Dorian’s death

In the passage Dorian refers to his past, in particular he makes references to his unstained boyhood and to
the sins committed during his maturity; he tries to justify himself by expressing his wish for repentance. He
hates his beauty because it has ruined him. His beauty was like a mask and his youth was like a mockery.

The portrait symbolize the dark side of his own soul and represents all the negative actions and the
murders he committed in the past; it makes him understand that it is the mirror of his corrupted soul.
Dorian decided to destroy the picture to kill his past and to free himself but he cannot eliminate it without
killing himself because the picture is Dorian

Dorian considers his portrait loathsome and he feels sorry and guilty to his way of behaving and sees the
portrait as the reflection of his own soul

Dorian’s thought follows the following steps:

1) Nostalgia for his pure boyhood

2) Consciousness of his corruption
3) Recollection of his pact to keep eternal youth
4) Wish for repentance and purification
5) Consciousness that youth and beauty have causes his ruin
6) Wish to free himself from the past
7) Understanding that repentance was pure illusion
8) Decision to destroy the picture

In the passage there are many examples of parallelism such us wicked people in line 11, his youth in line 44,
the picture in line 96-97, 104-105

The sentences used to express Dorian’s doubts about his possible future salvation are in line 65-67

The mirror is the symbol of Dorian’s double personality

The nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs which describes the picture in line 73-85 such us dragged,
cunning, loathsome, spotted, belong to the semantic area of mystery in fact they create a mysterious
atmosphere

Red is the dominant colour of this scene because it is generally associated with death

The adjectives used to describe Dorian’s corpse after the metamorphosis in line 140-142 are dead,
withered, wrinkled and loathsome; they belong to the same semantic area