A lush cautionary tale of a life vileness avnd deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful young man's portrait his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman as surely as if I hd cut her little throat with a knife Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden.