“Well, I guess I’d like to congratulate you.” Said Basil, slightly disappointed.
“Thank you, my dear friend. I truly appreciate it. Harry has also shown great enthusiasm about it. Oh Marriage! What a lovely word…”
“Dorian!” cried Lord Henry entering the room, “Basil, I thought you could be here, and yes, here you are! You know about it. Right?”
“Yes Harry, Dorian has just given me the good news. I wished him the best.” Answered Basil, “They make a lovely couple, I ought to say.”
Lord Henry sighed, “Yes, yes. Marriage is a really wonderful experience to go through, I can certainly assure you. I am very glad that you have decided to marry Sibyl and love her passionately for as long as you could.”
“Of course I will love her passionately for all my life!” cried Dorian with delight as his faced shone with happiness and pride.
For months Mr and Mrs. Gray had been the public focus of all parties they assisted, provoking waves of jealousy every time. No one doubted that they made London’s most outstanding couple. Dorian loved those parties as he could always hear delightful compliments to the beauty of his wife and him.
One evening, Dorian took Sibyl to Lady May’s afternoon tea party as usual.
“Dorian, my boy!” exclaimed one of the guests from the other end of the room. Dorian could never have forgotten such a beautiful musical voice since the first time they met.
“Harry! I didn't know you were going to be back so soon...how rude of me!” said Dorian approaching his friend Lord Henry happily, almost dragging his wife with him.
Dorian spent a marvellous evening and felt extremely happy for the return of Lord Henry. On the way to his house, he wondered excitedly what was the present Lord Henry gave to him so secretly by the end of the party. Finally he got to his library on his own and opened the envelope. It was a yellow book. He turned over the pages and found himself deeply absorbed and fascinated by this strange book which revealed the sins of the world that he had dimly dreamed about; a novel without a plot, which served as spiritual ecstasies for his gradually dimming passionate life.
Dorian spent the entire night reading the book and its phrases over and over again, tasting everything bit by bit. It seems as if his world has changed colour all of a sudden, and nothing else meant anything but the temptations and pleasures for the risks of committing sins. He completely ignored Sibyl’s protests on the next morning for not going to bed and blamed her for interrupting his spiritual moment. He felt as if this book is entirely written for him, about his life before he lived even lived it. The identification he felt towards the book made him completely addicted to every syllabus of it for several years. Yes, for several years he lived under its influence and grew closer to Lord Henry as the book tied their ideas together. They soon attained the common title of witty soul mates amongst the society and Dorian became a popular figure. Flirting with all sorts of women and having affairs with them was then as frequent and pleasant as the compliments he received. Sibyl knew little about all this as he stopped taking her out once his passion towards her faded with the time, and the signs of ageing which gradually appeared on her no longer shiny golden hair, radiant face and baby-like skin while he remained young and beautiful. Committing sins of this type provided him such an indescribable satisfaction and exciting pleasure that it became an almost lethal addiction.
However Dorian’s perfect and sinful life has been altered by an ugly incident, as he referred to it, when his wife Sibyl was found dead by poison in his library one morning, amongst tens of scrambled romantic letters from Dorian’s admirers and those ladies whom he had affairs with. He felt some guilt, but mainly annoyance towards this incident and wondered why Sibyl couldn’t live peacefully and ignorantly towards his affairs, as he would be, towards hers. When he went up to the locked room to take some of his books he found the long forgotten portrait that Basil painted for him more than 10 years ago. At that very moment Dorian felt a terrible desire to check if the portrait has changed since then. He stopped in front of the screen and tried to resist…but it was impossible. His hands were above control and lifted the screen to show a replication of himself – wearing a crook smile, and looking at least 10 years older. He stared at his portrait breathlessly and completely stunned. The more he stared, the wicker it looked.
The entire portrait seemed to glow a certain colour, and even a scent of evil. However, as he became absorbed by the sight of it, he was secretly admiring his own reflection in the mirror, and becoming more and more enamoured of it. From there on, the real sinful life of Dorian Gray has began…
By: Qing Ying Sun
11MTL
