Wilde

     This essay will examine Oscar Wilde’s declaration ‘I am one of those made for exceptions, not laws’ in relation to his position as a homosexual celebrity in an age in which sex between men was punished severely by law. It will be shown that Wilde presented a self which opposed the social norms of his times and saw himself in the role of ‘artistic genius’ using examples from ‘Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young’(1894)and ‘De Profundis’ (1905.) Jeffery Weeks’ argument that this oppositional, artistic self stems from Wilde’s homosexuality at a time when the formation of homosexual identity was hindered by legal and social oppression will be discussed. This will be supported by evidence that the developing homosexual subculture was considered an unlawful exception to normative Victorian values using the newspapers’ coverage of homosexual scandals and John Addington Symond’s ‘A Problem in Modern Ethics’ (1891.) Ed Cohen’s A Walk on the Wilde Side (1993) and the trial transcript will be used to demonstrate how the language used in the Oscar Wilde libel trial highlighted the sense of his homosexual self as outside normative society and a threat to it. Cohen’s use of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories to show how the newspapers’ ‘narratisation’ of Wilde contributed to creating the homosexual self will be discussed and Paul Ricoeur’s theory of ‘narrative emplotment’ will be outlined to demonstrate how this influenced the development of both negative and positive perceptions of the male homosexual. The passages from A Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) which were presented as evidence of homosexual typing at the libel trial will be shown to support this process and further examples of the coded language and double lives referred to by Weeks will be identified within the text. In conclusion, an argument will be made that Wilde’s uncharacteristically sincere and direct references to his homosexuality as part of his identity in ‘De Profundis’ could be seen to support Weeks’ argument that Wilde’s paradoxical, flippant style stems from the oppression of his homosexuality.

     When Oscar Wilde wrote in De Profundis; ‘I am one of those made for exceptions, not laws’ he was speaking of Victorian morality and his imprisonment for gross indecency. However the writings and public persona presented by Wilde show a much broader oppositional attitude. Lucy McDiarmid identifies Wilde as an ‘oppositional celebrity’ one whose attitude ‘directs them to appear free, unpredictable, improvisational, to shock and to surprise an enthralled public; to claim this lineage and yet to insist on uniqueness and revel in eccentricity.’ (2001, p449- 450)  Oscar Wilde’s ‘Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young’(1894) fulfils this criteria perfectly including philosophies such as ‘Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others’ and  ‘Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither’ which are in direct opposition to the moral values of Victorian society.

     However, Jeffery Weeks, a historian, sociologist and gay activist, argues that the oppositional attitude of Wilde is directly related to the oppression of his homosexuality. ‘The frivolous surface of Wilde’s art conceals a fundamentally serious purpose… many of his works can be seen as metaphors for his …ambivalent sexual position as a homosexual defying sexual orthodoxies’ (1977, p43 - 44) Weeks does not neglect the importance of the ‘artistic genius’ persona that Wilde projected very strongly in his autobiographical writing and life. In De Profundis (1905) Wilde compares himself favourably with Lord Byron and describes his own work as ‘genius…brilliancy, intellectual daring…whatever I touched I made beautiful’(p56) Wilde even seems to liken himself to Christ whom he describes as a poet and individualist for whom there were no rules but only exceptions(p70 -87.) However the fact that Wilde’s homosexuality, a central part of himself, is unacceptable and forbidden in society, Weeks believes, contributes largely to Wilde’s flippant rejection of conventional morality and reversal of social norms in his work and in his public persona. To Weeks this is the root cause of ‘the obsession with style, with a self protecting individualism, even eccentricity, which deflected social criticism, before it could hurt’( 1977, p45)

     This can be understood in relation to the focus on chastity and purity which characterised the nineteenth century. Following the abolition of the Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s which targeted prostitutes as the cause of venereal disease, there was a new focus on the chastity of men. By the 1880s 15,000 men had signed a pledge of chastity which included refraining from masturbation and this concept of male abstinence and modesty was proscribed under the title of ‘manliness’ (Cohen 1993, p73-89) In 1885 the Labouchere amendment was made to the Criminal Law Amendment Act which all forms of homosexuality between men illegal and created the crime of ‘gross indecency.’ (Porter & Weeks,1991,p1 )

