Last week, I released a video on Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In that video, I talked about Stevenson’s exploration of the duality of man and what conclusion I believe the book supports. (Hint: it differs from the prevailing opinion you may have heard.) If that interests you, you can check it out here.
That got me thinking about the theme of the duality of man in literature. From my admittedly brief research, it seems to be a rarely-explored concept in any genre, even less so in the Gothic one. But the possibilities are huge. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today. The marriage between doppelgängers and the duality of man and how the Gothic genre could facilitate a deep exploration of this theme.
Definitions: Duality of Man & Doppelgängers
First, though, some definitions. By the duality of man, I mean themes that explore the contrast between good and evil in a single person. Stevenson explored the extent to which the two can coexist. Dr. Jekyll, a man who “was committed to duplicity” spends the novel attempting to live a double life. By day, he’s an upstanding doctor. By night, he lives as Mr. Hyde, a murderer. We aren’t explicitly told what else he does by night, but the implication is that he engages in every evil fancy he has.
Jekyll reminds me a bit of Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray. As a man, Gray lives exclusively on the dark side of the equation, deliberately seeking out every evil he can imagine. And to an escalating extent. However, if we look at Gray’s portrait, the one that externalizes how his life has affected his soul, we see a bit of duality. Whereas Gray lacks Jekyll’s duplicity, his appearance represents the extent to which a man may appear to be a figure of virtue while he lives as a fiend.
These are thematic examples, for which a doppelgänger would be a particularly useful trope.
A doppelgänger is the German word [meaning “double goer”] used to reference an ancient concept: that every person and animal has a spirit double.1 One of the most prevalent examples I know of in modern writing and entertainment is the abundant use of doppelgängers in the CW television series The Vampire Diaries (based on the books by L.J. Smith). Both Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore have numerous doppelgängers – going back to Amara and Silas in ancient Greece – all conspiring to force them together or attempting to thwart their eternal fate.
But it isn’t the Stefan/Amara line of doppelgängers that applies most aptly to our discussion today. It’s the character of Stefan and his brother, Damon Salvatore. We’ll marry this to the possible use of doppelgängers after we take a quick look at the complexity of these two figures.
Duality & The Salvatore Brothers
As a disclaimer, I have never read The Vampire Diaries, but I have seen most of the television series several times. (My appetite for young-adult fiction usually only extends to television and movies.) That said, I don’t know to what extent Stefan and Damon’s characters exhibit duality in the books, but the television characters certainly do, so we’ll focus on this example.
Beware! [Light] Plot Spoilers Ahead!
In the beginning of the series, Plec presents Stefan Salvatore as a compassionate vampire, obsessed with Elena Gilbert, the doppelgänger of his first love, Katherine Pierce. His brother Damon is the witty, but unpredictable image of evil. He ransacks the local woods, picking up wayward campers and drivers, draining them of blood and disposing of the bodies. Everywhere he goes, he leaves a wake of destruction.
But as the series progresses, these two characters round out in surprising ways.
For all Damon’s tough exterior, he’s the one who would sacrifice the most to protect Elena, his brother, and their closest friends. Plec writes him as a essentially a good vampire who expresses his pain in harmful ways. And gentle Stefan. It turns out he has a problem with self-control. He has a history as a ripper – basically a vampire on steroids. Rather than simply killing to survive, a ripper goes on rampages, destroying as many people as possible for the sheer joy of the hunt.
Duality. That’s what we see in both of these characters. There’s more to the two of them than that, of course, but Plec presents both of them as two opposing – and often warring – sides of a person. As much as I enjoy the other characters in the series, I believe that it’s that component that makes the show the success that it is.
Putting It All Together
I don’t see Stefan’s doppelgängers as a representation of his own duality, although I think you could make a loose argument for it. And Damon has no spirit double.
But the marriage of these two would be brilliant. What are some options?
Our starting point would be the theme of the duality of man, but not in an abstract way. Rather, we could set out to explore elements such as:
- Every person is a balance of two opposing forces: good and evil
- Good and evil can’t coexist; one must win out over the other
- In order for a person’s good side to prevail, [x] must happen. “x” could include things such as having the right advantages in life, a supportive marriage or other relationship, or having a spirit of gratitude even in adversity
- All things increase in conjunction with one another –> so a person who pursues increased goodness, will find himself more likely to indulge in evil, albeit perhaps in secret
…etc.
The trope would be the doppelgänger, so our task is to use this trope in such a way that it enhances the exploration of whatever theme we choose. In the options above, we could approach the theme-trope marriage in the following ways:
- The main character has a doppelgänger who continually acts in contrast to his own actions (and desires). When he wants to accomplish something good, the doppelgänger sabotages his efforts. When he loses his temper and lashes out, his doppelgänger puts the best foot forward and steals the acclaim that he never receives.
- This is much like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde battling for existence. It could go either way, but the idea is that the main character and his doppelgänger war with one another for preeminence, or even existence.
- As an example, say your main character is a happily married mother of two. (She’s our “good” character.) But her mother-in-law falls ill and requires assistance. She moves in with the family. And, due to her discomfort and pain, she grows irritable and difficult. In addition, the husband is under undue pressure at work and is becoming both physically and emotionally distant. The main character has a twin sister who lives nearby and who is losing patience as she witnesses this stressful arrangement. As a result, she begins to act out against the MC’s mother-in-law, escalating her spiteful actions until they reach the point of being life-threatening. The MC is in a race to protect her mother-in-law, a race that’s becoming more difficult as the strain on her marriage increases.
- Perhaps your main character has just been appointed to the position of the head of The U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has a long history of humanitarism leanings and, given is newfound role, he now has a greater ability to pursue these aims on a grander scale. But the more benevolent his outward actions become, the more his doppelgänger (perhaps his right hand in the industry) acts in opposition. Perhaps this spirit double is using the humanitarian aims as a means of gaining a better control over people in a desire to use them and ultimately destroy them. The more the MC attempts to counter this with increased benevolence, the worse his doppelgänger becomes…
The options are endless. But can you see how the use of the doppelgänger trope could exaggerate and elucidate any number of themes related to the duality of man?
I love the possibilities. And the plot and character complexity that would result from these options. Feel free to explore your own iterations. And let us know about what you discover!
1 “Doppelgänger”. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/art/doppelganger
If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends!