How did two homosexual Victorian men repeatedly code queerness into a heterosexual play, successfully bypassing detection from the heterosexual majority upholding relatively conservative views of gender and sexuality? Victorian England viewed same-sex desire as “both an aberration and a crime”, which threatened the safety of LGBTQ+ people, limiting the authenticity and openness of their lifestyles and art about queerness (Gresle 36). Writings by Oscar Wilde—one of the aforementioned men and arguably the most famous gay Victorian man—were examined during his infamous trial, but the court could not identify evidence for homosexual behaviour (“Wilde Testifies Again”). Surprisingly, textual and visual allusions to male same-sex desires in Wilde’s play Salome were “never publicly recognized [at the time,] and there is no evidence of it being recognized privately” (Gresle 22-23). In personal correspondence and published works, Wilde and his contemporaries—including illustrator Aubrey Beardsley—challenge the dominant Victorian belief that sex and art must uphold hierarchal systems that perpetuate systemic social injustice, such as heterosexism and the patriarchy. I will compare two works by Wilde, Salome and Some Letters from Oscar Wilde to Alfred Douglas, to determine how Wilde—with support from Beardsley and Douglas—subverts societal expectations by symbolically expressing queer affection for love interests through catalogues, intimacy between gay men through euphemisms, and transgressive desire through metaphors and metonymies.

While audiences reading romantic poetry traditionally embody a male voyeur objectifying a female body, Wilde undermines this heterosexual standard by having his male and female characters both catalogue male love interests in Salome. In addition to Salome and the Page of Herodias cataloguing Jokanaan and Narraboth respectively (Wilde, Salome 18-23, 26), Wilde catalogues various attributes of his lover—Lord Alfred Douglas, who translated Salome from French to English—in his letters to Douglas (Some Letters xxii-xxiii), expanding upon the possibilities of desire. An audience member describes Salome “writhing under the stress of an indomitable love” for Jokanaan in a stage performance as she catalogues his “thick black hair” and “marble white skin” with sensual visual imagery (“Music and Drama”). The erotic diction of “writhing” and “indomitable” contextualize Salome’s empowering pursuit of pleasure while lusting after Jokanaan’s body, rejecting the submissive “Angel of the House” or “Fallen Woman” archetypes reinforced upon Victorian women under the patriarchy. However, catalogues of same-sex attraction emphasize spiritual and intellectual attributes over physical or sensual ones given the criminalization of and widespread discrimination against homosexuality (Gresle 37). In “Letter VII” to Douglas, Wilde confesses that he misses Douglas’s “grace… boyish beauty, the bright sword-play of [his] wit, the delicate fancy of [his] genius…and, above all, [Douglas himself]” (Some Letters xxii-xxiii). When cataloguing Douglas’s “boyish beauty” and his intellect, Wilde may be referencing a significant text used at the time to advocate for male same-sex attraction—Plato’s Symposium (Gresle 36), which proposes “ideal love [as] a spiritual relationship between an older and younger man” (qtd. in Gresle 36). Similarly, the Page of Herodias reminisces about gifting Narraboth accessories, spending quality time together, his voice, his stories, and his habits after Narraboth’s suicide (Wilde, Salome 26). The Page catalogues the intimate shared experiences that built their bond for Narraboth to be “nearer to [the Page] than a brother” (Wilde, Salome 26). By cataloguing real people and fictional characters alike through a queer lens, Wilde decenters the heterosexual male gaze in Salome and champions heterosexual women and gay men as sexual beings with natural desires.