     Within this mainstream discourse and culture there had been a developing male homosexual subculture.  Weeks dates this from the early eighteenth century and identifies it as ‘a response to the emergence of hostile norms’(1977,p36.)A system of coded communications and meeting places grew up and by the mid nineteenth century had become a complex network in large towns where men ‘ could imbibe the rituals of social contact and behaviour and the codes for communicating and the modes of living a double life’(1977 p37)A highly publicised case in 1870-1 in which two middle class homosexual cross dressers named Boulton and Parks were prosecuted but acquitted of ‘conspiracy to commit the offence of sodomy’ (Kaplan,2004, p115) made the public associate effeminacy with homosexual identity.  In 1889 ‘The Cleveland Street Affair,’ in which many titled men had been implicated in procuring sex from young boys, in a homosexual brothel had resulted in no prosecution and radical newspapers fuelled the public’s outrage at privileged men escaping justice (Kaplan, 2004, p114).

     John Addington Symonds, an early advocate of homosexual love described this negative public perception of the homosexual in his essay of 1891 ‘A Problem in Modern Ethics.'‘It is the common belief that a male who loves his own sex must be despicable, degraded, depraved, vicious,…incapable of humane or generous sentiments…that they are pale, languid, scented, effeminate, painted, timid, oblique in expression’ (p7-8.) This perception of the homosexual and the criminality of same sex sexual activity created the necessity for a double life, Weeks asserts, and hindered the merging of homosexuality into identity, miring the emerging homosexual self in secrets and defensiveness (1977,p41) Due to this necessary secrecy ‘homosexual experiences could be absorbed into a wide variety of differing lifestyles with no necessary identity as a ‘homosexual’ developing’(Weeks, 1977 p33)

     However, the trial of Oscar Wilde had a significant impact on this due largely to the press coverage of it at the time. Ed Cohen’s book A Walk on the Wilde Side (1993) focuses specifically on the life and trial of Oscar Wilde, setting his life and prosecution in historical and social context. Cohen argues that the celebrity of Oscar Wilde and the publicity of his trial contributed greatly to the emergence of homosexuality as part of identity(p131) He draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory regarding the function of  trials as forming a link between factual evidence and the reporting of this evidence in narrative form by looking at the newspapers coverage of the libel trial of the Marquis of Queensbury. Because newspapers essentially convey a ‘story’ and could not use the word ‘sodomy’ or any explicit sexual details journalists presented Wilde as a ‘character’ within a narrative that society could understand (Cohen, 1993,p131.)  The Times said ‘The person of whom the words were written did appear, nay desired to appear and pose to be a person inclined to the commission of that gravest of all offences.’(in Cohen, 1993, p147) ‘Wilde was caricatured as a languorous long haired lover of sun flowers or as an utterly aestheticized utterer of epigrams’ (Cohen, 1993, p136)and contrasted to the Marquis of Queensbury who, despite a scandalous heterosexual sex life, was portrayed as a ‘manly’ man and concerned  father (Cohen, 1993, p142.)Kaplan argues that the press portrayed Wilde as ‘a symbol of cultural decadence, sexual exploitation, and dangerous deviance’ which would shape negative attitudes to homosexuality for generations to come (2004, p116.) The word ‘Oscarism’ came into existence to describe effeminacy and suspicions of homosexuality for decades following the trial (Cohen, 1993 p137)

     The emerging concept of the homosexual self was portrayed very negatively by authorities and media of the time but had some positive results for the self conception of homosexual men.  Cohen draws heavily on the work of the pioneering sexologist, Havelock Ellis. Ellis said ‘The Oscar Wilde trial …seems to have generally contributed to give definiteness and self-consciousness to the manifestations of homosexuality and to have aroused inverts to take up a definite attitude’ (in Cohen 1993 pp98.) Ellis cites an informant of his who had said the trial made him ‘ready to strike a blow when the time comes for what we deem to be right, honourable and clean’ (in Cohen, 1993,p99)

