THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, 16-17-18-19-20

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, 16-l7-l8-l9-20  

Chapter Sixteen

Dorian rides in the hansom and thinks about where he is going: an opium den. It takes a long time, and he recalls what Harry had said to him so long ago, that the only way to cure the soul was through the senses. Dorian finds a broken house, and enters. There are people in various drug-induced states all around him. He finds Adrian Singleton. A woman comes up and tries to talk to him, and he gives her money. He tells Adrian that he is going to a different place, where the opium is better, and tells Adrian to let him know if he needs anything. As he is leaving, the woman calls him 'Prince Charming.' A sailor hears this, gets up, and follows him out. Dorian walks and as he is enter to the other opium den, James grabs him. He has been looking to revenge Sibyl's death, trying to find a man by the one thing he knows, that he was called 'Prince Charming.' He gets out a gun and tells Dorian that he has one minute to agreed for what he has done. Dorian asks him how long ago his sister was killed; when James says eighteen years, Dorian shows him his face. James sees that Dorian could not be more than twenty years old, apologizes for the mistake, and walks away. The woman from the first place comes up to James in the street and asks why he didn't kill him; James tells her about the mistake, and she tells him that Dorian first came here almost twenty years ago, and that he made a deal with the devil to keep his youth. At these words, James runs back to find Dorian, but he is go.

Chapter Seventeen

A week later, Dorian entertains visitors at his park at Selby. He talks with Lord Henry, the Duchess of Monmouth, and her husband; they discuss the nature and importance of beauty. The duchess criticizes Lord Henry for introduction too great a value on beauty. Then they talks about love; Lord Henry thinks that love, like life, depends to repeating a great experience over and over again. Dorian agrees and excuses himself from his company. Lord Henry chastises the duchess for her flirtations. Soon, they hear a groan from the other end of the conservatory. They  find that Dorian has fallen in a swoon. At dinner, Dorian feels a chills of terror when he recalls that, before fainting, he saw the face of James Vane pressed against the conservatory window.

Chapter Eighteen

The following day, Dorian does not leave the house because every time he think about James Vane. On the third day after the incident, Dorian goes out. He walks in the park and feels reinvigorated. He  has a shooting party in the park with Geoffrey Clouston, Gladys' brother. While walking they see a hare crossing the path and Geoffrey shoots it and hits a man who had been in the bushes. The man has died, and when Dorian talks with Harry, Harry tells him how awful it was that the beater was there. Dorian is convinced that it is an omen, but Harry tells him that there is no such thing. Dorian has a worried look on his face and Harry asks him if he is in trouble, he says he is not. Gladys comes up, and says that she heard that Dorian tried to stop Geoffrey from shooting the hair. He replies that he did, and he is not sure why. Harry says, 'Now if Geoffrey had done the thing on purpose, how interesting he would be! I should like to know someone who had committed a real murder.' At this, Dorian faint again, but pretends he has not heard what Harry said. He leaves, and Harry asks Gladys if she is in love with Dorian. She cannot give him an answer.

In his room, Dorian cannot understand the feeling he has been having, and decides to go to the town. When he is concerning to leave, his gamekeeper comes to see him; they cannot identify the body of the man who has been shot. Dorian asks where the body is, and quickly goes to the stable to see the body. When he gets there, the face is covered with a handkerchief. He asks a servant to remove it, and is happy when he sees that it is the body of Sibyl's brother, James.

Chapter Nineteen

Dorian has just told Harry that he is going to be good. His first good dead has been to spare a young girl named Hetty; he left her in the country yesterday, without taking her purity. Harry brings up Basil; people are talking about his disappearance. Dorian asks what Harry thinks, and Harry doesn't mind. If Basil is dead, he does not want to know, and if he's just gone off somewhere, that's his business. Harry mentions his recent divorce from Victoria. Dorian asks what Harry would say if he said he killed Basil. Harry says that he is not expert of kill, that kill is for the lower classes. Harry asks what happened to the description, and then remembers Dorian telling him it was lost, or stolen. Dorian says it was no great loss; he regretted it being painted in the first place. Harry asks Dorian, ''what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose'-how does the quotation run?-'his own soul'?'. Dorian tells him that a soul is a serious thing, that everyone has a soul, and that he is quite sure of that. Harry explains that if he is quite sure, it must be false. Dorian he reminds Harry that he poisoned him with a book once, and Harry replies that art cannot influence life.

Chapter Twenty

That night, Dorian goes to the locked room to look at his portrait and, at the end, tired and nauseated of the drawn back that it testified his guilts and his internal brutality, Dorian Gray strikes the heart of the portrait with a knife, but it happens an unbelievable fact, in fact, he falls dead he same, while the picture repurchases the appearance that had to the beginning: a marvellous pure youth and ingénue; the servants find it hard to recognize splendid master in the horrible old man that they find to the feet of the portrait.