Wilde’s writings further explore the emotional and intellectual attributes of same-sex attraction, specifically the intimacy of knowing and being understood through euphemisms and subtext. Wilde’s euphemisms for queerness, to “know” and “understand”, reflect a cultural literacy developed by feeling affinity for his queer contemporaries, which the heterosexual public lacks—excluding them from full enjoyment of Wilde’s and Beardsley’s work. When Wilde saw Beardsley’s spontaneous drawing depicting Salome’s desire to kiss Jokanaan’s severed head, Wilde sent his future illustrator “a copy of Salome inscribed: ‘For Aubrey: for the only artist who, beside myself, knows what the dance of the seven veils is, and can see that invisible dance. Oscar’” (qtd. in Gresle 23). Wilde’s proclamation of Beardsley as the only artist—aside from Wilde himself—who understands the dance and address of Beardsley on a first-name basis implies a pre-established familiarity between the two men prior to their formal collaboration. In a social context where queer artists were forced to choose between authenticity and acceptance through assimilation in their work and personal life, meeting another queer artist who understands intentional homoerotic subtext and admires their authentic creations can feel invigorating for both Wilde and Beardsley. Scholars and contemporary audiences have long debated the identities of the androgynous characters depicted in the frontispiece illustration and The Platonic Lament, with the three most prominent pairings involving (1) Salome and Narraboth, (2) Salome and Jokanaan, and (3) the Page and Narraboth (Gresle 36). The academic Chris Snodgrass defends the validity of the same-sex pairing as “Beardsley placed the picture early in the text (long before Jokanaan’s death),” accusing heterosexual interpretations as “an indication of bourgeois homophobia” (qtd. in Gresle 36). By coding Wilde’s and the Page’s homoerotic desire in androgynous depictions of the Page and Narraboth in the frontispiece and The Platonic Lament, Beardsley’s illustrations reinforce Wilde’s defiance of cisheteronormative masculine gender roles for sexual orientation, gender expression, and emotionality in Salome. However, heterosexual viewers lacking the shared understanding of same-sex desire fail to see and know the written and illustrated queer subtext enjoyed by LGBTQ+ audiences. In “Letter XXV” to Douglas, Wilde expresses frustration that “everyone is furious with [him] for going back to [Douglas]—but they don’t understand [Wilde and Douglas]—[Wilde feels] that it is only with [Douglas] that [he] can do anything at all” (Some Letters xxxiv). Additionally, in another letter to Leonard Smithers, a publisher of Decadent literature, Wilde characterizes Douglas—his lover and translator of his play—as someone who “understands [Wilde] and [his] art, and loves both” (Complete Letters 952). Wilde’s personal letters and inscription to Beardsley reveal the importance and intimacy of being understood by other queer individuals as a gay man and an artist in a heterosexist society. To attract queer audiences, collaborators, and lovers who share his collective consciousness, Wilde uses euphemisms and subtext for same-sex love to evoke feelings of emotional and intellectual intimacy.

By extension, Wilde’s and Douglas’s coded diction and euphemisms offer privacy and protection from heterosexual prosecutors searching for written evidence of same-sex activities during Wilde’s trial. In a newspaper article titled “Wilde Testifies Again. He Becomes so Eloquent that He Provokes a Burst of Applause”, Wilde’s lawyer “cited Wilde’s literary works, [including the highly homoerotic Salome,] and argued that in no instance had his client written anything that would lead any one to suppose him guilty of the [same-sex] practices alleged.” There were no documented disagreements with this statement at the trial, proving the effectiveness of strategically queer-coded diction. Using the “Victorian conception of male friendship in Ancient Greece” with heavy subtext, Wilde answered to the Judge’s demand to defend one line of Douglas’s poetry which read: “I am the Love that dares not speak its name”, now a well-known euphemism for love between queer men (Gresle 36). “With marked deliberation and emphasis”, Wilde explained the nature of the love represented in the poem as “a love which is not understood in this century… a deep spiritual affection as pure as it is perfect, and has dictated the greatest works of art. It is an intellectual affection between an older and younger man…”, to which the public responded with “[c]heers in the gallery” (“Wilde in the Witness-Box”), hence the subtitle of “Wilde Testifies Again”. Appealing to Victorian social stratification and bourgeois preference towards Classicism, Wilde wields his cultural capital through Plato’s Symposium as self-defense against homophobic prosecution. Although speaking explicitly about queer Love poses risk to Wilde and his lovers, it may be unnecessary as he and his contemporaries share an unspoken understanding too intimate for words. Facing a potentially incriminating inquiry at a widely publicized trial, Douglas’s poetic euphemism and Wilde’s subtext-rich prose evaded heterosexual understanding, and even provoked appreciation and applause; the positive reception is a testament to Wilde’s well-practiced art of coding queerness into his diction.

