Winkler Felix wfelix@gmx.net 

 

 

SUMMARY 

of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 

 
Basil Hallward paints a picture of his pure and beautiful friend Dorian Gray. It 
is the best portrait Basil has ever drawn. While posing for it, Dorian met Lord 
Henry, another friend of Basil’s, who has a bad influence on him. He tells to be 
vain and to enjoy his life before  his beauty declines. So he wishes the picture to 
get old instead of himself, and he would give away his soul for it. Very soon, he 
shares Henry’s paradoxical conceptions and philosophies and adopts his 
hedonistic and decadent lifestyle.  
Then, Dorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, a young and beautiful actress. The 
night he brings his friends to the theater to introduce them to her, she acts quite 
badly. She actually reveals her own character but he actually loved the roles she 
played. Therefore he leaves her in a very cruel way although they were engaged. 
She cannot handle that and commits suicide. By that time he realizes that his 
portrait has altered and shows all his bad sides. Hence he decides to lock it in a 
room. 
One night he sees Basil again and shows him the picture. Basil cannot believe 
what happened but Dorian accuses him of  being responsible for his whimsical 
life and kills him. Afterwards he forces a friend to decompose the dead body 
with acid. 
He continues his life of drug abuse while causing scandals with married woman, 
until he meets Sibyl’s brother accidentally. He wants to take vengeance of 
Dorian, whom he reproaches of having destroyed his sister’s life. Nevertheless 
Dorian succeeds to get away because he still looks very young, to young to be 
Sibyl’ ex-fiancé.  
After a while Sibyl’s brother dies. Thus Dorian looses his last enemy. So he 
decides to regain his life by tearing his picture with a knife.. But the result is 
other then expected. By destroying the picture he kills himself and his portrait 
becomes pure again. 
 
322 words