Resumen (El Retrato de Dorian Gray)

Basil Hallward, a very talented artist, started painting a portrait of Dorian Gray a handsome man who lived in London. One day Basil was visited by Lord Henry Wotton (best known as Harry), at the time he lucked at the picture he got vey curious about what man was the one in the portrait, Basil told him it was Mr. Dorian Gray. After some time the bell rang, it was Dorian Gray who had to be there so Basil could finish the picture. Basil didn’t want Lord Henry to be there while he’s painting, so he introduced him to Dorian and ask him to leave. However Lord Henry wanted to stay there to get to know Dorian Gray better, so he got away with it and stayed. As Basil painted the portrait Harry and Dorian were talking about many topics, inmediately Dorian noticed the way Harry spoke and was captivaded, Harry told Dorian that with his beauty and youth he could have anything he wants because he thought that when youth goes, beauty will go with it as well. What Lord Henry told to Dorian impressed him a lot so he wished that he could stay young forever and the picture could grow old. From that momento on he and Lord Henry became great friends and used to go out for lunch, dinner, etc. One day Dorian went to see Lord Henry very happy, he wanted to tell him he was in love with an actress named Sybil Vane; she performed the role of Juliet in the theatre Dorian liked to go. Althought Sybil’s brother James Vane didn’t like Dorian at all. Harry did not pay much attention to him, he thought it was just something without importance, the next morning he received a letter which in Dorian explained him that he was going to get married with Sybil and that he wanted Harry and Basil to go that very night to the theater so they could meet the girl. And so it was, they both met Dorian in the theater, he told them how talented is Sybil. When the play began Harry and Basil Looked forward to meet Sybil, finally he appered on the stage but he was terrible at acting, they ended up quite bored dissapointed. As soon as the play finished Dorian went backstage to see Sybil, he told her how awful she was and that it killed his love for her, she begged him not to leave but it was useless. When Dorian got home he realized his portrait was different, he couldn’t explain how that was possible, then he remembered the wish about the painting growing old instead of him, obviously it was extremely weird but he didn’t care how this happened and also didn’t care about Sybil, because he believed that it’s better to be beautiful than to be good. The next morning Basil went to Dorian’s House and told him that Sybil killed himself last night after her performance. Dorian was neither worried nor impressed, he just told Basil that Sybil Vane was

in the past and that he had already forgotten her. Basil noticed Dorian had changed. And that was right since then Dorian started (according to him )“enjoying the pleasures of life”, as he wouldn’t get older he’d have plenty of time to do what he wanted. Unfortunatelly he did not do good things, so people started talking about his actions. Each time Dorian did bad things the aspect of the picture got worst, he thought that it was the refection of his soul. One night Basil met with Dorian in the street, he told Dorian he was going to take the train because he had an art esposition in Paris but before that he wanted to see the portrait he painted. Once they where in Dorian’s house Basil asked him if the things people were saying about him were right or wrong, Dorian replied “Look at the picture and you’ll see my soul”. Certainly when Basil saw the picture he was astonished; Dorian Could not let Basil go now that he had seen the picture so he grabbed a knife and killed him, when he did that one of the hands in the picture turn red like blood.

Years passed and people always wondered about the dissapearance of Basil Hallward and the fact that Dorian Gray seemed to stay young forever, one night while Dorian was in a bar he was recognized by James Vane, Sybil’s Brother who was looking for revenge of what he did to his sister years ago. Dorian fooled him by saying that he was being confused with someone else who must be older than him, and because Dorian Looked pretty young James let him go saying sorry.

A week later Dorian Gray was at his house in the country, where he invited Lord Henry and Lady Monmouth, a woman he was interested in. Two days passed and Dorian joined his friends in a shooting party where in a sailor turned out shot by accident. The sailor was Sybil’s brother.

After that Dorian realized how bad was his life and how much he wanted to be good like before. He started to change hoping that the more good things he did the more would change his soul. Convinced of it he went to see the portrait but it was worst than ever, Dorian got very desperate he could not live seeing that dredful picture anymore, so he took the knife he used to kill Basil and dug it into the picture, at the same momento he cried and crashed to the floor, when the servants noticed that, they went upstairs to see what happend, they saw the portrait of the young Dorian Gray against the wall and a man lying on the floor with a knife in his heart, his face was very ugly but the rings on his finger could told them who he

was.