Dorian Gray-pag 398- Analysis

This passage is the last part of the
novel "The picture of Dorian Gray". Here the author talks about the picture
representing Dorian, which is not a common picture but it is the mirror of
Dorian's conscience. For this reason, Dorian wants to destroy it, because it stands
for all the crimes and faults that he has committed, such as the murder of the
painter Basil Hallward. By destroying it, Dorian would have destroyed his past
and become free from his sense of guilt. So Dorian stabs it with a knife, but
it is not the picture who "dies", it is Dorian. The picture becomes a beautiful
portrait of Dorian, while the young man becomes an ugly old man. The atmosphere
is fantastic, we ask ourselves if this story is true or if it is an unreal,
abstract world. From a stylistic point of view, the text is based on opposition:
good and evil, young and old (the portrait and Dorian), beauty and ugliness, light
and darkness (the house was dark except one illuminated window).This represents
the opposition between the society's values and mentality and the principles of
aestheticism, which Dorian totally represent.