In his article "The Gay Artist as Tragic Hero The Picture of Dorian Gray" Henry M. Alley discs the central artistic figure Osr Wil's novel, Basil Hallward. As the novel's tragic protagonist, he mands the most py and fear and serv as the most dynamic member of the dramatis personae. Alley ntextualiz his discsn wh Aristotle's Poetics, ntemporary cricism, as well as Wil's own ments. In addn, Alley looks at Hallward's attempt to hi or censor his gay feelgs as parallel to Wil's stggle wh the var versns of the novel. Neverthels, the characterizatn of Hallward celebrat the possible harmony between moral and athetic bety, and, further, to affirm gay love, such as Wil also saw the liv of Shakpeare and Michelangelo. As other crics have poted out, The Picture of Dorian Gray anticipat the tragic end of Osr Wil's own life. Neverthels not enough strs has been placed on the sympathy eliced by the two dramas. Yet, both the artistic tale and the bgraphy, a gay man to a tragic end bee of an admirable attachment to a beg who neverthels would or uld not return the sacred "love that dare not speak s name."
Contents:
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: A GAY NOVEL
* picture of dorian gray gay *
A new edn of The Picture of Dorian Gray, featurg handwrten notatn om Osr Wil, reveals the extent to which the wrer grappled wh how much homoerotic ntent he should clu his is the first time the origal mancript Wil’s own wrg has been published and monstrat how he self-censored some of the most romantic paragraphs.
He ton down the more overt referenc to the homoerotic nature of Basil Hallward’s relatnship wh Dorian, crossg out his nfsn that “the world be young to me when I hold his hand” the mancript also clus passag – later removed om the novel we know today – that show how Wil wanted to shock his Victorian rears by openly wrg about homosexual feelgs. But seems that most of the chang between the three versns were attempts to make the book more “moral” (that is, ls gay) and that they were at least partially enacted, like Wil’s preface, as a rponse to the crics, and also as a bulwark agast prosecutn of Wil for homosexualy, which was a real danger at the time. The vast majory of Stoddart’s letns were acts of censorship, bearg on sexual matters of both a homosexual and a heterosexual nature.