It was a beautiful night. It was very warm, so Dorian Gray did not wear his coat. He walked home and smoked a cigarette. Two young men in expensive clothes passed him. One man whispered to the other that he was Dorian Gray.
Before, Dorian Gray liked it when people looked at him. Now, he was tired of his own name. He liked the small village because the people there did not know him. He told Hetty Merton that he was poor. She believed him. He told her once that he was a bad man. She laughed and said that bad people were always old and ugly.
Dorian Gray reached his house. He told his servant to go to bed. He sat on the sofa in the library. He thought about the words of Lord Henry Wotton. He wondered if a person could really change.
Dorian Gray wanted to be a good boy again. He knew he was a bad influence on other people. He brought shame to many lives. He felt very sad about his past. He wondered if there was any hope for him.
He remembered the moment he made his wish. He wished that the portrait would grow old instead of him. He thought that this wish was his biggest mistake. It was better to be punished for sins. Punishment makes a person clean again.
Dorian Gray saw a special mirror on the table. Lord Henry Wotton gave it to him many years ago. Dorian Gray looked at his face in the mirror. He hated his own beauty now. He threw the mirror on the floor. He broke it into many small pieces with his shoe.
His beauty and his youth ruined him. His beauty was only a mask. His youth was not real. He decided to think about his future instead of his past. James Vane was dead and in a grave. Alan Campbell killed himself. The world would soon forget Basil Hallward.
Dorian Gray felt safe, but his soul felt sick. He blamed the portrait for his problems. He said the murder of Basil Hallward was a moment of madness. He wanted a new life. He decided to be good from now on. He spared Hetty Merton, and that was a start.
Dorian Gray wondered if the portrait in the locked room changed. He thought that maybe the face was not so horrible now. He thought that a good life could make the picture beautiful again. He took a lamp and went upstairs.
He felt happy as he opened the door. He thought the heavy load was gone from his heart. He went into the room and locked the door. He pulled the purple cloth off the portrait.
He screamed with anger. The picture was still ugly. The eyes looked like the eyes of a hypocrite (a person who says they are good but acts in a bad way). The red blood on the hand looked brighter than before. Dorian Gray shook with fear.
Was his good action only a trick of his vanity? The red stain on the picture was larger now. It was on the fingers and the feet. It looked like a horrible disease. Dorian Gray did not want to tell the truth to the police. He thought no one would believe his story.
He felt that the picture was the only proof of his crimes. The picture was like his conscience (the part of the mind that tells you if an action is right or wrong). He wanted to destroy it. If the picture was gone, he could be at peace.
He saw the knife that killed Basil Hallward. The knife was bright and clean. He took the knife and he stabbed the picture with it. There was a loud scream and a loud crash.
The scream was full of pain. The servants woke up in fear. Two men in the street stopped and looked at the house. They found a policeman. The policeman rang the bell, but no one opened the door.
The servants finally went to the top of the house. They could not open the door, so they went through the window. They saw a beautiful portrait of their master on the wall. The man in the picture looked young and wonderful.
But on the floor, there was a dead man. The dead man wore evening clothes. He had a knife in his heart. His face was old, wrinkled, and horrible to look at. The servants looked at the rings on his fingers. They finally knew it was Dorian Gray.
THE END