Dorian Gray is an interesting character in that he wished to stay young while a portrait of him aged and this wish came true. Dorian Gray is a handsome young man, of twenty years old, so his friend, Basil, painted a still of him. I took a year of art and I know that for any painting or drawing, or any piece of art to be done, it takes time. Drawing Dorian Gray's painting took hours of Basil staring at him and transferring his image to a piece of canvas. In this process, Basil felt like he had placed a piece of himself in the painting, in a sense, brought the painting to life with his energy.
He loved an actress, Sibyl, who portrayed Juliet in a Romeo and Juliet play. She was wonderful but when Dorian's friends came to see the performance, it was a horrible rendering of Juliet's character. Dorian was angry and confronted her. Her excuse was that she is in love with Dorian and therefore could not pretend to be someone else falling for Romeo. Saying he overreacted is an understatement. He yelled and basically said he never wanted to see her again. Later that night, Dorian found out that she had killed herself. He momentarily felt bad and then he saw his portrait. His portrait had changed somehow, it had become darker and uglier. Sullen Dorian worried that someone would see his portrait, so over the years, he stayed home in close proximity to the portrait. He didn't age a day while those around him, inclusive the portrait, aged.
Rumors spread that Dorian was involved in many scandalous crimes but with no evidence to bring him in.
Basil visited him one day, and inquired about the portrait he had drawn. Dorian was disingenuous about the location. Basil asked many questions, so many that Dorian got anxious and worried so he stabbed his friend multiple times in the neck. According to CSI, it takes about fifty chops with an axe to fully chop someone's head off. Imagine what fury or fear was running through Dorian's head that he had the energy to chop his friend's head off with a mere kitchen knife.
Dorian stuffed his friend's dead corpse into the closet with his portrait and he managed to see that the portrait had contorted yet again. This times, there was a red stain over his hand, a symbol that the painting adjusted so that portrait portrayed Dorian as a killer with an evil aura. Years passed and Dorian just felt sick with himself and especially the painting. He grabbed a knife, and went up to stab the painting. There was a shriek and when the servants went up to check on him, there was an old and ugly man lying on the floor with a knife in his chest, wearing Dorian Gray's jewelry and clothing. Next to his dead body was the portrait of the young Dorian Gray at his prime.
A few morals of this story. 1) Careful what you wish for. The painting aged while DOrian didn't but it also aged in the way that depicted all his imperfections and wrongdoings. 2) Vanity will be your undoing. Having a narcissistic personality is not an attractive quality and that is why many people stayed away from Dorian. He was an a$$, plain and simple. 3) Fall in love for the right reasons, not just beauty. Sibyl fell in love with Dorian but Dorian fell for her because of her beauty and most importantly because of her skills. When those skills disappeared, his affection and interest in her evaporated as well. She ended up killing herself because this arrangement wasn't a good one.
To quote a bright and talented teacher, Mr. Paul Anderson, "I hope that was helpful!"
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