"Portrait of Dorian Gray" Oscar Wilde, summary

The Portrait of Dorian Gray follows the life of Dorian Gray, a fictional 19th century British aristocrat. At the beginning of the story, a somewhat successful artist named Basil Hallward paints a portrait of Dorian. A flippantly provocative aristocrat named Lord Henry Wotton - a friend of Hallward’s - notices Dorian’s almost uncanny beauty in the painting as an example of his commitment to formalized, idealized artistic beauty. Later, Dorian also begins to think about beauty in these terms, and when he wants to give his soul to preserve the beauty, the picture becomes enchanted: She grows old and shows Dorian’s moral decay, while Dorian’s appearance remains unchanged.

Soon, Dorian falls in love with a beautiful and skillful actress without a penny named Sybil Wayne. However, when Sibylla falls in love with Dorian, she no longer has a passion for acting. Dorian, who only liked her because he enjoyed her acting, coldly refuses Sybil after her unsuccessful performance as Shakespeare’s Juliet. This leads to Sybil’s suicide, and her brother James promises to hunt down and kill Dorian - although he only knows him by the nickname that Sybil called him: "Prince Charming." Dorian takes no responsibility and discovers that after her death, Hallward’s painting has changed: The smile of the portrait now shows evil cruelty.

Years pass, Dorian retains his princely beauty, while his painted image becomes more and more evil, ugly and aging. Scandals begin to flare up around Dorian, his loved ones suffer social and economic collapse, and some even die. Dorian becomes paranoid and locks the portrait in one of the abandoned rooms of his mansion. To get rid of anxiety, he resorts to opium.

Meanwhile, James overhears someone calling Dorian "Prince Charming" in an opium den. He is about to shoot Dorian when he convinces James that, due to his youthful appearance, he cannot be the 40-year-old man he is pursuing.

James lets him go, but later learns that Dorian was lying. James continues to chase Dorian, but is later accidentally killed on a hunt involving Dorian. Dorian celebrates James’ death, but feels that Sybil’s death weighs on him. He soon becomes interested in another girl named Hetty. This time, he gently lets her go when they break up, but this seemingly kind deed is not enough to change fate.

Soon, Hallward visits Dorian. He tells Dorian that his indestructible beauty does not allow him to believe in the numerous and malicious rumors that circulate in London about Dorian’s bad character and his harmful influence on others. In a rage, Dorian shows Hallward an enchanted picture - partly because she blames Hallward for the spell’s now weakened, and partly because he cannot bear the loneliness of keeping his secret. He then kills Hallward by stabbing him in the neck.

Dorian blackmails former associate and chemist Alan Campbell into dissolving the artist’s body. Campbell does this and then kills himself. Dorian sees that his hand in the painting is now stained with blood - a symbol of his crime. Dorian tries to destroy the painting with the murder weapon. However, in the end, he dies with a knife in his heart. His body transforms into the one depicted in the picture, and the angelic beautiful 20-year-old girl reappears on the canvas.