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one,” said the young lord [Wotton], plucking another daisy.
Wotton’s humor serves as the perfect foil against the depressed single artist. With Wotton in the spotlight, following the conversational guidelines often employed by Wilde among the public, general audiences would find it difficult to make comparisons between Wilde and anyone else. Due to the humorous repartee that Wotton provides, the reader’s attention is drawn towards his wit rather than towards Hallward’s melancholy and suggestive confessions. In this sense, the back-and-forth of Wotton and Hallward symbolizes something greater: Wilde’s use of his public persona to distract from his reality and the first facet of Wilde’s self.
Wilde once stated that “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” In the context of Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward is Wilde’s truth masked behind the guise of fiction. Further comparison between Wilde and Hallward illuminates Wilde’s struggles as a closeted gay man; in other words, the man as known to himself. The first chapter of The Picture of Dorian Gray opens with a romantic description of a flower-filled summer afternoon, but the mood quickly changes as Hallward confesses to Wotton the secret behind the subject of his portrait: the young and beautiful Dorian Gray. “I have put too much of myself into it,” he explains, sparking incredulity from Lord Wotton. This innocuous phrase is the key to understanding the truth behind the symbolism of the novel. As the story progresses we learn that the portrait, now in the possession of Dorian Gray himself, begins to change in appearance and seems to act as a reflection of Gray’s soul. Eventually, Gray’s actions and lack of compassion towards others causes the portrait to take on a grotesque image, ultimately causing the death of its real-life counterpart. While on first impression it seems that the portrait is a reflection of Gray’s soul, there is evidence that the portrait is rather a reflection of Hallward’s soul, and used as a symbol for the danger of repressed sexuality and the struggle of self-loathing.
Throughout the novel there are several events caused by Gray that bring about his eventual downfall including the suicide of Sybil Vane, the murder of Basil Hallward, the suicide of Alan Campbell, and the death of James Vane. The novel ends with a description of the titular character who, having attempted to destroy the portrait with the same knife used to kill Hallward, lays dead on the floor, aged as he should be. Gray, who had spent the past eighteen years of his life actively seeking to commit every sin possible, was aesthetically preserved only by the portrait who had sacrificed itself in his stead; there is no doubt that this is Wilde’s intended implication. However, several details lend to the theory that the soul inhabiting the portrait is Basil Hallward’s rather than Dorian Gray’s. First, there is the key statement made by Hallward within the first few pages of the novel, “I have put too much of myself in it” implying a connection between Hallward and his work. Initially it seems that Hallward is describing the aesthetic features of the painting, but as he continues it becomes clear that there is a deeper connection at play:
…every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely an accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.
Due to the then-deviant status of his affections towards Gray, it would have been almost impossible for Hallward to have expressed his true emotions without risk of life-threatening consequences. By using the portrait as a vessel, Hallward places his frustrations and desires within his art, which he then gifts to Gray. In this sense, the portrait is a proxy – a way for Hallward to excuse his obsession with Gray as merely an artistic connection, as Wilde himself often did. Had the story ended here, Hallward may have been able to maintain a secret obsession through the guise of artistic symbiosis. However, after Gray’s friendship and attention are stolen by Lord Wotton, Hallward begins a subtle journey of resentment that tarnishes his soul, which is then reflected in his work even after his death.
Basil Hallward’s final argument with Dorian Gray is significant as a representation of both Hallward’s suppressed sexuality and Gray’s disgust towards Hallward’s feelings for him. Using the portrait as an example of how Hallward has affected him, Gray blames Hallward for the dark path that he has gone down. However, despite taking Hallward’s life, he is still haunted by the ever-changing portrait – the remaining fragment of Hallward’s tortured soul. Assuming that his eventual promise of reformation is enough to revert the portrait’s appearance, Gray is horrified to find that it has increased in ugliness and is determined to destroy it. However, he is somehow killed by the portrait with the same knife used to murder Basil Hallward. Here it could be interpreted that Hallward’s soul haunted Gray in his last days, growing more powerful as Gray’s lifestyle grew more and more contrasting to Hallward’s ideals. Analysis of Wilde’s other works, such as The Nightingale and the Rose, reveal expressions of the artist’s unrequited love, implying previous infatuations that Wilde may have had in his younger days. Keeping this in mind, the character of Basil Hallward may well continue this expression as a representation of a darker aspect of unrequited love: self-loathing and bitterness. A symbol of repressed sexuality, the soul within the painting caused the downfall of the novel’s most socially deviant characters, leaving only Lord Wotton unscathed. By killing off all characters that showed any hint of immorality – and saving the very character that the public associated with himself -Wilde succeeded in distancing himself even further from any initial suspicion of being gay.
While Wilde’s public and inner selves are expressed through Lord Henry Wotton and Basil Hallward respectively, Dorian Gray serves as a representation of both the man Wilde wished himself to be and the type of man Wilde often found himself infatuated with. While Wilde’s most well-known romance involved Lord Alfred Douglas, his first documented relationship with another man took place in 1886 with a then seventeen-year-old Robert Ross who “so young and yet so knowing, was determined to seduce Wilde.” Now uncertain about his identity, Wilde was unable to fully reciprocate a physical relationship with his wife, Constance Lloyd, causing the gradual unravelling of their marriage. However, despite Wilde’s relationship with Ross being an admitted personal first, he had frequently alluded to the concept of “Greek love” both in his works and conversations of the past. In 1890, Wilde was introduced to the young aesthetic poet John Gray, who many believe to be the inspiration behind Wilde’s Dorian Gray character. While John Gray distanced himself from this theory, he did, in fact, have a two-year-long relationship with Wilde after the story’s publication. Though it is uncertain whether or not the character of Dorian Gray was directly inspired by any one individual in particular, many elements of the character- especially physical – parallel those of Wilde’s lovers. For example, Dorian Gray is described as having “…finely curved scarlet lips, frank blue eyes, [and] crisp gold hair.” as well as being a “young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose leaves.” Just a year later, Wilde sent the following letter to Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, with whom he was having an infamous affair:
My Own Boy,
Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red rose-leaf lips of yours should have been made no less for music and song than for madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry. I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days.
Wilde’s previous lovers, Robert Ross and John Gray, both possessed similar physical features as well as personalities. Though they may not have been the direct inspiration for Wilde’s descriptive choices, it seems that he at least had an individual in mind when choosing words, and perhaps even partners. The character of Dorian Gray represents the very nature and idea of desire itself – beautiful, yet elusive and dangerous all at once. Sadly, these traits, mirrored in Lord Alfred Douglas, caused Wilde to suffer the same emotional and reputational downfall that he portrayed in his novel.
Human nature is complex and often divided against itself. Conscious of this, Wilde split himself into the characters of Dorian Gray, expressing his inescapable contradictory nature and internal struggle. Wilde made conscious decisions in expressing and concealing his background and specific elements of his life and, in doing so, created a secondary persona – that of a sociable and wealthy married man. While Wilde lived for pleasure and brushed off the unpleasant with his wit and wisdom, it is worth questioning whether or not he ever exposed his true self to anyone. Though many of his letters have been saved, it seems that through self-invention Wilde created a persona so complex that he hardly revealed the truth of his own soul in private – or perhaps even to himself. Through works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, this repressed self and the implied self-loathing that accompanies it are expressed through the faceted nature of the story. Basil Hallward, Lord Wotton, and Dorian Gray himself may have been admittedly elements of Wilde’s own persona, but it still begs the question: who really was the man behind the portrait?
