Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a film that tells the story of Dorian Gray, a man whose portrait reveals all his sins while he never seems to age. In the beginning of the film, Gray’s friend paints a portrait of him and he wishes that he could always look the same while the portrait changed. This is precisely what happens in the rest of the film. Gray does some horrible things which show up on the portrait, especially on the face, whereas in most people, it would have shown up in their actual face. The portrait ends up looking hideous and extremely disturbing while Gray still looks like he is about twenty years old. I think that the message is that people should not just live for pleasure like Gray and Lord Henry Wotton but that they should try to live purely and do good things.

One of the scenes that I really like and that I think is very important to the movie is the scene when Dorian Gray first takes the painting to his old schoolroom to hide it from other people. This takes place near the middle of the movie. One of the most interesting things in this scene is the contrast between the innocence of the schoolroom and the horrible sins that the portrait shows. All around the room are things that belonged to Gray’s innocent childhood such as toys and books, but in the middle of the room is the ugly painting. The narrator talks about the “stainless purity” of his youth, shown by the schoolroom, which will now change into the very stained and sinful life, revealed by the portrait, that he leads from this point on.

Also, on the wall is a mask that is grimacing. All the masks and sculptures around the house have these same types of expressions which I think help reveal Gray’s horrible soul. Another small detail that has significance is how Dorian Gray kicks over a toy horse and rider as he walks across the room to the painting. This shows how Gray is completely leaving his pure childhood behind and becoming someone horrendous. This horse stays on the ground for years until Gray comes back to stab the painting and start doing good things. He picks the horse up which shows his desire to try to make things right in his life.

One more thing that is really important in this scene is the knife on the table. By the end of the movie, this knife goes through four hearts. Gray stabs it in the heart on the table and later uses it to kill Basil Hallward. Eventually, he puts it through the heart on the painting which also goes through his own heart and kills him. All of these details make this scene one that is very important to the message of the film because it shows that people should be good and pure like a child rather than sinful and self-serving like Dorian Gray.