Anti-feminism in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde does not conceal his scorning of women through his philosophical character, Lord Henry. Lord Henry functions as a portal for Oscar Wilde to send out his Aesthetic and hedonistic values into the turn of the century society in which art was considered a measure of morality and hedonism a  path toward sin. Wilde used Lord Henry to juxtapose the commonly held conceptions of the time period with his own philosophies acquired from his Oxford professor, Walter Pater. Lord Henry like Wilde made no mistake to not only Aestheticism and  hedonism were addressed as the superior thinking over morality but also that men ruled not only in thinking but also in love over women. Lord Henry openly regards women "as some witty Frenchman once put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces, and always prevent us from carrying them out" (Wilde 83). Wilde incorporates the Aesthetic philosophy that art exists as beauty alone not a means of morality but also that women reflect beauty but do not encompass the concept. In the same way, a dress may be absolutely gorgeous but doesn't fit once you try it on. In Wilde's reasoning, what good is the beautiful dress if you never get to wear it? What good are beautiful women when they offer nothing else of value? Personally, I think women offer much more than some pretty hair and long eyelashes; however, Wilde regarded man as the superior from of beauty through his descriptions of Dorian: "Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair...All the candor of youth was there as well as all youth's passionate purity" (Wilde 18).  In comparison to the description given by Lord Henry of the beautiful Sibyl, "Don't run down dyed hair and painted faces. There is an extraordinary charm in them, sometimes" (Wilde 55). Wilde presents Sibyl plainly and brashly as a mere actress who serves no purpose in love while the author describes Dorian as a thing of beauty to be admired and in Lord Henry's case influenced. Sibyl, one of only two influential female characters of novel, is disregarded and even insisted upon by Henry as unimportant to the point that Dorian becomes so influenced by Lord Henry's ridicule of Sibyl that Dorian renounces his love and engagement claiming Sibyl was beneath him socially anyway. The author presents his open degradation of women as worthy of any effort through the criticism displayed by Lord Henry toward Dorian's love for Sibyl. In addition, Lord Henry forms generalizations about women concerning the Duchess of Monmouth: "'She is very clever, to clever for a woman. She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness'" (Wilde 185). The author insinuates that women should have a "weakness" like a damsel in distress waiting for a beautiful man to save the day. Also, Wilde claims that women should only possess a certain level of wit or else something is wrong with them. Now as a female, I can take offense to Wilde's comments in many ways, but instead I choose to analyze his philosophy according to the time period. During Wilde's time, women were all but powerless with men ruling the jobs, the money, and the power while women sat around pleasing the husbands and looking pretty. Wilde does have a point that women in his time period were quite pathetic in investing themselves in silly romances and society events; however, women were not granted the opportunity by men to gain an education and think for themselves. Although I don't have much pity on pathetic women relying on men, I can understand women in Wilde's time faced numerous obstacles created by men in order to keep men in and women out of power. The author holds a valid point that women of the time period were all but useless compared to a man, but women had all the potential in the world to become greatness but were never granted an opportunity.