Dorian represents what might be the most complex and nuanced exploration of masculinity. When Lord Henry tells him the beauty fades, Dorian resists this obvious truth and devotes the rest of his life to hedonistic pleasures in the attempt to remain young. He is the dandy personified, caring little for anyone else’s needs or emotions, and interested only in preserving his own image. Interestingly, Dorian is more effeminate than he is masculine. When he is introduced, he is described in one of the important quotes from “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde by the narrator as a “lad” who responds in a “willful, petulant manner” (21). This image is only contested when Dorian kills Basil, an act which seems incongruent with the seemingly harmless Dorian. Yet one might argue that this act, similar to his cruel dismissal of Sybil Vane, is the only way that Dorian can assert his masculinity, thereby compensating for his excessive vanity. Dorian never matures, though he does age. He fails to realize that beauty and youth pass for everyone; rather than focus on developing other skills, talents, and abilities, he obsesses about his physical appearance and fights the unwinnable race against time. Neither Dorian nor Basil, nor even Lord Henry, ever truly realize the fullness of their identity, as constrained as they are by the roles that they have assigned themselves.

In her novel, The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton takes a more conventional approach to exploring traditional gender roles and dynamics, but the conclusions she seems to suggest are no less compelling than those offered by Wilde. Lily, the main character in the novel, is a young woman whose sole desire is to rise above her station in life by marrying into a higher social class. While this is by no means a unique situation for women (no matter what time period is being discussed) it is worth noting that gender roles for women and the mobility associated with them are still confined to issues of marriage and family in “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton. In House of Mirth, however, this pursuit of mobility through the use of gender and sexuality is an obsession for her, and she fails to develop her own authentic self because she is too busy trying to become someone she is fated not to be. Unfortunately for Lily, she is surrounded by other women who have cast themselves into rigid gender roles, none of which represents a positive version of self-actualized femininity and thus the paradoxes of gender witnessed in The Picture of Dorian Gray are also present here, even though the gender roles are reversed.

Each of the female characters Wharton created are female stereotypes and that was particularly relevant for the time at which the novel was published, but remains resonant in contemporary society. There is Aunt Julia Peniston, for example, who appoints herself as Lily’s guardian but who disinherits Lily when she is rumored to have had an affair. A woman of Mrs. Peniston’s high social standing, which is symbolized by the fact that she lives on New York’s tony Fifth Avenue, cannot risk being associated with someone who has so boldly flaunted social conventions. It does not matter that the accusation is untrue. Then, there is Gerty Farish, a kind woman who helps Lily during her time of need. Gerty is a selfless, generous woman, who represents the paragon of moral virtue—a role that all women were supposed to, at least in some way, uphold, if only in appearance according to Victorian ideals of perfect femininity. It seems that Gerty has never done anything wrong, nor could be capable of doing so. Finally, there is the odious Bertha, who wrings pleasure out of life by bringing other women, including Lily, down. Bertha, of course, represents the negative feminine characteristics—all of the ills typically associated with, what one of the important quotes from “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton terms, “bad women” such as being deceitful, malicious, and as well as a gossip.  All three of these characters lack complexity and depth; they are flat, one-dimensional women whose role it is to illustrate just how limited—and how limiting—women’s roles could, and can, be. Lily cannot draw inspiration from any of these women.

Unfortunately, the brief glimpses that Lily has into an authentic life of depth and complexity escape her critical attention. She continues to make bad choices, and is all but ruined when Bertha starts a rumor that Lily had an affair. At this point, it becomes impossible for Lily to transcend her limited gender role, even if she aspired to do so. She is quite literally doomed, trapped as much by her social class as she is by her gender. She will not realize her goals, and instead will commit suicide, an act which converts her into the fully tragic feminine figure.

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth were published just one year apart. The centrality of gender roles in both of these novels illustrates just how preoccupying the nature of gender roles was in late Victorian life. While both Wilde and Wharton suggest that a variety of roles are available to both men and women, the outcomes of both novels clearly support the argument that none of the available roles were viable options to any of the characters. Each of the characters mentioned here became stuck in a kind of role lock that led to his or her demise, literally, and which prevented him or her from envisioning and fulfilling other possibilities. Both Wilde and Wharton present problematic, complex, and nuanced considerations of gender identity and roles in these two novels. Ultimately, both of the works are less about gender than they are about insecurity and the attempt to become someone who one is not. Yet, such efforts are always deeply rooted in notions of gender. While the authors do not offer a neat moral to close their tales, what they both seem to suggest is that the social construction of gender is problematic, and that struggles against rigid roles can be futile, as well as fatal.

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Works Cited

Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1905.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Brentano’s, 1906.