The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
The Setup
In Victorian London, the beautiful young aristocrat Dorian Gray sits for a portrait by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is infatuated with Dorian’s beauty, while the cynical Lord Henry Wotton becomes fascinated by the young man’s innocence. During the painting session, Lord Henry fills Dorian’s head with his hedonistic philosophy about pursuing pleasure and beauty above all else.
When Dorian sees his completed portrait, he’s struck by his own beauty but also horrified by the thought of aging while the painting remains forever young. In a moment of vanity and despair, he makes a desperate wish: that the portrait would age instead of him, allowing him to remain eternally youthful. Unknown to him, this wish becomes reality.
The Corruption
Under Lord Henry’s influence, Dorian begins living a life of pure hedonism and moral corruption. He pursues every pleasure and vice imaginable, caring nothing for the consequences to others. His first major sin involves Sibyl Vane, a talented young actress who falls deeply in love with him. When she performs poorly one night because she’s distracted by love, Dorian cruelly rejects her, calling her performance and their relationship meaningless. Heartbroken, Sibyl kills herself.
Remarkably, while Dorian remains physically unchanged, his portrait begins to show signs of age and moral decay. The painted face grows older and more grotesque with each sin, serving as a visual record of his spiritual corruption while his actual appearance remains that of the innocent young man he once was.
The Descent
Over the next eighteen years, Dorian indulges in increasingly depraved behavior. He becomes obsessed with collecting beautiful objects, experimenting with drugs, and pursuing forbidden pleasures. His reputation in London society becomes scandalous, though his youthful appearance allows him to continue his activities with relative impunity.
The portrait, hidden away in his old schoolroom, becomes increasingly hideous. It shows not just physical aging but the moral stains of his crimes - the face twisted with cruelty, the hands stained with blood, the expression growing more malevolent with each passing year.
The Murders
When Basil Hallward, the original painter, discovers Dorian’s secret after eighteen years, he’s horrified by what the portrait reveals about his friend’s true nature. In a rage, Dorian murders Basil, and the portrait becomes even more grotesque, now showing actual blood on the hands. To dispose of the body, Dorian blackmails Alan Campbell, a former friend and chemist, into destroying Basil’s corpse with acid.
Later, Campbell kills himself, unable to live with what he’s done. Dorian also encounters James Vane, Sibyl’s brother, who has spent years hunting for his sister’s destroyer. After a tense confrontation, Vane is accidentally killed during a hunting party at Dorian’s country estate.
The Climax
As the years pass, Dorian becomes increasingly tormented by his crimes and the hideous portrait that reflects his true self. The painting has become a constant reminder of his moral decay, showing a face so twisted and evil that it barely resembles the beautiful young man he once was.
In a final moment of either redemption or despair, Dorian decides he can no longer bear the sight of his soul’s corruption. He takes the same knife he used to kill Basil and stabs the portrait, hoping to destroy the evidence of his sins.
The Resolution
When Dorian stabs the portrait, the supernatural bond between him and the painting is broken in a shocking reversal. His servants, hearing a scream, break into the locked room to find the portrait restored to its original beauty, showing the innocent young Dorian as Basil first painted him.
On the floor lies the body of an old, withered, and hideously ugly man, barely recognizable except for his rings as Dorian Gray. Only by his jewelry can they identify the corpse as their master. In destroying the portrait, Dorian has transferred all the corruption back to himself, finally paying the price for his years of moral decay.
The novel ends with this powerful image of justice served - the man who tried to cheat time and morality finally faces the accumulated weight of his sins, while art, in the form of the restored portrait, returns to its pure state.
Themes
Wilde’s masterpiece explores the dangers of aestheticism taken to extremes, the relationship between art and morality, the corrupting influence of hedonism, and the Victorian tension between surface respectability and hidden vice. The portrait serves as both a supernatural element and a metaphor for conscience, showing how our moral choices inevitably leave their mark, even when hidden from the world.