How long does dorian gray live

As the years pass, Dorian spends his wealth indulging his sensuous pleasures with perfumes, musical instruments, jewels, and embroideries. He becomes increasingly paranoid about leaving his picture alone for long periods of time. Disgraceful rumors begin circulating, staining Dorian's reputation. On the eve of Dorian's thirty-eighth birthday, Basil visits Dorian right before he's scheduled to leave to Paris. Basil's lecture to Dorian on preserving his good name infuriates Dorian.

Impulsively, Dorian shows Basil the picture. Dorian murders Basil. Then he stealthily leaves the house and rings the doorbell until his servant comes to let him in so that he can have an alibi for Basil's murder. The next day, Dorian calls Alan Campbell and begs him to get rid of the body for him. When Alan refuses, Dorian threatens to blackmail him. Alan agrees and destroys the body. Dorian, in disguise, heads to the East End slums for a three-day opium binge, hoping it will help him forget his guilt.

Many pagan temples were destroyed by Christian mobs in his reign and his government ordered pagan temples closed. So unless Dorian described Christian Churches as temples, he remembered anti pagan mobs sacking pagan temples in Byzantium no later than around AD and thus should have been at least 1, years old in the late 19th century. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How old is Dorian supposed to be? Ask Question. Asked 5 years, 5 months ago. Active 5 years, 4 months ago. Viewed 14k times. Improve this question. SQB Nu'Daq Nu'Daq In a fit of distress, he pledges his soul if only the painting could bear the burden of age and infamy, allowing him to stay forever young.

Overcome by her emotions for Dorian, Sibyl decides that she can no longer act, wondering how she can pretend to love on the stage now that she has experienced the real thing. Dorian, who loves Sibyl because of her ability to act, cruelly breaks his engagement with her.

Frightened that his wish for his likeness in the painting to bear the ill effects of his behavior has come true and that his sins will be recorded on the canvas, he resolves to make amends with Sibyl the next day. The following afternoon, however, Lord Henry brings news that Sibyl has killed herself. Meanwhile, Dorian hides his portrait in a remote upper room of his house, where no one other than he can watch its transformation.

He lives a life devoted to garnering new experiences and sensations with no regard for conventional standards of morality or the consequences of his actions. Eighteen years pass. Dorian remembers that Lord Henry once told him that, for a laugh, he should ask Basil why he would never exhibit a portrait of Dorian.

In response to the question, Basil repeats that he felt that he put too much of himself into his portraits of Dorian. He thought that it would be obvious to anyone who saw the picture how much he adored Dorian and how much he was dominated by his personality.

Once the recently completed portrait of Dorian left his studio, however, Basil felt certain that other people would not see that in the painting after all.

He adds that something seems to have gone out of him now that he has made this confession. Basil asks to see the portrait again. Dorian once more says that Basil can never look at it again. Basil accepts this.

Dorian decides that he can no longer allow the portrait to remain in a room which any of his friends can enter. He covers it with a purple and gold satin cloth. From his housekeeper, Dorian gets the only key to the old schoolroom at the top of the house.

Since the picture is heavy, Dorian has the frame-maker Mr. Hubbard and his assistant come over to his house. They help to carry the picture, with the satin cloth still on top of it, to the top of the house. When they get to the old schoolroom, Mr. Hubbard asks if he can look at the picture. Dorian says that it would not interest him and Mr.

Hubbard does not ask again. Not trusting his valet and fearing that the man may try to blackmail him, Dorian tries to make sure that the servant is out of the house while the picture is moved.

When Mr. Hubbard and his assistant arrive, Dorian gives his valet a note to take to Lord Henry and tells him to wait for a response. In the note, Dorian reminds Lord Henry that they are having dinner together at that evening and asks him to send over something to read. Lord Henry sends over a newspaper with a red pencil mark next to a story about the inquest into Sybil Vane's death.

There is nothing in the newspaper story to connect Dorian Gray to the incident, although Dorian still worries that his valet might have read it. Lord Henry also sends over a book bound in yellow paper. The book which Lord Henry has sent is, "a novel without a plot and with only one character. Consequently, he moves from living a life of virtue to a life of vice and enjoys both lifestyles equally.

Dorian finds the book fascinating. He reads it by the light of an open window until it is too dark to read any longer. He arrives late for his dinner with Lord Henry as a result. Dorian remains fascinated by the book for many years. He gets nine copies of it and has them bound in different colors to suit his different moods.

