“William Wilson” by Edgar Allan Poe (post 2): In this double (multiple personality) story, the bad personality stabs the good personality to death

The first-person narrator, William Wilson, is upset to find he has an identical double; that is, identical in name and appearance. They differ in personality. The narrator is bad (gambling, cheating, drinking). His double, who is conventional, interferes with the bad behavior. Eventually, the narrator is fed up with the interference and stabs his double to death.

Double stories are multiple personality stories. In multiple personality, the regular personality is usually conventional. The alternate personalities are exceptional in one way or another. They may be exceptionally good or bad, or have special interests or talents. In fiction writers, it is usually the alternate personalities who do the writing, while the host personality lives the everyday, conventional life.

Thus, of the two William Wilsons, it is the narrator who is the alternate personality.

This is confirmed at the end of the story, where the conventional, nonwriting personality is quoted. He says to the narrator: “In me didst thou exist—and in my death, see…how utterly thou has murdered thyself” (1, p. 95).

1. Edgar Allan Poe. “William Wilson [1839],” pages 78-95, in The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by Stephen Peithman. New York, Avenel Books, 1986.