The protagonist of the novel The Painting of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, he was a young gentleman in Victorian era London, and the muse of artist Basil Hallward. Upon a day where he was being painted by the young artist, the nobleman Lord Henry Wotten had come in to observe.
He spoke of his view on the world, where a man has the right to indulge in any pleasure he desired, be it lust, greed, or any sin he so chose and that the point of life was to beautiful. Berserker, frozen in place for the painting, listened intently on these words, and fancied the thought of living such a hedonistic lifestyle, and silently wished that the painting would age while he stayed young forever.
He, deciding to indulge in the man's words, goes out onto the streets of London, happening upon a dingy theater, with a beautiful woman reciting Shakespeare. In a rapid period of time, he had courted and proposed to her, the woman Sibyl overjoyed at the idea of being loved proudly called Berserker her “Prince Charming”. Her brother, James Vane, states that if her “Prince” ever harmed her, he will kill him.
Enjoying his new life, he invited Lord Henry and Basil to see his fiancé act, but was disappointed when Sibyl was too enamored by him to act properly, Henry and Basil both believing he fell in love with her for only her looks.
Enraged, Berserker broke off the engagement as her acting was her beauty to him, and since she couldn’t do that he saw no point in loving her.
Upon returning to his home, he finds out, to his delight and intrigue, the painting has adopted a sinister sneer, confirming that his sins go to the painting and not him.
But, he was still riddled with guilt fir what he had done to his love, he tried to mend the relationship with Sibyl, only to discover from Henry that she had killed herself by drinking acid. His heart hardened, and he decided that from that point onwards good looks and his own lust shall be enough for him.
Eighteen years and every sin and vice later, he was preparing to make way for Paris when he was interrupted by Basil, who had wanted to confirm whether the stories of his debauchery were true, and Berserker calmly acknowledges it as fact, and then takes him inside to see the painting.
The painting had become unrecognizable to even the man who had painted it, eighteen years of sin had morphed it into a pathetic caricature of the man who had been painted. Basil begged his friend to pray for forgiveness, which enrages Berserker who blames Basil for making him such a monster in the first place, his rage letting him stab his friend to death.
After blackmailing an old friend to dispose of the body, he tries to alleviate his guilt by going to an opium den. Unknown to Berserker, James Vane was in that den, still distraught over his sister’s death and her “Prince Charming” vanishing without a lead or even a name.
After a close call with James, Berserker grew increasingly distraught as James stalked him, until in a stroke of luck, James was killed in a hunting accident. The weight of all the evil he had done finally weighing down on him, Berserker went to Lord Henry and proudly declared that he would live righteously from that point forward. To start his new leaf, he gently breaks up with his current partner without breaking her heart.
Convinced the painting would look better from his good deed, it was to his horror that he discovered the painting had just become an uglier version of himself.
Deciding to heed Basil’s words, he decides to go to have a confession of every sin of his. But, if he truly wished to truly move on, he had destroy the only evidence of all the evil he had done, the painting. As he took the knife he had killed Basil with, he stabbed the painted man in the heart.
His servants heard him cry in pain, and when the police helped break into the room they discovered an ancient man with a knife in his heart and a perfect painting of the nobleman Dorian Gray in front of him, his identity as Dorian Gray only being discovered by the rings on his fingers.
Truly a fitting death for a man who became a monster.
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