Psychoanalysis of William Wilson Essay Example

in his life were he had to make up a second identity. “The house, I have said, was old and irregular. The grounds were extensive, and a high and solid brick wall, topped with a bed of mortar and broken glass, encompassed the whole.

This prison-like rampart formed the limit of our domain; beyond it we saw but thrice a week --once every Saturday afternoon, when, attended by two ushers, we were permitted to take brief walks in a body through some of the neighbouring fields --and twice during Sunday, when we were paraded in the same formal manner to the morning and evening service in the one church of the village. ” (Poe). His house was a like prison, which could have made him depressed. Depression is shown to make a person do things they wouldn’t normally do like commit crimes that could not be forgiven.

This could be the reason why the narrator did what he did. Everybody has had a scenario where they could not come up with a decision, and that is usually where our consciousness comes into play. For William Wilson his consciousness became his worse enemy. It was always a battle for who was right and who wrong but at the same time he was always right because it was a battle with himself. Even though the majority of the short story you don’t know that he is talking about himself, when you find out it makes sense because of all the similarities they had.

William Wilson was a man that needed help but was scared to ask for it. You don’t find out till the end of the story that something

is wrong with him. And the whole reason he is telling this story is because he is dying so could there have ever been any chances for him to have help, I think not. What ever he did, he did not want anybody to know that he even existed. There were a few choices that William Wilson could have made to overcome this difficult time of his life. He could of went to someone who really loved, but during the story we never really find out if has family, friends, or loved ones.

His second choice could have been, going to a psychiatrist to evaluate his problem, but once again, he had no idea that there was a problem in the first place. His final choice would have been committing suicide which some think is exactly what he did without really knowing it. “"You have conquered, and I yield. Yet, henceforward art thou also dead --dead to the World, to Heaven and to Hope! In me didst thou exist --and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself. " (Poe) His alter ego is the cause of his death, which is just like committing suicide.

Maybe that was the only way for him to escape his troubles and be free again. Towards the beginning of the story it is very hard to depict what exactly is going in narrator’s head. You think that he is perfectly normal, and is just a man telling a story of us life and what obstacles he has faced. But then when you come to face that the whole time he was talking

about his two different personalities it is very confusing. You can tell that the people that he surrounds himself with are very confused out about his condition, and don’t know what to do about it. I almost automatically thought that he was insane.

There are many different reasons why people become sick and to the point were they start hallucinating. This mindset that the character has is not safe at all. Just the fact that he believe he is two different people is crazy but it is also very unsafe for himself and the people around him. At the very end of the story we find out that the big fight he is having in the masquerade is with him and at the end no body was going to be a winner. “Thus it appeared, I say, but was not. It was my antagonist --it was Wilson, who then stood before me in the agonies of his dissolution.

His mask and cloak lay, where he had thrown them, upon the floor. Not a thread in all his raiment --not a line in all the marked and singular lineaments of his face which was not, even in the most absolute identity, mine own! ” (Poe). He ends up killing himself and realizing that it is himself until it is too late. Just the fact that he went around fighting with his own self is dangerous was lucky not to hurt anyone around him that he loved. His alter ego was strong to control how he acted and basically controlled his faith. I find it very fascinating how the narrator explains the final fight scene against his alter ego.

The whisperer wears the same costume as the narrator, a Spanish cloak with a black silk mask. Drawn into a side room, the narrator becomes enraged, drawing his sword and stabbing his rival. To the narrator’s horror, the layout of the room mysteriously changes, and a mirror replaces the body of his antagonist. He stares into the mirror to find his own body stabbed and bleeding, and he hears his rival speak as though with his own voice: “In me didst thou exist—and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself. ”(Poe)

William Wilson was a strange character because you never knew what he was going to do next. The fact that he didn’t even know what he was going to do is what made this short story very interesting. It amazes me how the brain can put certain things in perspective, but at the same time it can make you believe the unthinkable. Was William Wilson insane or was Edgar Allan Poe just a great writer. I think to write a story like this their needs to be a little bit of the both. Work Cited Poe, Edgar Allen. "William Wilson. " Online Reading and Ebooks. Web. 04 Dec. 2011. .