Last night I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. There’s going to be some spoilers here, but listen, the full novel was published in 1891, so you had 134 years to read the book.

It starts with Basil Halliwell telling his friend Lord Henry about the young Dorian Gray, who it seems Halliwell is obsessed with. Dorian is coming that day to sit for Basil who is finishing his portrait. This is when Lord Henry meets Dorian and tells him to stay young and never grow old.

Basil finishes the picture and Dorian whishes that the picture will grow old and he wills stay young

Basil gives the picture to Dorian and he hangs it in his room.

Then Dorian falls in love with and actress Sybil Vane who calls him Prince Charming. He tells his friends Basil and Lord Henry about her and they go to see her in a play. The night before this Dorian and Sybil kiss for the first time and profess their love for each other.

Now we are back to the night where Dorian, Basil and Lord Henry are watching the play. Sybil’s acting is terrible, it’s so bad people get up and leave. Basil and Lord Henry don’t even stay for the last act. Dorian is crushed and doesn’t understand until he meets Sybil backstage, she tells him she acted badly because she doesn’t want to be an actress anymore she only wants to love Dorian. So basically he tells her she is dumb, he can’t believe he ever loved her and he never wants to see her again.

Then Dorian walks around all night, when he comes home he sees the first change in the picture, and evil smirk that was not there before.

The next day Sybil Vane is dead, it is said by suicide.

Dorian is freaked by this and there is still that evil smirk in the picture. Also Basil wants to display it but Dorian can’t let any one see it, so he hides it in a room and he has the only key.

Life moves forward, Dorian becomes addicted to opium and goes to opium dens in disguise meeting with terrible people and women.

Then, Basil comes to see him. They haven’t seen one another in many years and Basil basically tells him what people are saying about him. Dorian tells him he does not care. Then in the course of their conversation he takes Basil to the picture and Basil can’t believe what he sees, then Dorian stabs him in the neck with a knife.

Dorian asks Alan Campbell who is a chemist and used to be a good friend of his to help get rid of the body. At first Alan refuses but then Dorian writes something on a paper and Alan agrees to help. You never find out what he wrote but I think Alan helped Dorian end Sybil Vane.

Then, Dorian goes about his life but he is starting to become more and more unsettled. There are rumors about him he can’t escape and eventually he knows someone will find out what he has done. One night a woman in an opium den calls him ‘Prince Charming,’ and that awakens James Vane who has wanted Dorian dead since his sister died.

Dorian gets out of it by showing James how young he is and didn’t James say his sisters death was 18 years ago? He couldn’t be Prince Charming. Well, the woman from the den tells James after, no, that’s him, he hasn’t changed since I have met him.

James does try again, but gets shot by mistake at Dorian’s country estate where the men are hunting. Dorian sees him before this and starts to fear that he is going to die. When James is killed he is relived and he tries to change.

He goes to the country and falls in love again, but then ends it again.

Then he has a conversation about souls with Lord Henry. After that he goes to the picture which is very old by now and also has blood on it’s hands. He decides he is going to stab the picture with a knife.

When he does, instead of killing the picture, he kills himself. The picture turns young again and he is very old.

That is the whole story. It reminds me of the relationship between Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. Voldemort and Harry shared parts of their souls because Harry’s mother saved him from being killed by Voldemort. Then Harry had to go around and gather all the horcruxes (sp) that contained pieces of Voldemort’s soul so he could kill him.

So basically Voldemort was Harry’s evil soul in human form like the picture was Dorian’s soul in painted form.

Hopefully everyone gets it, but I am done now. Everyone enjoy your Monday.