Poe's Stories brief biography of edgar allan poe
Download 0.58 Mb. View original pdf
|
Short Story By Flannery OConnor
| William is fueled by the presence of a challenger like Glendinning and is so fired up by the rivalry that he becomes heartless, using Glendinning like a pawn in his game and taking his money ruthlessly. But Glendinning is found to be vulnerable. William is used to dealing with his double, who is almost without weakness, so when he finds Glendinning destroyed by his tactics, William is brought down to earth. Embarrassment and sadness comes over everybody. William is relieved by an unexpected interruption – the doors open suddenly, blowing out all the candles. In the dim light, a stranger enters in a cloak. The room is not totally black but they can sense he is there. Then, in an unforgettable whisper, summoning all present to listen, he says it is his duty to inform them of the true nature of their host, and directs them to investigate William’s shirt cuff, which he claims hides some little packages. The room is stunned. The visitor leaves as quickly as he arrived. Just like at school, the other William knows everything about the narrator – how he could have known about the secret card deck or even planted it there, shows his supernatural presence and connection to the narrator that goes beyond friendship and rivalry to something more intimate. Again, one possibility is that he is an embodiment of William's conscience, that his revelation of William's cheating is in fact William himself revealing that cheating in a sudden fit of conscience. The narrator can hardly describe his terror when pairs of hands seize him and he is searched by his friends, who find, as predicted, packets of false cards used for cheating. The discovery is greeted with silent contempt by his friends. The host of the party asks him to leave immediately and quit Oxford, and hands him his cloak. William is so embarrassed that he expects he will lash out at the host, but something else occurs to him with more force. He notices that he is already holding his cloak, an unusually expensive one in a strange fashion, and the one he is being offered is an exact replica. He remembers that the figure had also worn a cloak. He thinks on his feet and takes the replica without anyone noticing that he now carries two cloaks. He leaves the room, in painful disgrace, and soon after, leaves Oxford, and the country. William is now in a position of ridicule and disrespect from his group of peers that he once dominated. This is a shock to the system and William’s reputation is ruined. But the real uneasiness of the room is the lingering sensation that William’s curse, of being followed by a double character, has returned. The double’s ability to know where he is and what he is doing fills William with dread and gives the reader a sense of foreboding now that the figure has disappeared. The double, even in its absence, is inescapable. Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com ©2017 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 32 William tries to escape his alter ego, but even on the continent, he finds signs of the other William. He flees from country to country, each time pursued by his rival. He again questions with all his might why and how this man is pursuing him but realizes that the only offence his doppelganger is committing is stopping certain immoral deeds that the narrator has schemed, like his cheating of Glendinning. The narrator also notices that, though his double always wears a matching outfit, he never shows his face. William wonders if he really believes that he can avoid being recognized as the original doppelganger. William is powerless to escape the pursuit of his alter ego, because the scope of this paranormal figure, made, perhaps, somehow from Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
|