The Concept of the Picture of Dorian Gray - Essay Example

The novel kicks off envisaging a blissful summer morning, when the great artist Basil Hallward’s met up with the notable Lord Henry Wotton; all the while the artist is thoroughly immersed in painting a picture of the charming, Dorian Grey. He was greatly impressed by Gray’s beauty as well as the Lord’s opinion of chasing beauty to the far ends of the world. These views led Gray to propose and eventually get married to an actress, Sibyl Vane, despite all the threats from Sibyl’s brother he gives all of his love to her while she gets the chance to admire his perfect visage every day until the turn of events.

Dorian’s invitation to his folks to attend his wife’s theatrical performance turns out to be quite a disaster for their marriage, as it gets disclosed that she left the stage for him. While Dorian’s love for Sibyl had its lifeline on dram and performance. He vowed to break all connections with Sibyl and showed his hate with no mercy at all. This malice was symbolized as a sneer in his portrait.

Soon after leaving his wife, Dorian realizes the importance of true love and affection and decides to forgive his wife. But he was too late as he was Lord Henry informed him that Sybil has committed suicide by swallowing a poisonous acid. Dorian faces a shock and then realizes that lustful desires are not long-lasting. They are as ephemeral as the smoke in the sky. Only love and sincerity are eternal, an essence that provides life with a meaningful existence.

His frustration eventually drives him out for Paris. On that fateful night before departure, Basil comes to his home to ask about a sensualist approach, Dorian takes Basil to a locked room where the portrait of Dorian is placed. It was ageing and had lost its glamour. Dorian blames Basil for his bad fate and blinded with rage he puts an end to the artist’s life. He later blames Alan Campbell who is a Chemist for destroying the body of Basil.

To relieve the feeling of guilt, Dorian goes to an opium den where he is approached by the brother of Sybil, James Vane. James recognizes Dorian and gets ready to shoot the murderer of his sister. Dorian makes him believe that he is far too young to be a murderer; he stated that his sister committed suicide eighteen years ago. Dorian doesn’t change in the last eighteen years and it was difficult to tell predict whether he was the lover of Sybil at that time. James lets him go as a result. Another woman in the opium den recognizes Dorian Gray and tells the reality to James who runs after him but he is away by then.

Dorian Gray is saved from James as one shooting party decides the fate of James’s life when a hunter accidentally kills a lurking James, in the woods. Dorian then decides to leave all his sinful activities to save his picture from becoming shabbier. He starts noble deeds but his picture keeps on getting weird. At long last, Dorian recognizes the main threat to his portrait who is Basil. One day, he murders Basil Hallward and stabs his picture. The persons passing by the street call the police immediately. As the servants entered the locked room, they could see their master with the knife and a dead person who was stabbed in the heart. Amazingly enough, the picture of Dorian Gray was reverted to the original colours yet again. The original beauty of the picture was restored with the death of Basil Hallward.