Introduction

The story takes place in the high society of London at the end of the 19. Century where most people think that an amusing evening at a dinner party is more important than to live a good life. In the story there are 3 maincharacters : Lord Henry, a very rich and clever man with no morals . He is able to influence people with his voice . He knows that people become fascinated when they hear him talking and sometimes, he uses this talent in favour of himself. Although he’s very intelligent, he likes to live a surface life. He sees life as a kind of a dinner party where only funny things are interesting. Most people like him because of his amusing way to talk but sometimes they aren’t able to understand why he can’t take anything seriously. Then there is another person called Basil Hallward. He is a nice and kind man and a friend of Lord Henry. He is an artist but until he meets Dorian, he is not very successful with his paintings. The third person is Dorian Gray, a gentle and extraordinary good-looking man. At first, he’s not aware of his beauty and lives a moderate life.

The story

The story starts with a situation in which Basil, the artist, paints a picture of a very beautiful gentleman. Lord Henry watches his work and says that this is the best picture he ever painted. Lord Henry proposes to send this portrait to an art gallery, but Basil says that he put too much of himself in that picture and that he’s afraid that people who look at it could see the secret of his heart. Because Lord Henry can’t understand Basil, he asks who this person is so Basil tells him that he met this young man at a party . He explains that from the moment he saw him, something inside him changed and he knew that he had to paint him. Because Basil describes this young man as a wonderful person, Lord Henry wants to meet him, too. But Basil doesn’t want Lord Henry to meet this man called Dorian Gray because he knows that his friend will influence Dorian and probably try to change his life. In Basil’s eyes, Dorian represents a perfect person because he’s the best-looking, the most friendly and the most modest man he ever met. While Basil and Henry are talking, Dorian arrives to watch his portrait. But because the it isn’t finished yet, Lord Henry and Dorian go for a walk. Lord Henry, who is also fascinated by the beauty of Dorian, starts to teach him about what beauty and youth are worth in this world. He tells him that he should enjoy his youth and start to live a new life. He speaks about how great life can be when you are young and beautiful and all of a sudden, Dorian sees himself in a new way. The words of Lord Henry wake up a new side in himself. When Dorian sees the picture the first time, he becomes aware of his brilliant beauty and he suddenly gets angry and starts to cry cause he understands that this good look won’t last forever. He exclaims a momentous wish : Instead of himself, he wants the picture to grow old . He says that he would give everything if he could stay young and beautiful forever.

Then Basil hands the portrait to Dorian, who falls in love with that picture and his own beauty. After that day, Lord Henry and Dorian meet every day and the voice of Lord Henry fills Dorian’s head with ideas of a completely new way of living. Lord Henry gives Dorian a book about a man that enjoys all pleasures of life and slowly, the things that are written in the book become reality in Dorian’s life. He discovers love and hate, and becomes more and more unscrupulous. Basil looks at this changes with fear, but Lord Henry takes it for fun cause in his opinion, this side has always been in Dorian, he just never let it out. Dorian breaks young girl’s hearts, he celebrates parties and takes drugs, but after some time, when he watches his portrait again, he notices something strange in it. The man on the picture changed and now looks more cruel than before. At first, Dorian wonders what that means, but than he thinks of that wish he made and gets a misgiving . Because he becomes afraid of this mysterious change, he hides the picture in a locked room . His life goes on and he becomes more and more cruel. He ruins other people’s life, but his face always shows the nice and gentle man he once was. One day when he looks at his portrait again and sees that it became uglier than before, he realises that this picture isn’t an image of his body, but a copy of his soul. The more cruel he treats other people, the more horrible the picture grows. He suddenly grasps what high price he paid for that age will never touch his body . The years pass and his evil life goes on. But the uglier and older the portrait gets, the more unhappy Dorian becomes. He runs afoul of himself and starts to hate the picture that shows his deepest inside. After almost 20 years of being cruel and evil, he still looks like a kind person who could never hurt anybody. But his inner conflict destroys him so he decides to live a good life from that moment on. When this intention fails, he starts thinking that the only way to end his bad life is to damage the portrait. He wants to extinguish his past, so he takes a knife and puts it into the picture. The consequence is that the portrait turns normal and Dorian, as ugly as his soul, lies dead on the floor in front of the painting.

Result

I think that Oscar Wilde wants to teach his readers some things with this story. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” shows us that youth and beauty is wonderful, but the wish not to lose it can ruin your life. Looking good often makes you happy, but without a beautiful soul, it makes nothing easier. It also teaches us that a face of somebody can’t tell you anything about his inner look. With your eyes, you can see the covering of a person, but you will never be able to see his heart.

Mareike Bongers