The Picture of Dorian Gray

After enjoying this film I realized that quite a few scenes hooked my attention, and I am unable to only write about the most notable one scene. Therefore I will write a little on one of my favorites, and a substantial portion on my overall favorite scene.

The first passage that intrigued me is the one of the butterfly only nine minutes into the film. Lord Henry Wotton mesmerizes Mr. Gray with his speech of how to live life properly, for fun and personal enjoyment, and that youth is the most important aspect of life. Some of his more notable and repetitious quotes are provided for your amusement:

“There’s only one way to get rid of a temptation and that’s to yield to it.”

“Youth is the one thing worth having.”

“There’s only one thing in the world worth having, and that is youth.”

This scene transitions to the scene of the butterfly, with the butterfly being captured and killed simply for its beauty. The magnified picture of the dying insect struggling for life, but helpless to escape its death is a slightly eerie image and pulled on my emotions.

Although I enjoyed many other small sections throughout the film, my favorite picture segment of the film took place seventy-three minutes into the film when Dorian commits murder in a panic. Leading into the climactic portion of the scene, Dorian unveils the new, monstrous painting to Mr. Hallward, and the narrator states, “It was as if some model leprosy were eating the thing away.” Mr. Hallward responds by asking of Dorian, “Each of us has heaven and hell. Do you know how to pray Dorian?” Realizing he cannot let his secret escape, he kills Mr. Hallward. “Like a cornered animal” he struck with fear, the music crescendos, and the lighting, the most notable aspect of the segment, accents the message of the scene. The slow, rustic swinging of the lamp vastly alters the appearance of Dorian as he stands over his kill, shifting the background and foreground in and out of shadow, and casting the still silhouette of Basil Hallward on the pale wall. The steady creaking of the lamp keeps the tension of the segment at its peak as Dorian moves across the room to cleanse himself of the blood with an embroidered towel displaying the first line of a poem by Mother Goose, “Little Boy Blue Come Blow Your Horn.” The light in this passage helps to shine new light into the personality of Mr. Dorian Gray, showing both his light, proper and clean image, and his shaded, hidden alternative personality to the audience. As Dorian moves back to the painting, and the narrator utters the single “It was if the painting had sweated a dew of blood.” He covers the painting and locks away the sins once more.

These passages relate to the overall plot of the film because the portrait of Dorian shows the negative consequences of both his actions and his aging on its canvas, instead of on the living being of Mr. Gray. Dorian realizes that his sinful actions, although lacking in repercussions for him, in the end are destroying him, and attempts to confess. Unfortunate for him, the time has passed for redemption and Dorian kills himself.