William Wilson Analysis Essay

Ashleigh Schaefer
English 4
Professor Lopez
20 October 2014

Poe’s short story “William Wilson” is a doppelganger story. In it, Poe explores what happens when one’s self is split in two. In typical Poe fashion this story is shroud in mystery/horror. Poe explores how terrifying it would be if there was somebody who looked exactly like you was constantly in your life. What happens when the doppelganger tries to take over your life? One of the largest mysteries of this text is whether or not there really is somebody who exists that’s William Wilson’s double or whether it’s just a figment of his imagination. If William Wilson’s double really is just a figment of his imagination does that make it any less real to the real Wilson himself? In some

ways it doesn’t matter if Wilson’s doppelganger actually exists or not. The doppelganger still terrifies, haunts, takes over William Wilson’s life in a way that is very real to him. Psychological distress can be just as terrifying as physical distress. Poe explores what happens when the self is divided by unconsciousness and consciousness.
The original William Wilson can be seen as the conscious of his mind. The conscious part in Jungian psychology is the ego. According to Jung, the ego is only a small part of what makes up a person. The ego is also the part of one’s self that creates the story the want to tell the world. The person that they show to the world is created by the ego. “his ego maintains an illusionary sense of hegemony over the shadow, disowning whatever does not fit into his definition of self”. Explain more Jungian ideas of the ego here!

According to Jung the unconscious contains the “shadow” of one’s self. This shadow is made up with rejected parts of the self. The ego considers the aspects that make up the shadow a threat, which causes these negative aspects of one’s personality to be buried and repressed in the trash bins of one’s unconscious. The shadow is formed when the ego rejects certain facets of personality they deem “negative”. “Jung left open the possibility that the shadow could also contain anything the ego finds threatening and thus rejects”. Within the shadow lies “sexual aggression, jealousy, vanity, self-centeredness, and any other negative trait”. What the ego deems negative is often influenced by the society that they live in. The shadow is not active unless the ego’s defense barriers are down. Like in the film Fight Club, when Jack’s (CH) alter ego Tyler Durden comes alive at night. The unconscious can only be active when the conscious is turned off.
When there is a conflict between the conscious and unconscious that remains unresolved this is when inner conflict occurs.

If the conflict between the two selves is resolved then it makes room for an expanded self. However, if a conflict remains between the two ideals then a conflict similar to that seen in “William Wilson” can occur. The conscious or ego can only make room for the unconscious or shadow. The ego can never completely eliminate it. To destroy it would be to seriously destabilize one’s psychological identity. “William Wilson is a self whose identity is informed by two voices, each vying for dominance, each attempting to subjugate and subvert the other” (32). As the story progresses, William Wilson wrestles more and more with his conscious and unconscious taking over. The wrestling between these two parts of William Wilson’s brain can be seen as Wilson wrestling with doing what is right or wrong. The episodes with his doppelganger get progressively worse as Wilson makes progressively worse moral decisions until the very end. This can be viewed as Wilson succumbing to his unconscious/morally wrong desires. The doppelganger always appears as a voice to Wilson explaining what is right or wrong. According to Jungian terms, Wilson can be viewed as the ego and his doppelganger can be viewed as his

