The Picture of Dorian Gray is as well known for its theater production as it is for its book. These two works of art both live up to their reputation yet they are a little hard for the modern world to enjoy. They are very similar to each other considering it is very hard to turn a book into a play because of the lack of room and the amount of time it would take to act out a full book. If one were to read the book and see the play, they would be able to pick up on a couple of differences as well. .
A key similarity would be the pace of the two. They both pose a very moderate speed and you don"t come across much action in either of the two. There is mostly dialog that comes to talk about the things in life that they have come to learn. Lord Henry is very good talking about this subject and does so in both works of art. Dorian and Basil both act the same in the book and the play. They all act in a very upper class fashion and right they should because they are portrayed as very wealthy people. Basil and Lord Henry are very found of Dorian in both works and you can tell that they have the same influence on him.
The portrait of Dorian is the main subject that The Picture of Dorian Gray is set around and is that way in both peaces. It is painted by Basil and is a gift to Dorian. It holds all of Dorian's sins and each time he sins it makes the painting look older and more hideous. Basically the same events take place in both the book and the play but the book does have some added things because the play had to be shortened down due to time restrictions. In some parts of the book the elaborate on things a little more than the play does like how Dorian blackmails Alan Chapel to get rid of Basil's body.
One can find that if you watch the play you could skim through the book at the same time and they would be pretty accurate to one another. But the play would move along much faster than the book.