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William Wilson (The Double)
The doppelganger William Wilson is so threatening to the narrator because he represents morality, conscience, and restraint. Indeed, after Wilson’s murder, the narrator no longer has any of these qualities. At Dr. Bransby’s Academy, the narrator grows increasingly angry with Wilson because he advises him toward morality. A single whisper from Wilson is enough to render the narrator “sober” during a wild night of drinking with his Eton schoolmates. Wilson shows up to reveal the narrator’s cheating scheme at Oxford just as the narrator begins to feel guilty that Glendinning has less money than he’d thought. As the narrator travels around the world, Wilson seems to appear only to thwart his symbolically sinful acts, such as wrath (“my revenge in Paris”) or lust (“my passionate love in Naples”). To add to Wilson’s symbolic function, the whispery voice he speaks in may be likened to the biblical “still small voice” that is usually interpreted as a person’s conscience (1 Kings 19:12). Wilson’s dying message—that by killing him the narrator has killed himself—suggests that if a person rids themselves of their conscience, they will die a spiritual death.
William Wilson (The Name)
The narrator has a preoccupation with his name, understanding that names contain implications that reveal a person’s identity. He chooses to use the name William Wilson to tell the story because it has connotations that approximate those of his original name. To the narrator, his real name—along with the name William Wilson—represents commonality, something he abhors. He describes it as “the common property of the mob,” which is to say a name anyone might have, and therefore a name that represents an unexceptional person. Ironically, the narrator believes he can no longer use his real name because his actions have made it synonymous with infamy rather than commonness. Just as he’s able to describe himself as an Elah-Gabalus and assume his audience understands that to mean a decadent and depraved person, his real name has similar power as a metaphor for a singularly degenerate person.
