Opposing Self Motif in the 19th Century Gothic Literature - Dissertation Example

Gothic genre has always reflected societal changes through its textual motifs. During the Fin de Siècle, the motif of an inherent Other also called Der Doppelgänger, Doppelganger or The Double served this purpose immaculately. Doppelganger was not a novel feature in gothic novels but it received its most refined outlining as an embodiment of duality in human psyche or inner conflicts during this era. Doppelgangers evolved from a form which was obvious, controllable and formative into something that was hidden and repressed - the Other side of personality.

For late 19th century gothic writers, ‘double’ no longer remained a physical twin of the protagonist but the ‘masked’ side of one single person. A variety of names and medical explanations such as the bipolar disorder, xenophobia, or split personality/multiple personality disorder were associated with doppelganger but that fact is that it only mirrored the anxieties of fin de siècle. In this paper, the focus will be on exploring late 19th century’s intellectual fashion of presenting protagonists as doppelgangers or having an evil masked side.

The hypothesis is that this duality had a purpose as authors tried to express their resentments, fears, objections and dilemmas as well as their understanding of human mind with respect to the scientific discourses on human behaviour through doppelgangers. The objective of this paper is to explore the reason(s) behind making doppelgangers as the inherent other during fin de siècle by analysing two influential novels.