He rushed at him and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man’s head down on the table and stabbing again and again. There was a stifled groan and the horrible sound of someone choking with blood. Three times the outstretched arms shot up convulsively, waving grotesque, stiff-fingered hands in the air. He stabbed him twice more, but the man did not move. Something began to trickle on the floor…He could hear nothing, but the drip, drip on the threadbare carpet.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. This horrifying and gruesome description of the murder of Basil by Dorian, who brutally stabs his friend several times, is written in classic Gothic style. This macabre passage describes in haunting and graphic detail the ending of the life of a man who represented goodness by another who is now morally dead.