Dorian identifies strongly with the novel's character, although they are very different in one respect. The novel's character is aware that his beauty is fading and hates to see his own reflection. Dorian Gray remains young, beautiful and innocent-looking. There are rumors about Dorian Gray which are fueled by his lengthy absences from polite society.

He is rumored to have been seen in disreputable taverns, to be the friend of thieves and forgers and to know their craft. Some people shun him, especially women who had once adored him. Dorian Gray cannot bear to be away from England or even from his London home for very long because he is afraid that someone might find or steal his portrait. He keeps the only key to the old schoolroom at the top of his house where the portrait is stored on him at all times.

He has also had bars added to the room's door. Sometimes he goes for weeks without looking at the portrait. He then goes and spends several days away in London's worst slums. When he returns home, he always sits in front of the painting. Sometimes he hates the portrait. Sometimes he takes pride in the fact that he is different from other people and that the portrait suffers in his place.

By the time that Dorian is 25, the painting already looks like a very old man with a deeply wrinkled face and coarse bloated hands. The body is bent and the limbs appear to be failing. On November 9, the eve of his 38th birthday, shortly after eleven o'clock in the evening, Dorian Gray is leaving the home of Lord Henry. He passes a man in an Ulster coat who is carrying a Gladstone bag. Dorian immediately recognizes the man as Basil Hallward but pretends not to have noticed him.

Basil, however, sees Dorian and approaches him. He says that he went to Dorian's house at nine o'clock, waited for him for two hours and has just left it. He adds that he is leaving England for six months and taking a am train to Paris.

Basil accompanies Dorian back to his home because he wants to speak to him. Lowell Gilmore as Basil Hallward. Basil says that, although he finds them hard to believe when he sees Dorian's face which is completely untouched by sin, he has heard many terrible rumors about Dorian. A young soldier who had once been a close friend of Dorian committed suicide. Basil says that his friend Lord Gloucester showed him a letter which was written by his dying wife.

The letter implicated Dorian in what Basil calls, "the most terrible confession I have ever read. Basil says to Dorian that he wonders if he really does know him and that he would need to see his soul to do that.

Dorian tells Basil that he can see his soul if he comes upstairs with him. Basil, who has missed his train, agrees. Dorian leads Basil to the old schoolroom at the top of his house. Declaring that he will show Basil his soul, he removes the purple and gold cloth from his portrait. The ugly old man in the picture is still just recognizable as Dorian Gray.

Basil also recognizes the frame in which he placed Dorian's picture. Although he is certain that he never painted such a picture, he recognizes his own brushstrokes and sees his own signature in red letters.

Dorian reminds Basil of the wish that he mad on the day that the portrait was completed. Basil says that, if Dorian is speaking the truth, the life that he has led must have been much worse than the worst rumors about him suggest. Having seated himself at the only table in the old schoolroom, Basil urges Dorian to pray for forgiveness.

After having looked at the portrait again, Dorian suddenly feels overcome with hatred for Basil. Taking a knife that he left in the old schoolroom a few days earlier, Dorian repeatedly stabs Basil in the head until he is dead. Dorian leaves the room and locks the door, leaving Basil's dead body inside it. Remembering that Basil was supposed to be leaving on the am train for Paris and was planning to spend six months abroad, Dorian realizes that it will be months before Basil's disappearance arouses any suspicion.

Dorian hides Basil's coat and bag in a secret compartment in his library , planning to destroy them later. To further deflect suspicion, Dorian puts on his coat, goes out and rings his doorbell.

When Dorian's valet answers the door, Dorian says that he forgot his key. He asks what time it is. The valet answers that it is am. Dorian asks if he had any visitors that evening. The valet replies that Basil Hallward came at nine o'clock in the evening, stayed until eleven o'clock and then left.

Before Dorian goes to bed, he finds the address of Alan Campbell in a directory. Alan Campbell is a biologist and chemist and also a gifted amateur musician. He and Dorian Gray bonded over a mutual love of music. They had once been great friends but that friendship came to an end about five years ago. Alan Campbell now avoids contact with Dorian Gray and appears to no longer like music. The following day, Dorian sends his valet to Alan Campbell's house with a note telling Alan to come over on a matter of life and death.

When Alan arrives, Dorian tells him that there is a dead man in the room at the top of the house. He does not say who the man was, he does not know if Alan ever met Basil, and claims at first that the man committed suicide.