In Oscar Wilde's novel, Dorian Gray, a country boy, entered Vanity Fair after inheriting an estate and began living a dazzling, extravagant life every day.
Then one day, he met Cecilia, an actress at a small theater. She was a clever girl who knew what became of other actresses who lost their virginity before marriage. Yet she was still moved by Dorian Gray's sincerity and secretly pledged herself to him for life.
At that point, his "good friend" Henry heard that Dorian Gray was going to marry and persuaded him not to believe in marriage. Dorian Gray abandoned Cecilia. Heartbroken, Cecilia left him, and in the end, people found her pregnant corpse in a river.
From then on, Dorian Gray began leading a depraved life. Yet while his youth and beauty captivated all who saw him, his portrait, locked away in the attic, grew increasingly ugly and terrifying.
Twenty-five years later, while his old friends had all grown old, Dorian Gray still possessed that perfect face, so much so that Henry's daughter Émilie fell in love with him. But Henry knew Dorian Gray's past all too well. He would never allow his daughter to marry that half-man, half-ghost monster, so he secretly slipped into Dorian Gray's house and discovered the secret room in the attic.
He wanted his daughter to see that this was Dorian Gray's true face. At that moment, Dorian Gray appeared and accused Henry. He had wanted to become a true gentleman, but Henry had ruined him.
After a struggle, perhaps because his conscience had not entirely died, Dorian Gray drove his sword into the portrait and perished together with the devil in the painting. Then a fire broke out in the attic and burned everything, including Dorian Gray's corpse. Yet once the fire was extinguished, people