Dorian is a beautiful, but impressionable, young man. Society adores him - men and women alike. They envy his youth, his innocence, his beauty.
His portrait is painted by the artist, Dorian's friend, Basil Hallward. It captures Dorian at his best. Full in naïvety and purity. It is a snapshot in time, because Dorian is about to change.
He is introduced to Lord Henry Wotton who is captivated by Dorian and jealously steals Dorian's friendship away from Basil Hallward. Time, Lord Henry and Dorian's increasingly dark desires corrupt his soul, but his face and body remains free of the marks of wrongdoing, of evil.
Fresh faced and misleading, Dorian doesn't grow old or ugly. His morals desert him. His handle on right and wrong is lost.
The portrait of Dorian is hidden away in the attic room, distorting and disfiguring bound to bare the worldly consequences of Dorian's dark deeds of deceit, lies, even murder.
Dorian the man is forever beautiful, his soul, trapped in the portrait, becomes devilish, horrifying and unbearable to the beholder.
Oscar Wilde's poetry is woven throughout this dark tale of the consequences of living a bad life.
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