Poe's Stories brief biography of edgar allan poe
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Short Story By Flannery OConnor
| complicated. Not only do they share identical physical features, birthdays, and a host of other coincidental details, but their personalities now become almost identical when William’s rival starts mimicking him. Considering their already perfect symmetry, this new hobby must make it impossible to tell the boys apart. We as readers are stuck in the narrator’s perspective, though, making it seem like the rivals are in their own little world, so we don’t really get a clue as to how they appear to their classmates (who don't even seem to notice the other boy's antics). Another thing William hates is the way his double talks down to him, offering condescending advice, although he admits that the advice is not immature or misguided, and he knows that if he had followed some of it, he might be a happier man today. But as a boy this counsel infuriates him and the doppelgangers arrogance makes their rivalry become more and more bitter. The narrator had thought that their rivalry was akin to friendship in away, but now it is all hatred. William’s double annoys him with advice but William knows that he should be listening to it. Some of William’s anger comes from the fact that his double might actually have a kind of moral wisdom that William himself doesn’t have. In this way, the whispering, possibly imaginary double starts to seem like a kind of conscience, which William (who seems like kind of a psychopath, to be blunt) is trying desperately to ignore. The doppelganger William notices this change and starts to avoid William. On one occasion around this time, the pair get into a fight, and the tone and openness of the doppelganger astonishes William, because it reminds him so much of his infancy, some barely formed childhood memory that he can’t explain. It is a fleeting sensation but he mentions it because it occurred on the day of their last conversation and he wants to remember the day properly. The pattern of affection and hatred that has driven the relationship of the two William’s has become more volatile, and at the same time draws them even closer as William now associates his double with a sense from his infancy. Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com ©2017 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 30 The narrator reminds us of the awkward shape of the school building and all its nooks and crannies. Some of these little alcoves were turned into dormitories, and this is where William’s double lives. One night, William gets up when everyone is asleep – he has been plotting a practical joke that will make his double aware of his hatred. He enters the tiny room and when he is sure that his double is asleep, he brings his lamp in and draws back the curtains that surround the boy’s bed. But as the light hits the boy’s face, the narrator cannot believe his eyes. He had always been a perfect replica but now he doesn’t recognize his own double Terrified, William hurries from the closet and leaves the schoolhouse, never to return again. The facets of the rival William’s character that differ from the narrator’s character are interesting to collect. The whispering voice is one example, and here’s another, the fact that the rival William sleeps in a closet instead of a normal bedroom, as if he has been hidden away. Poe cleverly uses our expectations for more and more doppelganger details and surprises us with the even more horrible idea of finding one’s doppelganger transformed. And William's own horror suggests, even as he hates his doppelganger, how much he has come to rely on it being his doppelganger. After a few months, William starts studying at Eton instead and the strength of the horrible memory fades – he now remembers that night as if remembering a hallucination rather than areal occurrence. And his life at Eton, filled with folly and thoughtless games, promotes his unserious view of life. While at Eton, he passes years of careless misery, and develops bad habits. One night, he invites some peers to drink with him and their revelry is unbridled, and reaches its peak as the sun begins to rise. Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
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