The Picture of Dorian Gray

was purification in punishment. Not “Forgive us our sins” but “Smite us for
our iniquities” should be the prayer of man to a most just God.

The curiously carved mirror that Lord Henry had given to him, so many
years ago now, was standing on the table, and the white-limbed Cupids
laughed round it as of old. He took it up, as he had done on that night of
horror when he had first noted the change in the fatal picture, and with wild,
tear-dimmed eyes looked into its polished shield. Once, some one who had
terribly loved him had written to him a mad letter, ending with these
idolatrous words: “The world is changed because you are made of ivory and
gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.” The phrases came back to his
memory, and he repeated them over and over to himself. Then he loathed his
own beauty, and flinging the mirror on the floor, crushed it into silver
splinters beneath his heel. It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty
and the youth that he had prayed for. But for those two things, his life might
have been free from stain. His beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth
but a mockery. What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of
shallow moods, and sickly thoughts. Why had he worn its livery? Youth had
spoiled him.

It was better not to think of the past. Nothing could alter that. It was of
himself, and of his own future, that he had to think. James Vane was hidden in
a nameless grave in Selby churchyard. Alan Campbell had shot himself one
night in his laboratory, but had not revealed the secret that he had been forced
to know. The excitement, such as it was, over Basil Hallward’s
disappearance would soon pass away. It was already waning. He was
perfectly safe there. Nor, indeed, was it the death of Basil Hallward that
weighed most upon his mind. It was the living death of his own soul that
troubled him. Basil had painted the portrait that had marred his life. He could
not forgive him that. It was the portrait that had done everything. Basil had
said things to him that were unbearable, and that he had yet borne with
patience. The murder had been simply the madness of a moment. As for Alan
Campbell, his suicide had been his own act. He had chosen to do it. It was
nothing to him.

A new life! That was what he wanted. That was what he was waiting for.
Surely he had begun it already. He had spared one innocent thing, at any rate.
He would never again tempt innocence. He would be good.

As he thought of Hetty Merton, he began to wonder if the portrait in the
locked room had changed. Surely it was not still so horrible as it had been?
Perhaps if his life became pure, he would be able to expel every sign of evil
passion from the face. Perhaps the signs of evil had already gone away. He
would go and look.

He took the lamp from the table and crept upstairs. As he unbarred the
door, a smile of joy flitted across his strangely young-looking face and
lingered for a moment about his lips. Yes, he would be good, and the hideous
thing that he had hidden away would no longer be a terror to him. He felt as
if the load had been lifted from him already.

He went in quietly, locking the door behind him, as was his custom, and
dragged the purple hanging from the portrait. A cry of pain and indignation
broke from him. He could see no change, save that in the eyes there was a
look of cunning and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite. The
thing was still loathsome—more loathsome, if possible, than before—and the
scarlet dew that spotted the hand seemed brighter, and more like blood newly
spilled. Then he trembled. Had it been merely vanity that had made him do
his one good deed? Or the desire for a new sensation, as Lord Henry had
hinted, with his mocking laugh? Or that passion to act a part that sometimes
makes us do things finer than we are ourselves? Or, perhaps, all these? And
why was the red stain larger than it had been? It seemed to have crept like a
horrible disease over the wrinkled fingers. There was blood on the painted
feet, as though the thing had dripped—blood even on the hand that had not
held the knife. Confess? Did it mean that he was to confess? To give himself
up and be put to death? He laughed. He felt that the idea was monstrous.
Besides, even if he did confess, who would believe him? There was no trace
of the murdered man anywhere. Everything belonging to him had been
destroyed. He himself had burned what had been below-stairs. The world
would simply say that he was mad. They would shut him up if he persisted in
his story.... Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make
public atonement. There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins to
earth as well as to heaven. Nothing that he could do would cleanse him till he
had told his own sin. His sin? He shrugged his shoulders. The death of Basil
Hallward seemed very little to him. He was thinking of Hetty Merton. For it
was an unjust mirror, this mirror of his soul that he was looking at. Vanity?
Curiosity? Hypocrisy? Had there been nothing more in his renunciation than
that? There had been something more. At least he thought so. But who could

tell? ... No. There had been nothing more. Through vanity he had spared her.
In hypocrisy he had worn the mask of goodness. For curiosity’s sake he had
tried the denial of self. He recognized that now.

But this murder—was it to dog him all his life? Was he always to be
burdened by his past? Was he really to confess? Never. There was only one
bit of evidence left against him. The picture itself—that was evidence. He
would destroy it. Why had he kept it so long? Once it had given him pleasure
to watch it changing and growing old. Of late he had felt no such pleasure. It
had kept him awake at night. When he had been away, he had been filled with
terror lest other eyes should look upon it. It had brought melancholy across
his passions. Its mere memory had marred many moments of joy. It had been
like conscience to him. Yes, it had been conscience. He would destroy it.

He looked round and saw the knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward. He
had cleaned it many times, till there was no stain left upon it. It was bright,
and glistened. As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter’s work,
and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he
would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous
warnings, he would be at peace. He seized the thing, and stabbed the picture
with it.

There was a cry heard, and a crash. The cry was so horrible in its agony
that the frightened servants woke and crept out of their rooms. Two
gentlemen, who were passing in the square below, stopped and looked up at
the great house. They walked on till they met a policeman and brought him
back. The man rang the bell several times, but there was no answer. Except
for a light in one of the top windows, the house was all dark. After a time, he
went away and stood in an adjoining portico and watched.

“Whose house is that, Constable?” asked the elder of the two gentlemen.

“Mr. Dorian Gray’s, sir,” answered the policeman.

They looked at each other, as they walked away, and sneered. One of them
was Sir Henry Ashton’s uncle.

Inside, in the servants’ part of the house, the half-clad domestics were
talking in low whispers to each other. Old Mrs. Leaf was crying and
wringing her hands. Francis was as pale as death.

After about a quarter of an hour, he got the coachman and one of the
footmen and crept upstairs. They knocked, but there was no reply. They

called out. Everything was still. Finally, after vainly trying to force the door,
they got on the roof and dropped down on to the balcony. The windows
yielded easily—their bolts were old.

When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of
their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth
and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife
in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not
till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

THE END

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