How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June… If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!
Dorian’s fear of time explodes into a wish that sounds like prayer and pact at once. The line is long, breathless, and childlike in its repetition—he’s trying to outtalk fate. Wilde lets fear masquerade as logic: if beauty is all, then aging is annihilation. The foreshadowing is bold; this sentence effectively launches the supernatural plot. Emotionally, it frames everything that follows as a reaction to terror, not pure vanity. Linguistically, the double “for that—for that” mimics a heartbeat, underlining panic. It’s a universal feeling—wanting to pause the clock—but the price he imagines paying warns where desperate wishes can lead.