Dorian Gray is a handsome, selfish young man who Basil Hallward is painting. While he sits for the painting, he is introduced and has ample time to listen to Lord Henry Wotton, who expounds his hedonist views of life, admiring Gray’s beauty.
Hallward, a very moral man, is excited to be painting the handsome young man who has become the inspiration his art needed, and the result is that his painting becomes his life’s masterpiece. Lord Henry seeks to influence young Gray and take over Hallward’s friendship.
Gray is a willing student of Lord Henry's "new" hedonism, and the result is that he begins to indulge in every pleasure and virtually every 'sin' he can conceive of.
With the finished painting at his home, Gray sees the striking beauty of the image, and as it influences him to covet it, he begins to fear that it will fade and fears and even expects that his sinful lusts will lead to the erosion of his physical beauty.
This leads Dorian to desire and express that he would sell his soul to ensure that the picture, rather than he, would age and fade as he sins. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a life of amoral experiences, including destroying many he meets as he satisfies his lusts.
He stays young and beautiful but his portrait ages and records every sinful act becoming more disgusting and uglier as they are committed. After years of watching the painting reflect the horror of his life’s activities, he hates it.
The painting ultimately leads to Gray’s death, but the story leads to many questions and assumptions. One more obvious question is whether it is accurate to connect being beautiful to mean that one is good and if being ugly implies that one is evil.
The book presented a view of sin’s impact very effectively, using the portrait as the symbol of degradation.