shadow.
In the beginning of the story Wilson’s doppelganger seems to only appear to him. He torments Wilson on the playground but “why the school, indeed, did not feel his design, perceive its accomplishment, and participate in his sneer, was, for many anxious months, a riddle I could not resolve” (230). This is the first evidence in the story that Wilson’s double might not be an actual person. For months Wilson’s doppelganger was picking fights with him but none of his other classmates seemed to care or notice. Wilson also becomes jealous of his doppelganger because the doppelganger takes over Wilson’s mastery over the students. Wilson mentions that the doppelganger never raises his voice above a whisper, which can also be evidence that he is not a real person. The fact that the doppelganger never raises his voice above a whisper can be seen as him literally being the voice in Wilson’s on mind telling him what is right or wrong. Although the doppelganger torments Wilson he states “in spite of the continual anxiety occasioned me by the rivalry of Wilson, and his intolerable spirit of contradiction, I could not bring myself to hate him altogether” ( Poe 229). Despite Wilson’s doppelganger tormenting him at school he can’t completely hate him.
In Poe’s school days more evidence is provided that the doppelganger is not a real person but instead a figment of Wilson’s own over active imagination. As Wilson becomes an older student his interactions with his own doppelganger grow more and more violent. After one particular violent altercation with his doppelganger Wilson notices “something which first startled, then deeply interested me, by bringing to mind dim visions of my earliest infancy---wild, confused, and thronging memories of a time when memory herself was yet unborn” (Poe 231). Something in Wilson’s doppelganger stirs up the memories from a long time ago. Wilson goes on to say that at this moment he had a feeling that he knew his doppelganger. There was something that made him feel like he had a deep connection with his doppelganger.
After this violent altercation Wilson decides he is going to play a practical joke on his doppelganger. Wilson’s practical joke is a way for him to get revenge with the doppelganger. An act of revenge can be considered something that is morally wrong. Wilson finally comes upon his doppelganger’s room and just as he enters the room his overtook by an “intolerable horror” (Poe 232). Wilson walks over to the bed and places his lamp over his face; to his surprise his doppelganger looks completely transformed in the dark. It terrifies Wilson. Wilson cannot believe that this is the same man who is trying to pass as him. Wilson states, in surprise, “Were these-these the lineaments of William Wilson? I saw, indeed, that they were his, but I shook as if with a fit of the ague, in fancying they were not” (Poe 232). There is something different about the doppelganger’s appearance.
This is another moment in the short story that can be used as evidence to show that the doppelganger is not real.

It’s as though Wilson is projecting himself onto another student. If the doppelganger was real why would there be a sudden change in his appearance? The symbolism between the light and the dark in this particular scene can illustrate Wilson’s own fight between his good and his evil side. The darkness, where the doppelganger is, can be seen as Wilson’s own dark side or shadow. There’s a side to Wilson that literally looks different in the dark. Wilson walks in with a lamp, the only source of light in the dark room. However, the horror and evil of Wilson’s shadow win over in this scene and Wilson extinguishes his lamp before leaving the room. This can be seen as Wilson literally succumbing to his shadow and his own dark side. It can be seen as an extinguishing of his ego

(RIGHT?).
After this scene in the story Wilson himself becomes more corrupt and evil. From this point on in the story, after he extinguishes his lamp, Wilson makes more immoral decisions. He gets drunk frequently, gambles, tricks people out of their money, and eventually tries to have an affair with a married woman. As Wilson becomes older and drinks more he states that he has given himself “up entirely to wine; and its maddening influence upon my hereditary temper” (Poe 237). There is something within Wilson that is violent and angry, he has been suppressing it for years. However, the alcohol brings out the dark side or shadow. The final scene in the story shows that Wilson has finally succumbed to his evil tendencies (CHECK). The final scene takes place at carnival in Rome. Wilson is at the carnival celebrations and is attempting to meet up with a married woman. The woman told Wilson what she would be dressed up as and Wilson notices someone wearing those same clothes. However, it turns out not to be the wife but Wilson’s doppelganger instead. Wilson is so angry “he turned at once upon him who thus interrupted me, and seized him violently by the collar” (Poe 238). Wilson becomes so enraged and angry at his doppelganger that he decides he will kill him once and for all. Wilson stabs his doppelganger and thinks that he has succeed in killing him but he is not successful. Wilson sees a mirror and “stepped up to it in extremity of terror, mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood” (Poe 238). Since the doppelganger was not a real person Wilson killed himself. The ending can be seen as Wilson finally succumbing fully to his shadow. This is what happens when the shadow and ego do not acknowledge each other.