Post #2 on Dostoevsky’s The Double: It is NOT the story of Golyadkin and his nervous breakdown.

The conventional view is that Mr. Golyadkin is the main character and that the story is primarily about his nervous breakdown—either caused by, or featuring the delusion of, having a double—and how he was finally carted off to a mental hospital.

There are several reasons to reject that interpretation:

First, the title. Why doesn't the title highlight or even mention Mr. Golyadkin? Why isn’t the title Golyadkin and His Double or Golyadkin’s Double Trouble or, simply, Golyadkin? It is called The Double, because it is the double’s story.

Second, the narrator. At first, the reader is led to believe that the narrator is sincerely interested in, and sympathetic to, Mr. Golyadkin. At the beginning of the narrative, the only important character appears to be Golyadkin, and the narrator refers to him as “our hero.” But as the story progresses, the narrator’s attitude toward Golyadkin is gradually revealed to be mocking and contemptuous.

Third, how long has the double existed? Readers who are uninformed about multiple personality will take it at face value that the double was not present at the beginning of the story, and only arrives in the course of the story, as a cause or symptom of Golyadkin’s mental illness. But anyone who is informed about multiple personality knows that it has a childhood onset.

So Golyadkin’s double had probably been present for many years. The most likely scenario is that the double had been a protector/helper personality who was responsible for much of the success Golyadkin had had in his life up to that point. Either the double had helped Golyadkin from behind the scenes, so to speak, never coming out. Or the double had come out and personally handled things that Golyadkin couldn’t, but had always done so incognito, never taking credit.

However, as often happens in cases of multiple personality disorder, the better functioning alternate personality eventually got tired of doing most of the work and not getting any of the credit. The personality probably came to feel that he could achieve much greater success in life if he got rid of Golyadkin and was completely free to do things, and live his life, his own way. His plan was to drive Golyadkin crazy, to get him medicated and put away.

In short, The Double is not the story of Golyadkin’s failure. It is the story of the alternate personality’s success.