I have to write a term paper, ASAP, on Edgar Allen Poe and his doppelganger theory. I am having a difficult finding this information, ao I can complete my term paper.

Please assist me in finding this.

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2003

Answers

The primary story would seem to be "William Wilson" although there are elements of paired characters and split perosnalities throughout Poe. The intricate layers in "The Fall of the House of Usher", the two adventurers, Arthur and Augustus in the Pym novel who share stories and resemble each other. I have seen some tantalizing clues that suggest the Pym narrator may in fact be Augustus. "The Man in the Crowd" and the narrator, the victim and murderer in "The Cask of Amontillado". The two brothers descending into the Maelstrom. The doctor and patient in "tales of the ragged Mountains". Almost always one dies so that the other can observe beyond the end and live to tell the tale. The detective sidekick if Augusute Dupin.

Is this split also indicative of Poe's loss of his adventurous, doomed older brother? Or is it just the split in his own mind between the victorious rationalist and dark Romantic poet? In the argumentive and destructive dialogue of the self?(The Raven, Ulalume)There is both a mental and moral split, an intuitive and analytical divide that rests precariously on the fault line known as "The Imp of the Perverse". There is always doom and facination involved, since I believe part of the doppelganger legend is one of impish darkness replacing the troubled original, a hunter and hunted theme that mythically goes back to the twins of mythology and the dual nature of the universe.

So Poe wrote from the German Gothic tradition where such psychological manifestations took on fantastic form but dared as well to keep that vaguely within the troubled mind and its mirror. "The Oval Portrait" is another such fancy.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2003

Read "William Wilson" at www.eapoe.org and the note references. There are articles at Poe Studies on Usher and the doppelganger motif. I think it is clearerin that story that the "twin" exists only in his mind as an embodiment of the imp of the perverse, so strong is the character of that self opposing self.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2003

Ya i knwo how your feeling!cause I have to write one too which really sucks!!!Well I went to this site i think it was www.poeessay.com if that's not it try puting a "s" on teh back of essay..they will sned you a essay paper through email...I probly won't do it cause it's not my work but you caould get information from what they send you...heh hope this helps!

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2003

heh sorry the real site is www.poeessays.com (errrrr why doesn't this frickin site have links damnit!...*sigh* oh well)

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2003