On a summer day in Victorian England, Lord Henry Wotton, an opinionated man, observes the sensitive artist Basil Hallward painting the portrait of Dorian Gray, a young man who is Basil's ultimate muse. While sitting for the painting, Dorian listens to Lord Henry espousing his hedonistic worldview. He begins to think that beauty is the only aspect of life worth pursuing, prompting Dorian to wish that his portrait would age instead of himself.
Under Lord Henry's influence, Dorian fully explores his sensuality. He discovers the actress Sibyl Vane, who performs Shakespeare plays in a dingy, working-class theatre. Dorian courts her and soon proposes marriage. The enamoured Sibyl calls him "Prince Charming" and swoons with happiness. However, her protective brother, James, warns that if "Prince Charming" harms her, he will murder him.
Dorian invites Basil and Lord Henry to see Sibyl perform in a play. Sibyl, too enamoured with Dorian to act, performs poorly, which makes both Basil and Lord Henry think Dorian has fallen in love with Sibyl because of her beauty instead of her talent. Embarrassed, Dorian rejects Sibyl, telling her that acting is her beauty; without that, she no longer interests him. Returning home, Dorian notices that the portrait has changed; his wish has come true, and the man in the portrait bears a subtle sneer of cruelty.
Conscience-stricken and lonely, Dorian decides to reconcile with Sibyl, but is too late; she has killed herself. Dorian understands that, where his life is headed, lust and beauty shall suffice. Dorian locks the portrait up, and for eighteen years, he experiments with every vice, influenced by a morally poisonous French novel that Lord Henry gave him.
One night, before leaving for Paris, Basil goes to Dorian's house to ask him about rumours of his self-indulgent sensualism. Dorian does not deny his debauchery, and takes Basil to see the portrait. The portrait has become so hideous that Basil can only identify it as his by the signature on it. Horrified, Basil beseeches Dorian to pray for salvation. In anger, Dorian blames his fate on Basil and kills him. Dorian then blackmails an old friend, scientist Alan Campbell, into using his knowledge of chemistry to destroy Basil's body. Alan later kills himself.
A 19th-century London opium den (based on fictional accounts of the day)To escape the guilt of his crime, Dorian goes to an opium den, where, unbeknownst to him, James Vane is present. James was seeking vengeance upon Dorian ever since Sibyl killed herself but had no leads to pursue as the only thing he knew about Dorian was the nickname Sibyl called him. There, however, he hears someone refer to Dorian as "Prince Charming", and he accosts Dorian. Dorian deceives James into believing he is too young to have known Sibyl, as his face is still that of a young man. James relents and releases Dorian but is then approached by a woman from the opium den who reproaches James for not killing Dorian. She confirms Dorian's identity and explains that he has not aged in eighteen years. James runs after Dorian, but he has gone.
James then begins to stalk Dorian, who starts to fear for his life. During a shooting party, a hunter accidentally kills James, who was lurking in a thicket. On returning to London, Dorian tells Lord Henry that he will live righteously from now on. His new probity begins with deliberately not breaking the heart of the naïve Hetty Merton, his current romantic interest. Dorian wonders if his newly-found goodness has rescinded the corruption in the picture but when he looks at it, he sees only an even uglier image of himself. From that, Dorian understands that his true motives for the self-sacrifice of moral reformation were the vanity and curiosity of his quest for new experiences, along with the desire to restore beauty to the picture.
The death of Dorian Gray (Eugène Dété, after Paul Thiriat)Deciding that only full confession will absolve him of wrongdoing, Dorian decides to destroy the last vestige of his conscience and the only piece of evidence remaining of his crimes – the portrait. In a rage, he takes the knife with which he murdered Basil and stabs the picture.
His servants awaken on hearing a cry from the locked room; on the street, a passerby who also heard the cry calls the police. On entering the locked room, the servants find an unknown old man stabbed in the heart, his figure withered and decrepit. The servants identify the disfigured corpse as Dorian only by the rings on the fingers, while the portrait beside him is beautiful again.
