need interpretation

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i read the tale on William Wilson and i need to write a response paper. I cant start until i understand it. Please interpret for me in simple english on the plot and what is happening in the story/tale. All i need is the story told to me in a way i can understand it.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2002

Answers

The story is made difficult by the pereception oif the first person narrator. In school he obsesses about a rival who seems to be stealing his thunder, who also bears his name and looks something like him. The modern reader already begins to suspect that this alter ego is not real. In any case the narrator goes nuts, a hunter and hunted confusion goes on, ruining his life, until one Wilson murders the other, with no one being more confused as to who is dead than the narrator himself. Accepting the fact that we have only the narrator to go with we have to see the true story being contained within the narrator's mind. As in other Poe stories any external victim is practically insignificant(at least to the mad narrator). The self destruction and the extreme fascination and horror of the protagonist are everything.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2002

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