Ensayo

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Oscar Wilde - Retold by Kieran McGovern

A rich young man living in London in the 1890s,Dorian Gray had many friends who liked him for his good looks and intelligent mind.

One of Dorian's friends, Basil Hallward, was a famous artist. He painted a beautiful portrait of Dorian. Later Dorian made a wish that he could stay as beautiful as his portrait and never growold. His wish was answered. But from then on, no-one ever saw the portrait. Then, one day, Basil Hallward came to Dorian's house and asked to see the picture he had painted so many years before.

A cry of fear came from the painter's lips when he saw the face in the portrait. It was Dorian Gray's face he was looking at, and it still had some of that wonderful beauty. But now there were terriblesigns of age and corruption. But who had done it? He held the lamp up to the picture. In the left hand corner was his name, painted in red.

What had happened? He had never done that. Still, it was his own picture. He knew it, and it made his blood turn to ice. His own picture! What did it mean? Why had it changed? He turned, and looked at Dorian Gray with the eyes of a sick man.

The youngman was standing near the wall, watching him. He had taken the flower out of his coat, and was smelling it.

"What does this mean?" cried Hallward, at last. His own voice sounded high and strange.
"Years ago, when I was a boy," said Dorian Gray, closing his hand on the flower, "you met me and flattered me. You taught me to love my beauty. One day you introduced me to a friend of yours. Heexplained to me how wonderful it was to be young. You finished a portrait of me that showed me how wonderful it was to be beautiful. In a mad moment I made a wish."
"I remember it! Oh, how well I remember it! No! The thing is impossible. There is something wrong with the paint. I tell you the thing is impossible."
"Is anything really impossible?" said the young man, going over to the window.
"Youtold me you had destroyed it."
"I was wrong. It has destroyed me."
"I don't believe it is my picture. There was nothing bad in it, nothing shameful. You were perfect to me. This is a face from hell."
"It is the face of my soul. Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil," cried Dorian wildly.

Hallward turned again to the portrait, and stared at it. "My God! Is this true?" he cried. "Is thiswhat you have done with your life? You must be even worse than people say!"

Hallward threw himself into the chair by the table and put his face in his hands. The lamp fell to the floor and went out.

"Good God, Dorian! What an awful lesson! What an awful lesson!" There was no answer, but he could hear the young man crying at the window. "We must ask God for forgiveness. I worshipped you toomuch. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both punished."
Dorian Gray turned slowly around and looked at him. There were tears in his eyes. "It is too late, Basil," he said.
"But don't you see that hellish thing staring at us?"

Dorian Gray looked at the picture. Suddenly he felt that he hated Basil Hallward. He hated the man sitting at the table more than he hatedanything in his life.

He looked wildly around. Something shone on top of the painted cupboard that faced him. It was a knife he had left there some days before. He moved slowly towards it, passing Hallward as he did so. He took the knife in his hand and turned around. Hallward moved in his chair. He rushed at him, and stuck the knife into his neck again and again...

Dorian continued to live asthough nothing had happened. But, underneath, he was tormented by what he had done.

Was it really true that one could never change? There had been a time when he had been good and innocent. He had corrupted himself, and become a terrible influence on others. He had even got pleasure from this corruption. Yet his soul had once been the purest of all. Was all that gone? Was there no hope for...