Shakespeare in Oscar Wilde: An Analysis of Homo Eroticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Portrait of Mr. W.H.

Abstract

In this thesis, I will take a closer look at two of Wilde’s works in which homosexual elements seem to be hinted at most strongly and connected with the figure of William Shakespeare as well: the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was published for the first time in 1890 and a second time in a revised version in 1891, and the short story The Portrait of Mr. W.H. which had first appeared in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1889. As a way to connect these two I will focus on the appearance of Shakespeare in both stories and attempt to compare and contrast the use of references to Shakespeare, who to Oscar Wilde, symbolizes a kind of ‘refined’ and intellectual homosexuality.