Author: Oscar Wilde
Date first published: 1974
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Number of pages: 203 Beginning: It's an opening in the event, first you get a description of the surroundings, the atmosphere and then you get into a conversation between Basil and Harry, you don't know anything about them yet or what they are talking about. Ending: The end is closed, the story is finished. The picture is as it was at first and Dorian is dead, old and ugly. The end was really a surprise to me, I had not expected this. The end was the nicest part of the book, finally some action. Short Summary: The main character in the book is Dorian Gray. He is a beautiful young man in his twenties. A friend of his, Basil Hallward, paints his portrait. A friend of Basils, Lord Henry Wotton, warns Dorian that he soon will be old and ugly. Because of that Dorian wishes never to grow old and instead his portrait will grow old. He said he would even give his soul for that. Dorian spends more and more time with Lord Henry Wotton. He has a hedonistic way of life and influences Dorian a lot. He gives Dorian a book about enjoying life and nothing else and Dorian strictly follows the rules of the book. Than Dorian falls in love with the actress Sybil Vane. He asks her to marry him and she accepts. Dorian takes his friends to her play. She plays very bad and when Dorian asks her for an explanation she tells him she can't act being in love. because she now knows how it feels. Dorian breaks up with her for that and Sybil kills herself. That is the first time the portrait changes. In the following years Dorian is just enjoying life and all the people he meets get into trouble. But every time he does something bad, the portrait changes. One day Basil visits Dorian, because he heard all kinds of rumours about Dorian's behaviour. Dorian shoes Basil the painting and Basil tries to tell Dorian he is doing the wrong thing and in a bust of insanity Dorian kills Basil. He orders a friend, who is a scientist, to get rid of the body. That friend commits suicide as well, because he can't live with the burden. Now the hands on the portrait are covered with blood. By accident Dorian meets Sybil's brother, who wants to kill him, but he gets killed by accident during the hunt. In the end Dorian wants to better his life. He tries to be good, but the portrait stays the same. Then he decides to destroy the portrait, but with doing that he destroys himself to and he dies. They switch appearances again. The people who find Dorian don't recognize him at first; the painting is of a young man again and Dorian is old and ugly.
Main characters: Dorian Gray: The main character in the book is Dorian Gray (round character). Dorian is very beautiful and wants to stay that way. 17 years old at the beginning of the book, and round 40 at the end. He is also very rich and easy to influence. At fist he was pure, but because of his obsession to stay beautiful, but Dorian's inner changes during the story; he gets more and more evil. He sold his soul to the devil, without even knowing it. Basil Hallward: Basil Hallward is a painter and he thinks that he’s a good friend of Dorian. He is a quiet, young man; Dorian and Lord Henry find him boring. He paints his picture and puts all his love for Dorian in it. Hallward is a very fine gentleman. He is kind of the good guy, he wants to protect Dorian and warn him. He is the one who asks Dorian to be good again, but he digs his own grave. Probably Basil is homosexual and he is in love with Dorian. The fact that Dorian doesn’t want to model for him anymore breaks his heart. He wants to stay friends with Dorian, but Dorian isn’t trying at all. At the end of the story Dorian kills Basil. Lord Henry Wotton: a rich, older man and a very close friend of Dorian. He is married, but sees his wife only by accident. They have their own life and lovers. Lord Henry likes Dorian because he finds it delightful to watch him. Dorian looks up to him, because of his ideas of life. Lord Henry is a gentleman who only lives for pleasure and his own good. He tells Dorian to do that as well, eventually it only makes Dorian unhappy. Henry’s remarks make Dorian realise that his beauty isn’t endless and with their first meeting the problems start. Henry isn’t a very nice man, by sharing his ideas and influencing with Dorian you could say that he is the one that brings Dorian and the devil closer together. Theme: The moral corruption of a young man who enters into a pact with the devil in order to keep his youth and physical beauty. Autobiographical elements: great sensuality, homosexual adoration, aesthetic ideas, a hedonist, decadent lifestyle. Climax: I think the climax is when Dorian is found on the floor, dead, with the ring on his finger. Evaluation: This is a very interesting story, the themes and topics are still actual. Oscar Wilde is a great writer with fantastic ideas and a great fantasy.