queer literary studeis

Queer Theory and Oscar Wilde

Analysis of "Queer Theory" by Annamarie Jagose in relation to Dorian Gray's character in "The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

In her discussion of "Queer theory," author Annamarie Jagose provides a distinction between the concepts 'queer' and the dichotomous relationship between 'lesbian' and 'gay.' Jagose argued in her discussion of this theory that queer was a concept that had politically evolved through the years in relation to the proliferation of gay and lesbian studies.

What makes the queer concept vital to the study of gays and lesbians, as well as issues of homosexuality and heterosexuality is that it provides a 'gray area' in which no distinctions between male and female and gay and lesbian are found. Queer appeals to the 20th century philosophers and social scientists simply because it offers an avenue through which gender and sex can be discussed without the political inequality often found between male and female genders and the similarly dichotomous relationship between gays and lesbians. As Jagose had asserted, the queer concept was able to transcend the "natural sexuality" framework -- that is, "queer's transcendent disregard for dominant systems of gender" -- that society had often used as reference in order to fully understand the identity of an individual.

However, queer theory, as characterized earlier, remains a gray area of study for social scientists. This is because queer, if not found within the framework of male-female and gay lesbian dichotomies of gender, then it has no role in defining and shaping the course of gender politics. Jagose solved this dilemma by clarifying that queer theory has a more vital role than just simply being part of gender politics: it offers new opportunities to better understand identity formation and identification among humans. In this new light, the author considered queer as a "category in constant formation," wherein an individual reaches a phase where s/he becomes knowledgeable of the fact that "realization that its realization (i.e., transcendence of the heterosexual framework) remains impossible." However, the potential that queer theory would later become a new framework of identity formation that goes beyond gender/sex differences remains, although further elucidation on this 'promise' of queer theory had yet to be provided by Jagose, or from any social scientist or scholar of gender politics and identity formation.

Applying the concepts discussed in Jagose's queer theory in the context of Oscar Wilde's "The picture of Dorian Gray," the characterization described in the theory reflects the personality of the novel's protagonist, Dorian Gray. In the novel, Dorian was portrayed as a naive, beautiful, and innocent young man, with almost androgynous physical qualities that men and women both desire. Wilde aptly described Dorian through Basil, the painter who first took notice of the young man's extraordinary beauty: "Dorian Gray ... has a simple and a beautiful nature ... Don't spoil him. Don't try to influence him. Your influence would be bad. The world is wide, and has many marvellous people in it. Don't take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses ... " (Wilde, 1994:21).

Dorian was like a child's mind in a tabula rasa state, with no vain perceptions of himself. Initially, he had no pre-conceptions of how beautiful he is, how this beauty is a much-coveted state by most men and women. His beauty, innocence, and naivete are analogously likened to the queer state, where no distinction between male and female is found. His androgynous features make him acceptable to other people not just a man or a man with almost-female features, but as an individual, a human being with these special physical characteristics. True to his name, Dorian Gray indeed personifies the gray area that queerness is characterized.

However, Wilde plunges Dorian's character in to his social environment through Lord Henry. The once uncorrupt mind and beauty of the young man had gradually changed to become malicious and conceited, as exemplified by Dorian's wish to become youthful forever at the expense of the aging portraiture of Dorian Gray that Basil had painted for him. This gradual process of change had eventually dissolved Dorian's 'queerness,' and has become once again the norm of the society: a man who has beautiful features (likened to that of a woman). Though his beauty and youth remained, Dorian is now simply considered a beautiful man, referred to based on his sexuality and physical appearance, and not through his identity and character.