Wilde And Baudelaire Analysis

Upon having read both Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Poe’s ‘William Wilson’ clear similarities exist between the two texts, most obviously the use of doubling and the doppelgänger motif. Far from simply being a coincidence, it is well known that Wilde sought great inspiration in the in the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe, and it would be through the writings of Charles Baudelaire that Wilde would discover Poe. However in England at this time the works of Poe were not very well know, especially when compared to the legion of followers he had in France, nonetheless according to Miller there was an expansion in “interest on both sides of the Atlantic in Poe’s genius”. (1977, 9) Over two decades before Wilde encountered any of Poe’s work Charles Baudelaire wrote and published his …show more content…
(1906, 238) With Wilde fascinated by anything Baudelaire wrote it is not surprising that Wilde too became a beloved follower and great sympathiser of Poe, just as Baudelaire was. But this raises the question of whether Wilde was really an admirer of Poe’s works or was he so obsessed by Baudelaire writings that he could not untangle his own feelings from Baudelaire’s? Both Poe and Baudelaire were “fascinated by the duality of personality and by the figure of the individual victimized by the crowd” (Wright, 2007, n.p.), Wilde’s creation of Dorian Gray seems to be just as linked to Baudelaire if not even more so that to Poe. Nonetheless it seems that Wilde himself was a true fan of Poe, in his letter ‘De Profundis’ Wilde writing to Lord Alfred Douglas states that he is not ashamed of the actions which led him to prison, instead insisting “Dumas pére, Cellini, Goya, Edgar Allan Poe or Baudelaire would have done just the same”. (Wilde, 2003, 1042) Wilde’s need to justify his own life and actions against