When reading the Hadókht Nask, and the account of how a person’s consciousness meets, after the end of physical life, an exact counterpart of his or her daena/daæná  or  vision, I cannot help but see the great similarity between the accounts of the Avestan Hadókht  and the novel of Dorian Grey.

Observed by himself in chapter 13 of the novel, Dorian Gray states that “Each of us has heaven and hell in him”. The Portrait of Dorian Gray mirrors all the ill-effects of Dorian’s actions on his soul, while his physical outer appearance has no change, letting him maintain his everlasting youthfulness and beauty.

Dorian Gray has “both heaven and hell” within him.  Like in Hadókht he is an artist in the way he lives his life and paints/creates his own hidden portrait/real self. Dorian is outwardly young and charming, and inwardly old and corrupt.

There is a subtle affinity between his vision and actions, chemical atoms that shaped themselves into form and color on the canvas on his portrait, and the soul that is within.”

His portrait ages and withers just like his vision of the world, just like his ruined soul. Like in Hadókht, the way Dorian sees reality; affects, changes and creates a whole new reality for him.  He is truly an artist, co-creator that reshapes reality and creates his own heaven and hell.

ardeshir