Dorian Gray Destroys the Picture of Dorian Gray: "What did it mean?"

We've discussed a range of overlapping symbolic or metaphorical "meanings" that Basil's painting of Dorian Gray takes on in this novel--it represents his conscience, or the corruption of his soul, or the toll of his sins, or his dark secret, or the dark underside to his perennial good looks. So then what does it "mean" when, at the conclusion of Wilde's tale, Dorian Gray attempts to destroy the painting by stabbing it with the same knife he used to murder Basil Hallward? What is he trying to achieve, as far as you can tell? How do we interpret the outcome? And how might this outcome offer a moral resolution to the story? Is this the moment when Dorian finally faces consequences for his amoral and hedonistic lifestyle? Or has he already faced these consequences? Or does he ever face any significant consequences at all?

The dramatic conclusion of the story appears on the final two pages of chapter 20 (pp. 212-13 in the Penguin edition). Please take five minutes now to contemplate in your notebook the significance of this beguiling ending to the story. What kind of "moral lesson" does Oscar Wilde seem to be drawing from the story of Dorian Gray? Can we read this "moral" as a commentary on the philosophy of aestheticism and hedonism, as promoted by Lord Henry throughout the novel?