Doppelganger Characterism In Flowers In The Attic By V. C Andrews

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In Flowers in the Attic, V.C Andrews creates a family tree that is doomed to repeat the sins of its past. The family name, Dollanganger, is a play on word of the word doppelganger, which means a double of a person. This doppelganger effect creates confusing doubles between Christopher Sr. and Christopher Jr., referred to as Chris, who look and act the same, and Corrine and Cathy, who are jealous of each other. The doppelganger effect causes confusion in the nuclear family relationships between the grandmother, Corrine, Cathy, Christopher, and Chris. Corrine and her mother look nothing alike, but they are examples of doppelganger personalities. Corrine is a beautiful woman who uses sexuality and money to get what she wants. Her mother is …show more content…

Cathy always felt like she was competing with her mother for attention for her father and her brother. “The Electra Complex is a psychoanalytic term used to describe a girl 's sense of competition with her mother for the affections of her father” (Cherry). Cathy has always felt competition with her mother for her father’s attention. However, she knew that her mother could give her father things she could not, like sex and the body image of a woman. So, when Christopher dies, this competition with her mother is transferred to Christopher, Cathy’s brother, who is exactly like Christopher. The Electra complex gives no solution to this competitive family relationship, but Cathy wins Chris’s love over her mother because Corrine turns into a heartless, selfish …show more content…

Frist, Corrine and her mother are an example of a doppelganger because their personalities are the same and her mother treated her like how Corrine treats her children. Continuing mother daughter relationships, Cathy and Corrine are practically doppelgangers to each other because Cathy desires to be a better version of her mother and wants to win the rivalry between them. Then, since Cathy has unacceptable feeling for her father, Christopher and Cathy have a complex father-daughter relationship that is nearly inappropriate. Also, Christopher Sr., and Christopher Jr., are the closest doppelganger in the family because they are similar in appearance and personality. Finally, Cathy and Chris have a relationship because they each represent a better version of their parents. If they continued to live their normal life while their father was still alive they could have escaped the history of their parents

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