The portrait returns to the vision of his beautiful youth.

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray


Major Characters

Dorian Gray – young, beautiful and vain gentleman who is pleasure-seeking, losing his conscience, his beauty never changes, he is still young

Lord Henry Wotton – a nobleman who has a great influence on Dorian, he is ever armed with well-phrased epigrams criticizing the moralism and hypocrisy of Victorian society

Basil Hallward – an artist who painted a portrait of Dorian Gray, he becomes obsessed with Dorian and wants to defend him because of Lord Henry´s bad influence

The Picture – effects all sins of Dorian, it is more and more hideous


The Plot

- Basil paints the portrait, which is masterpiece, it showes Dorian as he truly is
- Basil introduces Dorian to Lord Henry and is worried about the influence of Lord Henry on Dorian
- As Dorian realizes the fatality of his life and the loss of his beauty and youth, he curses the portrait which will ever remind him of what he will have lost
- Dorian falls in love with Sybil Vane, an actress, he loves her because of her ability to act
- Sybil doesn´t want to pretend love on stage because she has experienced real one so she make an end to acting
- Dorian breaks his engagement with Sybil which leads her to commit suicide, then suddenly the portrait changes
- Dorian decides to consider this a sort of atistic triumph – she personified a tragedy
- He devoted his life to getting new experiences and sensations with no regard for conventional standards of morality or the consequences of his actions
- Once Dorian shows the portrait to Basil, who is horrified by what he sees and wants him to repend, but Dorian kills him in a fit of rage
- Dorian kills James Vain, brother of Sybil, because he arouse guilt in his mind
- Dorian resolves to amend his life but cannot muster the courage to confess his crimes, wants to destroy the portrait and in a fury he kill himself
- He turns into wrinkled old man and the picture returns to the vision of his beautiful youth.