#6

   In Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde argues that the death of the conscience and the soul culminates in the death of the person.  The prime example of this concept is Dorian Gray.  Dorian comes to an epiphany after his time at Selby.  When his prime enemy and source of vengeance, James Vane, is killed, Dorian feels he has been given a second chance at life.  He can now work to be a good better and redeem himself of the sins which hold him back.  He begins working toward this through acts of denial.  Slowly he leaves the hedonistic lifestyle behind.  his only hindrance is his soul.  His soul is found in the portrait done for him by Basil Hallward.  All of the sins Dorian has ever committed are record through the marring of the portrait.  Dorian believes that if he destroys the portrait, he destroys the record of his sin and thus can move on with his life.  Dorian sees the portrait as the last bit of evidence of his sins.  This holds him back from true repentance.  He refuses to confess to the crime of killing Basil and instead determines to destroy the portrait, his soul, and thus destroy all evidence against him so that he can progress into a pure life.  Dorian proceeds, he takes a knife and decides, "As it killed the painter, so it would kill the painter's work and all that it meant.  It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free...he would be at peace.  He seized the thing and stabbed the picture with it" (Wilde 164).  This is the misconception Dorian holds.  He thinks he can be absolved of his sins through the destruction of his soul.  In reality, the soul holds life.  It is the record of one's deeds.  It's elimination is the termination of life.  Dorian wants to take the easy way out.  He refuses to repent and do the right thing.  In the end he must pay for his refusal to deal with his iniquities in the correct manner.  He pays for the effacing of his soul through death.