Comus and Dorian: Milton’s Influence on Wilde

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Milton’s Attendant Spirit / Comus / the Lady are reconfigured as Basil Hallward / Lord Henry / the Lad. Wilde’s protagonist, unlike Milton’s, yields to the argument of the seducer and pursues a life of divine-demonic hedonism. The links with Milton’s masque clarify Wilde’s challenged statement that his novel warns against renunciation. They also support the narrative integrity of Wilde’s often-questioned de-sexualization of Hallward in the 1891 novel.