The Picture of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde

 The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Oscar Wilde

 Artist Basil Hallward has painted a portrait of the beautiful young Dorian Gray, a young man everyone admires for his youth and vitality. While in the studio, Basil's friend Henry Wotton is introduced to Dorian who fascinates the young man with his wild and hedonistic ideas about life.

Once the painting is finished, the three marvel at it and Dorian wishes that he would always look so young and beautiful, and that the picture would get old and ugly instead of him. 

Over several years Wotton seems to corrupt Dorian, who begins to lead his own hedonistic lifestyle and causing the ruin of many men and women along the way. His friendship with Basil wanes as he spends more and more time with Wotton. As he is living this life, Dorian discovers that the painting is starting to have changes of expression and appears to be getting ugly and to have blood on its hands. This change begins to drive Dorian a little mad. He vows to lock the painting away from anyone else's eyes. Eventually, Basil insists on seeing it and Dorian shows it to him, crying that Basil has done this terrible thing to him. Dorian kills Basil and hides his crime, but the painting continues to age, decay, and gets bloodier. Dorian thinks that if he changes his ways and lives a more humble and kindly lifestyle that the painting might also show improvements, believing the painting is an outward reflection of his inner state of mind and his outer showing of compassion and grace. However, it doesn't seem to work and Dorian destroys the painting, which ultimately destroys himself.

This was a wild trip of a book. I expected a more romantic conception of the story, but it was at times much like a horror novel in the vain of Poe. The writing was very good, though the characters were sort of flat for me at times, especially Wotton who grated on my nerves. But I enjoyed Dorian's descent into madness and I liked the gothic atmosphere. I can see why the Victorian era would have called this book immoral because its characters are hedonistic to a fault, especially Wotton who convinces Dorian to follow his example, even though Dorian seemed to despise Wotton's attitudes toward life. This novel explored the idea that you should be careful what you wish for. It explores the ugliness of beauty, societal superficiality, and the consequences of following negative influences.

Overall, I liked the book a lot. I give it 4 stars.