Poe's Stories brief biography of edgar allan poe
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Short Story By Flannery OConnor
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| Related Characters William Wilson (speaker) Related Themes: Page Number 186 Explanation and Analysis In the finale of "William Wilson" Wilson realizes that he's killed himself. Wilson has spent his entire life fighting with a mysterious doppelgänger (double of himself, who undermines everything that Wilson tries to do. At the end of Wilson's life, however, the truth becomes clear Wilson's doppelgänger isn't another person it's Wilson himself. To appreciate the full power of the story, one shouldn't take the ending too literally. One could say for example, that Wilson is schizophrenic, or that he has some other mental disorder that's caused him to hallucinate another person who looks and sounds just like him. But the more powerful and symbolic interpretation of the story is that William Wilson--as his bland, everyman name would suggest- represents the dual nature of all human beings. Like the titular characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, all people have a good side and a bad side. William Wilson has fought a constant war with his own soul and conscience, and in the end, he's the first and only casualty of that war. The Murders in the Rue-Morgue Quotes Had the routine of our life at this place been known to the world, we should have been regarded as madmen – although, perhaps, as madmen of a harmless nature. Our seclusion was perfect. We admitted no visitors. Related Characters Narrator (The Murders in the Rue Morgue; The Purloined Letter) (speaker, Auguste Dupin Related Themes: Page Number 242 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com ©2017 LitCharts LLC v.006 www.LitCharts.com Page 11 Explanation and Analysis In this passage, the narrator of the story establishes the time that he has spent with Auguste Dupin, the great detective. Dupin is a prototype for Sherlock Holmes--he's smart and sophisticated, but he's also an incredibly odd, eccentric person (and Poe arguably invented the modern detective story through the character of Dupin). Dupin and the narrator live together in a house and stay up late every night reading and putting their minds to use. While they're both highly intelligent people, their behavior could easily be mistaken for insanity. It's a mark of Poe's devotion to eccentricity and strangeness that even in a story about a detective--supposedly a paragon of rationality and self-control--the characters seem like "madmen" trapped in a sinister, isolated house. Dupin and his friend use their intelligence to solve crimes, but intelligence is not enough--intuition and eccentricity of imagination are vital in understanding the world, a surprising reminder of Poe's own eccentric worldview. The modes and sources of this kind of error are well typified in the contemplation of the heavenly bodies. To look at a star by glances -- to view it in a sidelong way, by turning toward it the exterior portions of the retina (more susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the interior, is to behold the star distinctly -- is to have the best appreciation of its lustre -- a lustre which grows dim just in proportion as we turn our vision fully upon it. Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
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