In Sum...

It is important to note a common element in all three of these stories: The Immoralist by Andre Gide, A Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.  While all of these novels achieved fame (all three novels were adapted into plays, and both The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Death in Venice were adapted into film), for a long time many still did not realize that these stories were reflections of the authors themselves and their experiences.  In their hometown in Europe, all three protagonists’ homosexual tendencies were suppressed by the social climate of the time.  It is not until the character goes on a journey abroad do they really discover their true self.  Michel, like Gide uncovered his latent sexuality on his trips to Africa.  As mentioned before, Gide met Oscar Wilde in North Africa, and it was Wilde who helped him to admit his homosexuality.  The character of Menalque in The Immoralist is based on Wilde, and Michel's late-night conversation with Menalque in which his friend hints at his homosexual tendencies is based on Gide's discussions with Wilde.  Aschenbach did not discover his homosexual tendencies until he indulged himself by traveling to Venice, where the atmosphere lulls him into a “defenseless state”.  This defenselessness he speaks of is his own refusal to recognize his latent sexuality.  Dorian Gray does not necessarily journey abroad in Wilde’s novel, but he does look for release experience a new side of his city, such as the opium dens, “He heaved a deep breath, his nostrils quivering with pleasure…Dorian wince and looked around at the grotesque things that lay in such fantastic postures on the rugged mattresses…He knew in what strange heavens they were suffering, and what dull hells were teaching them the secret of some new joy.”  The experience of “new joy”, that Dorian Gray notes that the people are experiencing, could serve as a metaphor for newfound sexuality in a new experience. 

The point being made is that late nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe, while not necessarily repressing sexuality in general, undoubtedly repressed sexual inversion and homosexual tendencies.  Because they had to keep their homosexuality under wraps, just like the characters in their novels, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann and Oscar Wilde used their literary art as a platform of expression of their latent selves and their experiences.  They don’t overtly accept homosexuality but instead express how troublesome it is.  The urban world of this era created a male homosexual discourse that was not incredibly apparent, due to the social climate of the time and the fact that the authors stressed the fact that their writings were art above commentary.  However, there is a clear connection of each author to his respective protagonist and their inner struggle of sexuality.