John Addington Symonds argues in his 1896 essay, “A Problem in Modern Ethics,” that “Urning” men are markedly different in physical appearance and mannerisms. Symonds writes that although the gay man’s body may be visibly masculine, his soul is marked by the “attribute of femininity.” This concept uses the gender binary to define what society viewed to be concrete homosexual characteristics. Wilde uses almost the same rhetoric to describe Basil Hallward in a passage from Dorian Gray.

Wilde writes extensively about Basil’s physical and emotional characteristics. His time at Oxford, lifestyle as an artist, and open love for Dorian (though unrequited) do not shy away from categorizing him as romantically homosexual. His “passions, inclinations, sensibilities, emotional characteristics, sexual desires” that Symonds ties to the soul could all be categorized as “feminine,” especially in the moments in which he talks about or to Dorian. After Dorian talks about his visit to the opera with Lord Henry despite Sibyl’s death, Basil begins to chastise him for his seeming heartlessness. However, Basil then connects Dorian’s personality to a “turning-point in his art,”(Wilde 76) and says that he would rather keep Dorian around than tarnish their relationship with a disagreement. Such scenes make Basil seem more feeling, emotive, and attached to love than Lord Henry– an interesting parallel exhibiting a removal from Symonds’ views that might be explored in another blog post, or final essay.
Lord Henry previously described Basil as having a “rugged strong face and coal-black hair”(Wilde 2), a contrast to the more feminine Dorian. Wilde writes that “rugged and straightforward as he was, there was something in his nature that was purely feminine in its tenderness,”(Wilde 76)  which further enforces Symonds’ point of view.