The Picture of Dorian Gray · Chapter
Chapter XX explained
Dorian Gray returns home on a warm night, reflecting on his past sins and his desire for redemption.
What happens
Dorian Gray returns home on a warm night, reflecting on his past sins and his desire for redemption. He contemplates destroying the portrait, which he sees as the source of his corruption. After a moment of hesitation, he stabs the portrait, causing a horrible cry. The servants find a withered, dead man on the floor with a knife in his heart, while the portrait appears as a splendid image of Dorian in his youth.
Themes in this chapter
Sin and Punishment
Dorian grapples with the idea of purification through punishment and ultimately meets his end as a consequence of his sins.
Vanity and the Double Life
Dorian's vanity leads him to destroy the portrait, and his double life culminates in his final, grotesque death.
The Soul and Conscience
The portrait serves as Dorian's conscience, and his attempt to destroy it results in the destruction of his own soul.
Characters to notice
- Dorian Gray
Dorian returns home, reflects on his past, and ultimately destroys the portrait, leading to his death.
- Lord Henry Wotton
Dorian recalls Lord Henry's words and influence, including his mocking laugh and hedonistic philosophy.
- Basil Hallward
Dorian thinks of Basil's murder and the portrait Basil painted, which he blames for his ruin.
- James Vane
Dorian reflects that James Vane is buried in a nameless grave in Selby churchyard.
- Alan Campbell
Dorian notes that Alan Campbell shot himself in his laboratory without revealing the secret.
- Hetty Merton
Dorian thinks of Hetty Merton, the girl he spared, and wonders if his good deed was motivated by vanity.
Key passages
“He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that of the lives that had crossed his own, it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame.”
Dorian acknowledges his own corruption and the harmful impact he has had on others, taking a dark pleasure in it.
Dorian's self-awareness of his moral decay and its effects on those around him.
“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.”
Dorian stabs the portrait, and a terrible cry is heard throughout the house, waking the servants.
The climax of the chapter where Dorian attempts to destroy the evidence of his sins.
“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 servants find a dead, aged man on the floor, identifiable only by his rings as Dorian Gray.
The final revelation that Dorian's wish has reversed, leaving him dead and aged while the portrait is restored to youth.