Book Report on the Picture of Dorian Gray

Book Report on the Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray, the book tells a story of magic but educational. The author of this book is Oscar Wilde, who was one of the most outstanding and intelligent writers in Ireland. As a famous poet, writer and playwright, Oscar Wilde was also the founder of aestheticism in history of English literature. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854, dead in 1900; he only lived for 36 years. But he wrote many literary works in his short life. His The Picture of Dorian Gray, which had caused a public outcry when it appeared as a play in 1890. A number of plays then appeared including A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and it is for these theatrical masterpieces that Wilde is now best remembered.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel full of imagination. The hero of this book is Dorian Gary, and it happened in London, the place full of luxury, noisy, and erosion. Most people eager to pursue all kinds of pleasure. Whether a person’s portrait is more than his face reflect his own? If the portrait is painted with the love brush, maybe it can reflect more things except for appearance, such as the person’s inner world.

We often say that the face like a book, and can tell own stories. The artist, Basil Hallward, painted a portrait of his friend—Dorian Gray. Dorian was very handsome, with his bright blue eyes and gold hair. Especially, he had an open, honest face. There were no dark secrets in his face at that time. So the artist was very fond of him, and he thought he put too much of himself into this painting. He wouldn’t exhibit the fantastic picture in an art gallery for being afraid it shows the secret of his heart. Lord Henry was also a friend of Basil, and he was interested in Dorian. Although Basil told Lord Henry that not to change or influence Dorian, Lord Henry did it. His words filled Dorian’s head like wild, exciting music. He told Dorian that time was his enemy, and will steal everything from him.

With his beauty, there was nothing that he cannot do. “There is nothing in the world as important as youth!” Lord said. Dorian Gray listened and wondered. New ideas filled his head. When he saw the beautiful portrait he remembered Lord Henry words, cried “I wish that I could always stay young and the picture could grow old.” Lord Henry instilled all his dangerous ideas about life and pleasure into Dorian gradually, and Dorian did everything that Lord Henry told him to do. When Dorian hurt an actress, he found about the portrait changed—there was something unkind, and cruel about the mouth. He recognized that his cruel to the actress, very sad when he knew the actress committed suicide. However, Lord Henry explained Dorian to himself, then Dorian choose a life that can stay young forever, and enjoyed every wild pleasure that life could give him. Since then, Dorian spent his life searching for beautify and pleasure—pleasure of all kinds, both good and bad. Time passed, but time did not touch the face of Dorian. He became more and more in love with the beauty of his face, more and more interested in the ugliness of his soul. But behind the locked door at the top of his house, the picture grew old and ugly, the terrible face showed the dark secrets of his life. The heavy mouth, the yellow skin, the cruel eyes—told the real story. Dorian both hated and loved the portrait, and he was afraid that someone would discover the picture and saw his soul. So he even killed Basil in order to keep this secret. Finally, Dorian wanted to use the knife that had killed Basil to kill the work, to got freedom of his imagination. Dramatically, the portrait recovered its beauty and youth, but Dorian became old and ugly with a knife in his heart, he was dead.

Is beautiful appearance really so important? Dorian paid a terrible price for keeping his youth and beauty. In fact, the inner beauty is really beauty and can stay forever, and have a pure soul is the best thing in the world, because you will be happy and satisfied. The other hand, we should stay away from the evil and stick to our principles, enjoy the good things in the life, and never to pursue the evil pleasures.