The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Queer Relationships and Censorship in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Abstract

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly
written. That is all,” are the words written by Oscar Wilde in the preface of his novel, The
Picture of Dorian Gray. The book follows the Victorian gentleman Dorian Gray, who, captivated
by the eternal youth of his portrait, exchanges his soul to remain beautiful forever. It works, but
Dorian’s portrait begins to slowly age in his place, a horrific display of his sins. One of Wilde’s
most famous works, Dorian Gray, was a controversial novel during its release. While the preface
of the novel claims that no book is immoral, many of Wilde's critics did not agree. In a period
where any acts of homosexuality, private or not, were considered crimes (Bristow 1), Wilde's
novel was heavily scrutinized due to the nature of the relationship between Dorian and his
beloved portrait painter, Basil. In the original version of the novel published in 1890, Basil
possesses a fervent adoration for Dorian, something that is toned down greatly in the next
publication the following year. While censorship, attempted to create a more platonic explanation
for the men’s relationship, Dorian Gray is an important novel displaying the historic practice of
queer coding in novels.