Last Part
of the Novel The Picture of Dorian Gray Analysis

The extract
is taken from the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde.

It is the
last event of the whole novel, which aim is to educate, to teach something. By
the extract itself the reader understands that the protagonist has killed the
painter of the portrait.

In the
first sequence the third person omniscient narrator speaks to the reader, who
understands that Dorian killed the portrait because it represented his
corrupted soul.

Since
O.Wilde decided to consider the portrait a sort of projection of Dorian's
consciousness he anticipates, in a way or another, the problem of one's
consciousness, typical of the Modernist literature.

There is
also another important image in third sequence, that of a knife who immediately
recall to one's mind the Shakespearian tragedy Macbeth. Dorian sees it as it is
bright and glistened, but this is only an illusion.

In he
second sequence the use of onomatopoeic language creates an effect of realism.
It focuses on the inner side of the protagonist, who is presented in this
crucial moment by the narrator who uses the telling technique.

The house
chosen as the setting is described as old. The oldness reminds to the past,
which stands for Dorian's faults.

There a
continuous mixing of past, present and future who anticipates the Modernist
concept of simultaneous time.

The
language used adds to meaning.

The
narrator sets the scene at night because it symbolizes the mistery, the evil,
what you do not know or see.

The last
sequence is also the last part of the novel; Dorian had committed suicide. But
this act in a way or another had purified his conscience; indeed, his portrait,
once ugly  and corrupted represents now
an handsome guy, while Dorian himself became so ugly that even the servants
crept out when they heard the cry did not recognize him.