Psychoanalysis of William Wilson
Psychoanalysis of William Wilson
We all have battle with our inner-selves but we never imagine it getting as bad as William Wilson. A man that believes he does not believe he belongs on this earth any longer. In the short story William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe tells the story of a battle between a man and his conscience, and one can only think, what did he do to become this way, what could of helped him escape his own self, “LET me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation. This has been already too much an object for the scorn --for the horror --for the detestation of my race.” (Poe). From the very beginning of the story you can understand that the narrator had done something very wrong. The reader can only begin to think what the narrator has done to call himself the names that he does. Later on in the short story he begins to tell a story of youth, which is really the story of Edgar Allen Poe’s youth. As a boy he was a troublemaker and was destined for trouble. As you can see there is a pattern in this story. William Wilson talks of other people usually children that are very similar to him when he was a child. Could this be a sign of him explaining his two different personalities? One personality being the good child who would listen and do his work and the other being the child that would bully his own self. How did William Wilson get to this point 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
We all have battle with our inner-selves but we never imagine it getting as bad as William Wilson. A man that believes he does not believe he belongs on this earth any longer. In the short story William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe tells the story of a battle between a man and his conscience, and one can only think, what did he do to become this way, what could of helped him escape his own self, “LET me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation. This has been already too much an object for the scorn --for the horror --for the detestation of my race.” (Poe). From the very beginning of the story you can understand that the narrator had done something very wrong. The reader can only begin to think what the narrator has done to call himself the names that he does. Later on in the short story he begins to tell a story of youth, which is really the story of Edgar Allen Poe’s youth. As a boy he was a troublemaker and was destined for trouble. As you can see there is a pattern in this story. William Wilson talks of other people usually children that are very similar to him when he was a child. Could this be a sign of him explaining his two different personalities? One personality being the good child who would listen and do his work and the other being the child that would bully his own self. How did William Wilson get to this point 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
Cited: Poe, Edgar Allen. "William Wilson." Online Reading and Ebooks. Web. 04 Dec. 2011. .