Gay as a literary figure in The Picture of Dorian GrayThis article will explore gay as a literary figure based on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The purpose of the essay is threefold. First, to show how gay is linked to two of the most powerful archetypal images: those of Dionysus and Apollo. Secondly, to demonstrate that the Wildean gay has a profound fear of life, and that his interest in aesthetic form and proportions is based on a principle of "evasion". Third, to argue that the humor in this novel, and by extension in Wilde's works, is a symptom of the author's fascination with a "gay" archetype. The Picture of Dorian Gray revolves around Dorian's dual nature. On the one hand he is the young hero whose adventures the novel tells; on the other it is a painted picture of "extraordinary personal beauty". When Lord Henry tells him that his exceptional appearance will not last, the young man prays to be allowed to remain as he is in Basil's portrait. Dorian wants to enjoy his youth forever. His "crazy desire" is a key to archetypal factors such as... middle of paper... intoxication and Apollonian form; of Dionysian involvement and Apollonian unapproachability. He can enjoy the Dionysian pleasures to which he wants to indulge, but at an Apollonian distance. Works CitedWilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Isobel Murray. London: Oxford University Press, 1974. Wilde, Oscar. The letters of Oscar Wilde. Ed. R. Hart-Davis. London: Hart-Davis, 1962.Jung, CG The Collected Works. Ed. Sir Herbert Read etc. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953-1976. vol. 9.ii; par. 73. Also CW 11.283.