Wilde's kinship to Plato : the picture of Dorian Gray as a Platonic dialogue.

Abstract

The works cited as sources for The Picture of Dorian Gray are numerous; surprisingly, however, Plato's Symposium is not among them. Based on Wilde's brilliant academic record in classical studies and salient interest in ancient Greek literature and culture, in this thesis I claim that Plato's dialogues, and specifically the Symposium, have greatly influenced The Picture of Dorian Gray. First, Wilde's book is Platonic in its use of dialogue. Although disguised as a novel, Dorian Gray is predominantly dialogical, focused upon a dialogue between Lord Henry and Dorian. Second, Wilde's Lord Henry and Dorian insistently evoke Plato's Socrates and Phaedrus. And third, the relationship between Dorian and Lord Henry is firmly grounded upon the relationship described by Diotima but narrated by Socrates in Plato's Symposium. In their eagerness to fit Wilde's works to their own agendas, most critics have discounted the cultural milieu in which Wilde lived and worked. Hellenism, or the love for everything Greek, was an important movement at the end of the nineteenth century, and Wilde's place in that movement needs more attention.