by Rita Germano (3G)
TITLE: The Picture of Dorian Gray
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1891
AUTHOR: Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was a writer, poet, journalist of Victorian Age. He was born in Ireland and then he moved to England. The most notable episode of his life was the two-year sentence of hard labor for ”gross public indecency ” as homosexuality was defined. He writes many works; the most famous is The Picture of Dorian Gray.
This novel is about Dorian Gray, a boy from London, he begins to see his beauty one day, when a painter friend, Basil Hallward, shows him a picture of young Dorian that causes him an obsession with youth. Dorian is convinced that the painting represents his sins. He also meets an actress, he falls in love but when she loses her talent Dorian leaves her and she takes her own life. The picture begins to look ugly. They spend about 18 years of pursuit of pleasure and while the others get old he remains young. The picture becomes more and more monstrous. Dorian kills the painter Hallward too. He decides to break the picture and his heart also breaks. His body is found later as an old man.
In my opinion, this book is very interesting because the boy did not accept that he would become old and so the beauty would have changed. But in reality, until our death we are beautiful, both inside and out.