The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Wilde He was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. Author of various works such as The Canterville Ghost or The faithful friend, became internationally famous with his work The Picture of Dorian Gray, which has gone down in history as a great classic of the Gothic horror literature. In a PROFESSOR we have prepared a summary of The Picture of Dorian Gray so that you know more about this great book and encourage you to read it if you have not already done so.

It is a work that starts from the argument so universally known as it is lin search of eternal youth. From here, we find great themes such as narcissism or dandyism, traits that different characters in the novel embody. What began as a short story by its creator, ended up being expanded and giving rise to this magnificent story.

Index

1. Short Biography of Oscar Wilde
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Summary of Chapters I to V
3. Summary of Chapter V to X
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Summary of Chapter X to XV
5. Chapter XV to XX

Before we begin with this summary of The Picture of Dorian Gray let's talk about the author. Son of a surgeon and a writer, Oscar Wilde he lived a quiet childhood. As he got older he began to combine your university studies with multiple traveling at the same time that he was encouraged to publish his different poems in magazines, and then he liked to write. On a trip to the United States he gave one of his first lectures where he dealt with the subject of "the art for the art", the idea that he defended and that later served to lay the foundations of the so-called dandyism: Current associated with a person refined in dress, coming from the bourgeoisie, with great knowledge in fashion and a strong personality.

He began to write and publish various stories that gradually gained fame, until he published his only novel. "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which initially received quite a few criticism of the most puritanical sectors and conservative for his interpretation of the history of Splendor -influence that appears in history- but later ended up becoming a classic gothic horror.

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We begin this summary of The Picture of Dorian Gray with the chapter from I to V. A painter named Basil hallward and your friend Lord henry they are in the living room of Basil's house contemplating a painting where a man of beauty appears amazing, a model that the painter loves and that embodies the conception that he has about the beauty.

This handsome young man is Dorian gray, one of the protagonists of the story. At a large party, Basil introduces Lord Henry and Dorian Gray, who have a conversation about the transience of beauty, which will never be eternal. This is how Dorian begins to feel envy of his own painting, who will never grow old, not like him. During a meal at Lord Henry's house, Dorian begins to speak of his love, Sybil vane, with which he will end up getting engaged soon after. Sybil Vane calls him "The charming young man"Well, she doesn't even know her name, but she's very much in love.

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The three friends meet for dinner and to talk about the woman Dorian is engaged to, who is very much in love and wants to let her friends know how wonderful she is. At the end of dinner, Basil realizes that Dorian will never be the same after the wedding. Days later, Dorian goes to the theater to see his beloved, since she is an actress, and finds that acting is painful. He is saddened and talks to her, who is nevertheless very happy with her because he has realized that the theater was a sham for her. Dorian he feels betrayed and he decides to leave her, because he says that he loved her for being different and for how he acted. After this event, Dorian returns home and looks at her portrait. He realizes that something has changed the portrait is being transformed by time. She is very scared and covers it so as not to see it and assimilate it.

The next day, he reflects on what happened to Sybil and decides that she is going to apologize. Just then, Lord Henry arrives, who informs him that Sybil died that morning and that they are going to start investigating the causes. Dorian is saddened because he believes that he has died because of his lovesickness and from here on, the protagonist spends his days looking at his portrait.

Basil visits Dorian and tells him that he wants to expose the painting. Dorian is very scared and begins to ask him why he now wants to expose him and not before, to which Basil she ends up confessing to him that she feels more than friendship for him and leaves there, in the end, without seeing the picture. Dorian, finally, he moves the portrait upstairs.

We continue with this summary of The Picture of Dorian Gray speaking from chapter X to XV. Dorian spent his days looking at the portrait and thinking about how lucky he was not to grow old, although at the same time, his body painted about him scared him more and more. He meets Basil one night, with whom he ends up chatting and invites him to his house. He tells her that people say that everyone who is related to him ends badly. Dorian decides to show him the portrait in order to show him his soul.

Seeing him, Basil freaks out. He tells her that his soul is hideous, that the portrait is horrible. Dorian cannot bear those words, he begins to hate him and he ends up killing him. Dorian manages so that it is not noticed that he has been the author of the murder, he contacts a scientist friend of his who asks him to eliminate the corpse with some chemical substance. Alan the scientist he ends up giving in because Dorian threatens him. The corpse is removed but the portrait shows blood stains on his hands.

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We finish this summary of The Picture of Dorian Gray speaking of chapters from XV to XX, the end of the work. Dorian goes to a house and finds many people smoking opium, among them, a sailor rushes on him and tells him that he is Sybil Vane's brother and that Dorian was the murderer of his sister. Dorian excuses himself by saying that he was very young back then, to which Two women tell the brother that Dorian has been just as young for 18 years.

Dorian goes days later to another dinner with Lord Henry where he meets Sybil's brother again and collapses when he sees him. The next day, Dorian does not leave the house because he has terrors and does not stop regretting having killed his friend Basil of his. On the third day he dares to leave the house with some friends, one of them accidentally kills a man and Dorian begins to have bad omens. They ask him to go see the corpse to see if he recognizes it and realizes that he is sybil's brother the person who has accidentally died.

Going home, Dorian begins to think. He goes into the library, where there is a mirror that he throws to the ground and breaks, he goes up to the room where the portrait is and stabs the dagger with which he killed his friend Basil. He begins to feel pain and scream, so much so that the servants went up to see what was happening. As they went up they found a torn portrait and Dorian completely aged, wrinkled and old with the dagger stuck in his heart. Finally Dorian had freed his soul from the hell he lived in within the portrait.

If you want to read more articles similar to The Picture of Dorian Gray: summary, we recommend that you enter our category of Reading.

• Biographies and lives (2004-2019). Oscar Wilde: Biographies and Lives, the online biographical encyclopedia.
• Blogspot.com (2016). Summary by chapters of the work "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Recovered from: http://resumendelaobraretratodedoriangray.blogspot.com/2016/10/el-retrato-de-dorian-gray.html