     It seems incredible that these opposing perceptions of the emerging homosexual self are formed from the same events and media exposure and, of course, the positive concept of the homosexual identity forms the ‘exception’ to the wider negative one made illegal by the Labouchere amendment. This can be understood using Paul Ricoeur’s concept of ‘narrative emplotment’ (1983-5) which complements Bakhtin’s narratological approach used by Cohen in his work on Wilde.  Ricoeur, a French philosopher whose work focuses on understanding the self, described his concept of ‘narrative emplotment’  as one which ‘configures events, agents and objects and renders those individual elements meaningful as part of a larger whole’ and ‘by bringing together heterogenous factors …creates a ‘’concordant dissonance” a tensive unity which functions as a redescription of a situation’ (Atkins, 2003,online) In this way the facts of the Queensbury libel trial formed into narrative by the newspapers in which Wilde was a very negative character can be ‘redescribed’ and retold in a new narrative form by a homosexual subculture and contribute greatly to a positive sense of homosexual identity and unity.

       The perceptions of the homosexual self during the Oscar Wilde trial were closely identified with aestheticism in art and Wilde’s work formed a large part of the evidence against him (Kaplan, 2004,p116.) The Westminster Gazette on the 6^th April 1895 claimed that ‘in England … the philistine element is strong to check the excesses of artistic temperament. Estranged by the decadents from the healthy influence of morality, art is a catalogue of degenerative pathology, perverted, degraded, morbid, maniacal…’ (in Cohen 1993 p169)

     In the libel trial against the Marquis of Queensbury the defending attorney Edward Carson needed to justify Queensbury’s statement that Wilde ‘posed as a sodomite’ and this justification included the accusation that Wilde produced a ‘certain immoral and obscene work … The Picture of Dorian Gray ... designed and intended. .. and understood by the readers thereof to describe the relations intimacies and passions of certain persons of sodomitical and unnatural habits, tastes and practices.’  (In Kaplan, 2004, p119)

     The questioning of Wilde about The Picture of Dorian Gray focused closely on the elements contrary to the normative, male sexuality and the laws of Victorian England and the press coverage echoed this. The transcript of the trial shows this to be emphasised in the language of Carson but also by Wilde himself. Carson asked Wilde if Hallward’s feelings for Dorian might lead an ordinary individual to suspect the artist of a ‘certain tendency’ and Wilde replied ‘I have no knowledge of the views of ordinary individuals,’ essentially setting himself outside social norms. He does this again when questioned about letters to Lord Alfred. When asked ‘Is that not an exceptional letter?’ Wilde replied ‘It is unique, I should say’ and when pressed ‘Is that an ordinary letter?’Wilde’s response was ‘Everything I write is extraordinary.  I do not pose as being ordinary, great heavens!’ (All italics are mine)Wilde’s rejection of the normative and Carson’s repeated use of words with the negative prefixes ‘im’ and ‘un’- ‘Immoral’ ‘Improper’ and ‘unnatural’ portray Wilde as exceptional and unlawful to the public. (Wilde vs Queensbury,1895, in Linder, 2010,Online)

     The passages of The Picture of Dorian Gray read by Carson related to Basil’s adoration of Dorian and Dorian’s mysterious secret life and are unlikely to have shocked practicing homosexuals and may well have made them feel validated in their same sex love. Weeks describes a need for a double life and a system of codes in his work on the developing homosexual subculture (1977, p36-7) and these can be detected in The Picture of Dorian Gray in ways not identified by Carson.

