Essay on the Gay as a Literary Figure in The Picture of...

The Gay as a Literary Figure in The Picture of Dorian Gray This paper shall explore the gay as a literary figure based on Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray. The aim of the essay is threefold. Firstly, to show how the gay is related to two of the most potent archetypal images: those of Dionysos and Apollo. Secondly, to demonstrate that the Wildean gay is profoundly afraid of life, and that his interest in form and aesthetic proportion rests on a principle of evasion. Thirdly, to contend that the humor in this novel, and by extension also in Wildes plays, is a symptom of the authors fascination with an archetypal gay. The Picture of Dorian Gray revolves around Dorians dual nature. On the one hand, he is the†¦show more content†¦(Book IV, lines 17 ff.) It is extraordinary how many of these epithets, such Ovids puer aeternus, also describe Dorian, and Dorian, but these parallels are unlikely to have been intended. That Dorian is invested with the attributes of Dionysos is, however, corroborated in the novel. The morning after he cold-bloodedly turns his back on Sibyl Vane, he checks to see whether Basils portrait has really altered. It has -- and he immediately understands what this signifies for him: Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins -- he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all. (105) The young man who realizes this has known only the passions of an adolescents dreams. In other words, he believes that, under normal circumstances, such pleasures would stain him, not only morally, but physically. And so he prays that he may enjoy every pleasure which life can offer him, and yet remain unmarked by his experience. Such passions as those he wants to enjoy are associated with Dionysos. This is confirmed toward the end of the novel, when Lord Henry, following their discussion of Basils murder, says to Dorian: You have drunk deeply ofShow MoreRelatedOscar Wilde s Life And Accomplishments2070 Words   |  9 Pagescould find. His fervor for literature persisted throughout his entire life. He received the highest undergraduate literary honor at Trinity College, then proceeded to receive an award for best English verse while he attended Oxford. He was an outspoken social critic and literary figure in London, and was accredited for being a staunch supporter of the Aestheticism Movement. His literary fame came to a crash after a scandal about his having homosexual relations with a young man caught public ear, and