Date of Award
Spring 4-28-2023
Document Type
Honors Project
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English and Linguistics
Department Chair or Program Director
Levin, Jonathan
First Advisor
Dr. Chris Foss
Major or Concentration
English
Abstract
Written for Dr. Chris Foss’s English 478 Seminar on Oscar Wilde, “Dorian and the Double: Repressed Homosexual Desire in The Picture of Dorian Gray” examines one of Wilde’s most infamous and beloved works through the lens of both psychoanalytic and queer theory. Drawing on the Romantic and Gothic traditions’ concept of the “literary double,” this research paper explores the dynamic portrait of Dorian Gray as a double for multiple characters in the text, serving as a representation of their repressed homosexual desire. Namely, Basil Hallward and Dorian Gray himself emerge as the primary focus of this analysis. In addition, the paper asserts that Dorian’s portrait acts as a sort of double for the text itself, which is unable to explicitly acknowledge its own sexual implications, foregrounding the text in the concepts of repression and male same-sex desire and reflecting cultural concerns about sexuality in the Victorian era.
Recommended Citation
Wohlford, Alexandra, "Dorian and the Double: Repressed Homosexual Desire in The Picture of Dorian Gray" (2023). Student Research Submissions. 536.
https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/536