     Neil McKenna, a gay Journalist and writer, identifies the term ‘Greek’ as a euphemism used by Wilde for homosexual.  Following his work with his friend and mentor Sir John Mahaffy on his book Social Life in Greece which included the homosexual attraction to boys in ancient Greece the word ‘Greek’ began to be applied to the physical attractions of young men by Wilde (McKenna, 2004, p8.) This concept appears repeatedly in The Picture of Dorian Gray applied to the character of Dorian whose name refers to an ancient Greek population. He is described as having ‘the air of a young Greek martyr’ (p22) and to liken himself to ‘The gods of the Greeks(82.) Weeks describes a culture of effeminacy among homosexual men in the nineteenth century and we see this in the body language of Dorian. He ‘blushes’ when he meets Sir Henry whom ‘he had taken a fancy to’ and flirts with him saying ‘let our friendship be a caprice.’ He is described as having ‘cool, white, flower-like hands’ (p21-27,) he is frequently said to ‘cry’ out his speeches and often depicted as ‘sulky’ and ‘petulant’. Dorian proposes to Sybil Vane when she is dressed as a boy and ‘never seemed to me more exquisite’ (p61) There could certainly be some homosexual significance in Harry’s words ‘every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us’ (p23) and the description of Dorian feeling  ‘keenly the terrible pleasures of a double life(p128.)

     Jeffery Weeks’ argument that Wilde’s oppositional eccentricity was part of a ‘self protecting individualism’ caused by the necessary suppression of his homosexuality (1977,p43) could be seen as supported by passages in De Profundis, published after Wilde’s death, where he acknowledges his sexuality as part of his identity and writes with uncharacteristic, direct sincerity. Wilde describes telling a friend that his ‘perverse pleasures and strange passions’ were ‘a fact about me’ which must be ‘realised to the full’ for their friendship to survive (p101.) He expresses his desire to admit rather than deny his sexuality in court ‘How splendid it would be if I were saying all this about myself’ (p102) and says ‘(T)o speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to lie is much worse.’ (101)  

     Wilde died only three years after his release from prison and died in 1900 but he remains a gay cultural icon.  Richard Ellman’s book Oscar Wilde was published in 1988 and the film based on the book came out in 1997. These were based largely around his identity as a homosexual and portray it very positively. The IMDB précis calls Wilde ‘genius, poet, playwright and the First Modern Man’ and describes his court case as ‘instigated …by the mad Marquis of Queensbury’ asserting that he was convicted by ‘an intolerant Victorian Society’ (Samuelson,1997, online.) Neil Mckenna’s The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde aims to ‘present a coherent and psychologically convincing account of his sexual journey’ (xv-xvi) The blurb by Gay Times says this aspect of Wilde has been ‘curiously neglected’ previously despite the necessary secrecy within which Wilde’s sex life occurred. The Irish Independent’s comendation credits The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde for ‘reveal(ing)….the real nature of Wilde’s developing sexuality’ despite the clear emplotment on the part of McKenna demonstrated by the thoughts and feelings he expresses on Wilde’s behalf throughout the book. It seems Oscar Wilde has again become the subject of ‘narrative emplotment’ according to the social and cultural climate of our time.

    

     It is clear that there are numerous perspectives and theories on the oppositional and artistically dominated self portrayed by Oscar Wilde in his life and work.  Jeffery Weeks’ argument that this stemmed from Wilde’s oppressed sexuality has been supported in this essay with examples of homosexual subculture as an exception from social and legal cultural norms of the Victorian age. Ed Cohen’s relation of Bakhtin’s theories to the role of the newspapers in ‘typing’ Oscar Wilde as the exceptional and unlawful homosexual within the narrative of their news stories has been discussed. The surprisingly positive influence of this on the development of homosexual identity has been related to Ricoeur’s concept of narrative emplotment.  The use of The Picture of Dorian Gray by the defending attorney as evidence of Wilde’s exception from normative social values has been discussed and further examples of the coded language and double lives identified by Weeks found in the text. Week’s argument has been supported further by the uncharacteristically sincere references to his homosexuality as identity expressed by Wilde in De Profundis.  The narrative emplotment of Wilde’s life continues today and it is interesting to speculate whether he would feel the current popular depiction of him fulfils his wish expressed to Robbie Ross ‘Some day the truth will have to be known--not necessarily in my lifetime . . . but I am not prepared to sit in the grotesque pillory they put me into, for all time.’(1897, online)

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