Havelock Ellis’ Sexual Inversion was written long after, and obviously makes reference to, The Picture of Dorian Gray, but the imagery that Wilde uses is reflected in Ellis’ description of the sexually inverted boy. There are moments when the resonance in ideas and language is practically uncanny. The third paragraph in Chapter IX of Dorian Gray describes Dorian’s rising infamy in London as well as how that infamy is undermined by his beauty. In the excerpt from Ellis, he is interviewing H.C., a young male sex worker who goes by the name Dorian Gray. Ellis’ description of H.C. is eerily similar to how we read Dorian described early in the novel. The more encompassing connection however, is that for both of them, their outward beauty is a tool and a mask that allows them to commit many sins with seemingly little reproach. Despite his profession in the sex work industry, which even to this day is considered “sinful” and morally corrupt, H.C. is described by Ellis as having the “beauty of an angel” and his voice the “purity of a clarinet.” These kinds of descriptions are commonly reserved for people — particularly women, which connects this to some of the other readings about Urnings having a feminine spirit — who are considered morally and spiritually pure. Similarly, on page 91, Dorian is described as having “the look of one who kept himself unspotted from the world.” His beauty is so pure in fact, that “his mere presence seemed to recall to them the innocence they had tarnished.” These two young men are able to operate, somewhat, successfully as “sinners” because their outward “purity” makes their critics doubt themselves rather than doubt the beauty of the boys.
Oscar Wilde
The sexuality of Basil
While in class we talked mostly about how the descriptions of Dorian and Lord Henry point to their homosexual desires, we did not speak as much about the descriptions of Basil who, is the mostly clearly homosexual character out of all the others. He openly reveals his romantic desire when he tells Dorian in chapter 7: “I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling that a man usually gives to a friend. Somehow I have never loved a woman. I suppose I never had time” (70). Dorian’s physical features as a boyish, his musical talent, characterize him as an invert, what men with same-sex attraction were called by sexologists, as well as his relationship to Lord Henry. The relationship between Lord Henry and Dorian, older man as mentor and younger man as mentee, reflect the homosexual relationships of the Greek Dorians. Lord Henry Wotton’s voice is described as musical as well. They never reveal outright their feelings towards each other or towards other men, Basil is the only one that does so. Subtle hints are not needed to inform the reader of his sexuality. It is in this passage on page 70 that Basil’s innermost thoughts and feelings are revealed to the reader and by John Addington Symonds standards he would be considered an “urning,” not just a man with same-sex desire, but a very feminine individual. Symonds writes,
The body of a male is visible to the eyes, is mensurable and ponderable, is clearly marked in its specific organs. But what we call his soul–his passions, inclinations, sensibilities, emotional characteristics, sexual desires–eludes the observation of the senses. . . . And when I find that the soul, this element of instinct and emotion and desire existing in a male, had been directed in its sexual appetite from earliest boyhood towards persons of the male sex, I have the right to qualify it with the attribute of femininity.”
The fact that Basil has such feelings for Dorian is enough to qualify him as a feminine man, or as having a feminine soul.
Bibliography
Symonds, John Addington. A Problem in Modern Ethics. 1896
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1890. Ed. Michael Wilson. Watersgreen House Classics. 2015.
John Addington Symonds and a Description of Dorian Gray
There is a passage at the beginning of chapter nine of The Picture of Dorian Gray that reminded me of the description of the homosexual male from John Addington Symonds’s A Problem in Modern Ethics. The passage from Dorian Gray reads: “The boyish beauty that had so fascinated Basil Hallward, and many other besides him, seemed never to leave him…Men who talked grossly became silent when he Dorian Gray entered the room. There was something in the purity of his face that rebuked them. His mere presence seemed to recall to them the innocence they had tarnished. They wondered how one so charming and graceful as he was could have escaped the stain of an age that was at once sordid and sensuous.” (Wilde 91-92)
Symonds wrote in his description that the male “Urning” basically has the body of a man, but the soul of a woman. He says that “his passions, inclinations, sensibilities, emotional characteristics, sexual desires–eludes the observation of the senses.” In the above description of Dorain Gray, Wilde wrote of Dorian’s “boyish beauty,” which leaves the impression that Dorian has an effeminate look about him, in spite of his male body. Wilde also writes about how he catches the attention of the other men in the room, who wonder at his state of innocence that they no longer have, and this also relates to Symonds’s claim about characteristics eluded by the soul. Dorain’s look of purity in his face could also allude to an effeminate nature of him, as purity was something more-so socially expected of women at this period, than men. The description of Dorian as charming and graceful also mark that his presence gave off an air of what would be considered as femininity, and noticeable by others. This would also connect with Symonds’s claim of the homosexual male seeming to have a feminine soul.
Dorian Gray and 19th Century Sexology
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. Continue reading