“Monstrous Maladies”: Oppression, Transgression, and Degeneration in The Picture of Dorian Gray and “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Abstract

Payne used historical and scientific context to explore the tragic realities behind the beauty of The Picture of Dorian Gray and "The Yellow Wallpaper." Payne firmly situates both works in the context of Victorian ideas about science, gender, and sexuality, and examines how Oscar Wilde and Charlotte Perkins Gilman write back against these ideas. Using this framework, Payne re-contextualizes both works and, in doing so, examines what it is that actually makes people into monsters.