Categorizing Identity: Literary, Performative, and Legal Languages in Oscar Wilde’s Libel Trial vs the Marquess of Queensberry

Abstract

Wilde has been generally accepted as one of the first figures of the queer man that is now known, however, how he came to represent this identity has not been much discussed. While his criminal trials, which led to his eventual conviction of ‘gross indecency,’ undoubtedly played a strong part on his emerging portrayal as a gay man, his first trial involving a libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry is little discussed in relation to the start of his downfall and portrayal as a gay man. Thus, this project looks at Oscar Wilde’s libel trial and its effects on the identity of the homosexual man. By looking at the language used in the libel trial and its use of The Picture of Dorian Gray as evidence, the project concludes that by using the interpretations of Wilde’s novel during the trial, the law created a concrete image of what ‘gross indecency between men’ was, and of the type of person who participated in it, using Wilde as a representative for this identity. The way that his identity was forged allows us to see that while homosexuality as a way of being began to take shape thanks to Wilde’s trial, it was still imbued with negative connotations and seen as pederastic, tying it to anxieties around child prostitution and trafficking of the 1800s. The development of this new identity and its portrayal betters the understanding of the vilification of Wilde during his downfall and his novel’s role in this.