Dorian Gray

This is a film that tells the story of a young man named Dorian Gray. In the beginning, his friend Basil Hallward is painting a portrait of him. Dorian is a very handsome young man, and as he gazes at the beauty of his portrait, he makes a wish that somehow the picture would age instead of him so that he could keep his young features. However, as we soon find out, Dorian Gray, though a handsome young man on the outside, has a very ugly soul. As he hurts the ones he loves and constantly acts selfishly, his portrait reflects his ugly heart. He, as he once wished, remains young and handsome, but he begins to notice that his picture is getting more and more old and hideous looking. He tries to hide it from view and locks it away in an upstairs room. As time goes by, Dorian remains looking young as others around him grow older. His portrait, however, continues to reflect his wicked heart. He even kills Basil Hallward to keep him quiet about it. Meanwhile, rumors begin to circulate about Dorian’s wicked and ugly nature. Although he looks like a gentleman on the outside, people begin to notice that his looks are deceiving. Eventually, he becomes too concerned about people seeing his painting and grows to hate the look of it. In an attempt to destroy what he created with his foolish wish, he stabs his picture in the heart. When he does this, the portrait returns to its original beauty, but he himself is also killed. I think the “meaning” or theme of this film is that you can’t hide who you truly are. Even though Dorian Gray was a youthful and handsome looking man on the outside, his soul was dirty and rotten. Soon, people began to see beyond his handsome features into his cold heart. His portrait demonstrated this theme even better because it showed who he was as a person rather than what he looked like as a handsome human being.
For the scene, I chose the part when Dorian Gray murders Basil Hallward. This scene takes place toward the end of the movie. In this scene, Basil insists on seeing his masterpiece that he gave to Dorian. Dorian refuses, but eventually takes Basil up to the upstairs room where it is locked away. When Basil sees the portrait, he is horrified and calls it monstrous. He thought that Dorian had destroyed the painting, but in fact, it had destroyed Dorian. Basil decides to pray for his friend, Dorian, because he realizes the monster that Dorian has become on the inside. Dorian takes advantage of Basil’s downward cast eyes, sneaks up behind him, and stabs him in the back. This scene is very interesting to me because I think it illustrates how truly wicked and cold-hearted Dorian has become, and he is determined to keep his secret from everyone. My favorite part about the scene is after Dorian kills Basil, the lantern is swinging from the ceiling. For a few seconds, the camera focuses on Dorian’s face, as it emerges from darkness into light, then plunges into darkness again because the light from the lantern is moving. This further demonstrates to me how Dorian may look handsome, but his heart is cold and dark. If you look closely enough, you can see who people really are beneath their outward appearance.