Centered around the moon and the act of gazing, Wilde uses metaphors and metonymies respectively to represent various relationships between subjects and objects of transgressive desire in his life and Salome, with overtones of female sexuality and undertones of homoeroticism. Salome begins with an enamoured Narraboth repeatedly proclaiming Salome’s beauty; out of jealousy for his unrequited same-sex attraction, the Page diverts Narraboth’s attention to the moon, using metonymy to caution against Narraboth’s desire that “[s]omething terrible may happen” for “[looking] at [Salome] too much” (Wilde 1-2). Narraboth likens the moon to a “princess who wears a yellow veil… [who] was dancing” (Wilde, Salome 1), establishing the parallel between Princess Salome and the moon, projecting his gaze and desire on her (Marcovitch 92), and foreshadowing her climatic dance of the seven veils. In addition to serving as a metaphor for Salome and others’ desires for her, the moon also represents the open expression of desire perceived by dominant powers as transgressive in Salome and Some Letters, with its absence signaling forced repression and danger towards Salome and Wilde for their sexual and gender nonconformity. In “Letter XXII”, Wilde laments the moral panic over homosexuality in England as “chasms of moonless night”, dividing him from his lover Douglas (Some Letters xxiii). Likewise, “a great black cloud [crossing] the moon and [concealing] it completely” foreshadows Herod killing Salome to extinguish her brazen desire for Jokanaan (Wilde, Salome 66). Salome’s position in the play as “a [woman] of iconic beauty and an object of sexual desire [for the male gaze]” obstructs her pursuit of her desires and defiance of objectification (Marcovitch 93); however, she finds opportunity in her oppression to threaten and appropriate Herod’s patriarchal power, dancing in exchange for Jokanaan’s beheading. In response to Salome’s demand, Wilde’s use of metonymy is evident as Herod berates himself for looking at Salome and implying desire for his step-daughter, confessing that “[her] beauty has grievously troubled [him], and [he] has looked at [her] too much” (Salome 57). Released to audiences in the context of the emerging “New Woman”, Wilde’s Salome “offends against a traditional system of male desire by articulating her own” transgressive lust for a holy man, with potential to jeopardize female submission in heterosexual relationships (Marcovitch 97). Establishing the acts of gazing at the moon and Salome as metaphors and metonymies for transgressive desire in Salome at night, Wilde sheds light upon unspeakable attractions among Victorian fashionable society during daytime.

Emphasizing the pleasure, comfort, trust, and intimacy of queer loving and understanding, Wilde, Beardsley, and Douglas celebrate female sexuality and homosexuality in their art, actions, and relationships. Pioneering cultural and artistic innovation at the turn of the century, their works and lifestyles disrupt widespread, oppressive Victorian expectations regarding the perceptions of women and queer people, threatening the control of cisheterosexual men over rigid social hierarchies. In future studies, I aim to explore the transgression of age gap relationships and incestuous attraction in Wilde’s life and Salome respectively; I did not address these topics in this essay as they do not directly challenge heterosexist, patriarchal attitudes in Victorian society.

Works Cited

Gresle, Yvette. “Strategies of Veiling Same-Sex Desire and its Public Consumption: Aubrey Beardsley’s Illustration of Oscar Wilde’s 1894 Salome: Research.” De Arte, vol. 2004, no. 70, 2004, pp. 22-41. Taylor and Francis Online, https://doi-org.ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/10.1080/00043389.2004.11877028. Accessed 31 July 2025.

Marcovitch, Heather. “The Princess, Persona, and Subjective Desire: A Reading of Oscar Wilde’s Salome.” Papers on Language and Literature, vol. 40, no. 1, 2004, pp. 88-101. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/princess-persona-subjective-desire-reading-oscar/docview/198421266/se-2. Accessed 31 July 2025.

“Music and Drama.” Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 2 July 1892, p. 10. British Library Newspapers, link.gale.com/apps/doc/GW3221594227/GDCS?u=bcptstothepast&sid=bookmark-GDCS&pg=10&xid=3162ffa1. Accessed 23 July 2025.

“Wilde in the Witness-Box.” Yorkshire Evening Post, 30 Apr. 1895, p. 3. British Library Newspapers, link.gale.com/apps/doc/GW3218355680/GDCS?u=bcptstothepast&sid=bookmark-GDCS&pg=3&xid=73fd1ffd. Accessed 23 July 2025.

Wilde, Oscar. Salome: A Tragedy in One Act. Translated by Lord Alfred Douglas, Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1907, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/salometragedyino00wildrich/mode/2up. Accessed 20 July 2025.

Wilde, Oscar. Some Letters from Oscar Wilde to Alfred Douglas. Edited by William Andrews Clark, John Henry Nash, 1924, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/some-letters-oscar-wilde-alfred-douglas/mode/2up. Accessed 20 July 2025.

With Illustrative Notes by Arthur C. Dennison, Jr., & Harrison Post and an Essay by A.S.W. Rosenbach, Ph.D.

Wilde, Oscar. The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde. Edited by Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis, Henry Holt and Company, 2000, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/completeletterso00unse/page/952/mode/2up. Accessed 31 July 2025.

“Wilde Testifies Again.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 1 May 1895, p. 1. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link.gale.com/apps/doc/GT3010617478/GDCS?u=bcptstothepast&sid=bookmark-GDCS&pg=1&xid=e7e112da. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.