Character in the Hand

Character in the Hand

Cheiromancy

This article essentially gives a beginner's guide to palm-reading or cheiromancy to the reader, instructing them in what all of the different aspects of the hand mean in order to read it "properly." What struck me in "Character in the Hand" is that what the cheiromantist read in the hands he told in "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" followed what was written in the article, despite Wilde's story being fictional. For example, Wilde describes the Duchess' hand as fat, with short, square fingers. The article then tells us that having short, fat fingers means that one has a careless, light-hearted temperament, and indicates a love of luxury. These characteristics seem to follow the Duchess' personality displayed in "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" revealing that perhaps Oscar Wilde knew or researched actual common palm-readings of this time and applied them to this short story for realistic detail. Furthermore, this article speaks to the widespread popularity of occult practices such as palm-reading at this time, because, if a newspaper was willing to publish an entire article detailing the specifics of how to read a palm, then certainly a great number of people were interested in this practice during the Victorian time period.

Unknown

19th Century Periodicals. Series I and II: Accessed through the New York Public Library

The New Zealand Graphic and Ladies' Journal

February 18, 1899

The British Library

Newspaper Article