Oscar Wilde

 (1854-1900)
One of the most considerable authors in England, leader of the Aesthetic movement of the Eighties and Nineties, speaker, philosopher, poet and dramatist. He fascinated and also disgusted victorian human society with his opinions and his behaviour. He was bohemian, had inclinations to homosexuality, wrote with an undertone of satire. He wrote collections of fairy - tales The Happy Prince and Other Tales, A House of Pomegranates; collections of stories Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Canterville Ghost. Decadent theatre play Salome was originally written in French. The other theatre plays are An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. This one is the most popular. He also wrote three collections of poetry, his Ballad of Reading Gaol is a magnificent work. His only novel, A Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 and is his most interesting work. We can say that A Picture of Dorian Gray is a picture of Wilde’s soul.

A Picture of Dorian Gray

Talented painter Basil Hallward got acquainted with a very beautiful young gentleman Dorian Gray. He was fascinated with him, with his intelligence and appearance and couldn’t live without his presence. Hallward started to paint him and one day introduced Dorian to his friend, cynical and sarcastic lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry’s philosophy of life and living influenced Dorian a lot, so in the fit of vanity he said: "I wish I could be young and beautiful all my life, forever. I wish for the picture, which had been painted by Basil, could grow old instead of me." This Dorian’s wish came true...

Dorian fell in love with young and talented actress Sibyla Vane, mainly with her perfect expression of Shakespeare’s heroines. When she couldn’t performed love on the stage, because she experienced it, Dorian was disappointed and desert her. Sibyla was very desperate and so she committed suicide. Dorian started a decadent way of his life, his only aim was to enjoy beauty and delights. His face stayed young and beautiful in the same way as when he was twenty years old, but his picture grew old and became more and more ugly, in accordance with the number of how many young and promising boys brought he to ruin and how many girls’ hearts broke he.

One day Basil visited him, and when he attempted to improve Dorian’s soul, Dorian killed him in the fit of rage. But he had big remorses and so he decided to destroy his picture. He took the knife and cut the picture.

When servants opened the room, on the wall hung the picture of beautiful, young boy and on the floor lay ugly, old dead body. As they found, this wreck was Dorian Gray.