|
Du bist hier: Referate Datenbank | Englisch
| Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray
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
|
PDF-Format (4,51 KB)
ZIP
Archiv (4,15 KB)
(c) 2003-2010 ontaps GmbH