Theme of Identity in William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe 

Categories: Edgar Allan Poe

We have fought with our internal identities, yet we never envisioned it getting as worst as William Wilson. “William Wilson” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is about a man that thinks he no longer has a purpose on this earth. William struggles to understand his identity in the story. He states “Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not to be sullied with my real appellation.” (Poe line 1-2).

Poe describes the tale of a fight between a man and his conscience, one can only think, what did he do to end up along these lines.

William Wilson is the principal character in Poe's short story William Wilson. Poe handles various types of things all through his story revolving around human instinct and society when all is said in done. A key point in the story is when the narrator pointed out that '... my rival had a weakness in the faucal or guttural organs, which precluded him from raising his voice at any time above a very low whisper.

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Of this defect I did not fail to take what poor advantage lay in my power' (Poe). The fact that William Wilson always whispered is an important clue that suggests that he is the narrator's conscience. Here, Poe investigates the subjects of doppelgänger. Toward the end of the story, we discovered that William Wilson double is certainly not a genuine individual, but his dark side.

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Poe actions to show in his composing is that we have opposite sides to our identity. Despite this, we may not indicate them, not at all like he did, we have different parts of us that think unexpected.

All through his story we visit numerous timeframes in Wilson's life, from his childhood into his passing. At first Wilson's modify sense of self gives off an impression of being his still, small voice, giving him guidance; however, before the finish of the story, his double ends up being to a greater degree a judge. All that he did was affected by his opposite side, he was not completely mindful of it. He ventures to the far corners of the planet attempting to get away from his double, restricting him from progress; however, he was never ready. Until the point that his unavoidable passing arrived.

Oddly enough, Wilson appears to understand what similarities are between the two characters. For Poe, the feeling of good and the feeling of the terrible are clear. It is something we realized when we were children. Be that as it may, William developed all through the story. His relations with his double are private, considering this, association with love and hate we can see the expected advancement of Wilson's mortality all through the story by watching his crumbling association with his doppelgänger.

Society here is spoken to by the schools he visits, his betting partners in Oxford, toward the finish of the disguise ball in Rome. These components don't have a critical influence in Williams life, they are displayed more than a foundation to the examination of Williams identity. The ending of the story is very discouraging for the goals of the double’s character issue: rather than the two sections away is his identity being accommodated, we witness the success of one over the other.

Updated: Nov 01, 2022
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Theme of Identity in William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe . (2021, Apr 24). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/theme-of-identity-in-william-wilson-by-edgar-allan-poe-essay

Theme of Identity in William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe  essay
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