Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray explores the hedonistic downfall of Dorian Gray, a handsome Faustian aristocrat of the Victorian England. With a plot spanning almost 18 years, Wilde offers a slow-paced recount of Dorian’s steps down the decadent, self-indulging road towards the Mephistopheles of the story, Lord Henry Wotton’s libertine ideals. In the novel, Dorian explores his endless desire of youth, beauty and vanity.

The novel starts out with Basil Hallward, a painter who is painting the portrait of Dorian Gray, a handsome young man, on a beautiful day of June. Basil’s friend, Lord Henry Wotton, is also present to observe the process of painting. As Dorian poses for the portrait, Lord Henry speaks to Dorian in an indoctrinating fashion, inculcating Dorian with hedonistic ideals and urges Dorian to yield for temptations while pursuing youth: “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself…Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!” Bewildered with these newfound thoughts, Dorian observes his own portrait and wishes for eternal youth, and that his portrait would age in place of him.

After a few meetings with Lord Henry, his influence on Dorian escalates, leading Dorian to fall in love with an actress, Sibyl Vane, who performs Shakespeare in a shabby opera and calls Dorian by the name of “Prince Charming.” Sibyl’s brother, James, warns Sibyl that if Dorian ever hurts her, he will kill Dorian. Dorian invites Basil and Lord Henry to watch Sibyl perform, but she performs poorly due to being too enamored to even act. Embarrassed, Dorian rejects Sibyl due to her performance, and returns home to find his portrait now has a cruel sneer, showing that his wish had come true. Sibyl kills herself later. As a result, Dorian locks up the portrait, and with an amoral novel gifted to him by Lord Henry, Dorian goes on to corrupt his own soul for eighteen years.

After eighteen years, Basil comes to visit Dorian and asks about the rumors of Dorian’s vices and  depravities; how many friends of Dorian either came to dreadful ends or severed ties with him. Basil himself, nonetheless, chooses not to believe the rumors for Dorian’s “pure, bright, innocent face” and his “marvelous untroubled youth.” Dorian scoffs at these rumors, and asks the painter if he wants to see his soul. Reluctant yet curious, Basil sees his own work again years later only to discover the hideous looks of Dorian in the painting. Horrified, Basil entreats Dorian to pray for salvation, only to be stabbed to death. Dorian then coerces an old friend, Alan Campbell to rid of the body of Basil. Campbell kills himself after the deed out of shame.

To shake off his guilt, Dorian visits an Opium Den, where James Vane is also present. James Vane hears someone refers to Dorian as “Prince Charming,” and probes Dorian. Nevertheless, Dorian deceives him by stating that Sibyl was dead eighteen years ago, and his face is too young to have killed her. James relents and lets Dorian go, yet a woman in the Opium Den informs him that Dorian has not aged in eighteen years. James chases Dorian, but he is gone. James stalks Dorian and hides in a thicket while Dorian is on a shooting party, but is accidentally shot.

Dorian returns to London to tell Lord Henry that he shall live righteous from now for his newfound love interest, Hetty Merton. Nonetheless, when he observes the portrait, he could only see a newly added look of cunning and a new wrinkle of hypocrisy. He realizes in his pique that he had only committed to goodness for the curiosity and hypocrisy. In exasperation, he takes the knife that murdered Basil and stabs the portrait of himself. When entering the locked room, the servants found a withered, hideous body that could only be identified as Dorian Gray through the rings on his fingers. The portrait, on the other hand, became as beautiful as the day it was painted again.

Aimed for satire of the luxurious life of the upper class of Victorian England, Wilde writes the story in a form of allegory, castigating the superficial London social scene: only focusing on beauty, not moral standings, shown as Dorian goes in and out of the London social circle with little trouble despite his terrible rumors. In addition, In Dorian Gray’s constant pursuit to fulfill his temptations, he hurts many of his friends and use them to satisfy his desires. Wilde’s allegory is a tale of temperance, and one that many of the modern times could use. While being careful not to indulge in temptations, we as readers should also be careful of nearby poisonous influences that could disrupt our morals.