When Dorian sees the painting of himself he is struck with awe of his own image, and soon becomes overwhelmed by his fear that his own youth and "beauty" that he sees in himself will fade away. He becomes jealous that the picture will be beautiful forever while he withers with age. Throughout the book as Dorian does bad deeds, then his potrait gets uglier and ages. In the end, Dorian decides to destroy his picture with a knife. His servants hear a faint cry and rush downstairs and find Dorian Gray lying on the ground dead with a knife plunged into his chest.