Abstract

Upon its publication, The Picture of Dorian Gray faced accusations of indecency and offense of moral sensibilities. Yet the work became a crucial influence on the new aestheticism movement. The actions of the main characters challenge Victorian culture through the suggestion that social behavior and human character do not arise from virtue or ethical principles but are performances. My paper argues that within Wilde’s novel, performance is a radical art form and something that occurs with every action individuals make.

                Recent developments in feminist and queer theory have redefined gender and identity. Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, for example, presents gender as a performance. While much queer criticism of Dorian Gray only discusses the novel’s homosexual subtext, I present the novel as an all-inclusive queer work dramatizing “performative” aspects of human identity. In this way, Dorian Gray foreshadowed a cultural movement that wouldn’t take place for decades after its publication.

                In the novel, the progressive corruption of Dorian’s soul is displayed by the alterations of his portrait. Similarly, Dorian’s own social performances undergo equal alterations, caused by the performative influence of his companions. The complex truths revealed by the depiction of the painting and of performance are traced through the novel, culminating in Dorian’s attack on his portrait, where the interconnectedness of self, art, and performance is revealed by the conversion of the portrait into Dorian himself.