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Similarities Between The Fall Of The House Of Usher And William Wilson

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Similarities Between The Fall Of The House Of Usher And William Wilson
The Darkness and Gloom of the Theme of Death
Edgar Allan Poe lived a life filled with loss, grief, and suffering. It is no surprise, then, that many of his works share the theme of death. “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “William Wilson” and “The Cask of Amontillado” all explore the theme of death; however, in each of these works Poe shows a different aspect of it. In “William Wilson” death is presented in an ambiguous and mysterious way, as the audience does not know whether William Wilson’s look-a-like is a haunting figure of his imagination or is a classmate that seems to know too much. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is presented through the narrator’s lens as he helps out a friend whose whole life has been permeated with death. Lastly, …show more content…
In this work Poe confronts death, but not in the literal sense, as in some of his other works. “William Wilson” is a story where a self-willed, intelligent, and bold man comes across another man who seems to embody the exact form of himself. Through this short story, the audience questions whether the other William Wilson is only a conscience and does not tangibly exist, or whether he is a real human that knows too much. William Wilson’s “follower” has a disposition dissimilar to Wilson- he is quiet, has no flaws, and only communicates through whispers, and unlike the other boys at the school he is not charmed by William Wilson’s intelligence and wealth. Although Wilson is scared of and threatened by his follower (because of his omnipresence and unlimited knowledge), he is also awed and fascinated by him. Death in “William Wilson” is not necessarily literal; rather, it takes place throughout the entire story. Wilson’s doppelganger is constantly trying to kill the side of William Wilson that has no concern for anyone else- the boastful and selfish side. William Wilson is, in a way, killing off his own goodness by refusing to listen to the wisdom of his doppelganger; by the end of the story, Wilson is beyond salvation and has become dead to others around
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