Summary & Analysis of William Wilson

William Wilson is not one of the most popular short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, but the story describes many of the gothic motifs that add suspense; these are the powerful love or relationship, houses, and death and decay.

William Wilson is the faux name of the unnamed narrator. In other words, the narrator is uncomfortable displaying his true name, and thus gives the audience a false one to protect his identity. He explains to the readers that the nature of the story will allow us to comprehend why he chooses not to reveal his identity.

The narrator takes us far back in time, when he was a child. His time was mostly spent in this, as he describes, Gothic Elizabethan house for schooling. The narrator makes careful detail of the intense eeriness of the house, speaking of it as a prison. Despite this grimness, he is a successful student at school, and even describes himself as superior to the other students. There is one exception, however, and this is because a student with the exact same name bears similar resemblance, sophistication, and intelligence to him. This second William Wilson torments him, driving him to increase his competitiveness against this other William Wilson. His irritation is furthered as he continues to learn of the similarities--they entered schooling the same day, and they have the same voice inflections, with the exception that the second can merely whisper. The other students in the school even believe that the two are brothers; of course, this enrages William Wilson. Their relationship, that was originally moderate and friendly, becomes violent, and William Wilson even decides to play a trick on the second boy. However, this trick included the original William to shine a lamp on the second’s face--displaying a face of the darkness. Shocked from this facial transformation, the narrator quickly shifts to a few months later where he has transferred to a different school. At this new school, he turns to alcohol. During his substance abuse, the narrator sees a figure emerge from the darkness, the second William Wilson who grabs the narrator and whispers their name. He disappears, and William Wilson changes schools again (Labriola).

Taking on gambling and now in Rome, the narrator is attending a masquerade ball, wearing a Spanish cloak with a black silk mask. In rush to look for a lady, he feels a brush on his arm, revealing that it is once again the second William Wilson wearing the exact same costume--a Spanish cloak with a black silk mask. Drawn to speak in a different room, the narrator becomes angered and stabs the second William Wilson, only to discover that the room miraculously changes into a room of mirrors. In those mirrors, he sees that he has in fact stabbed himself, and looks to his bleeding (Labriola). But, the second William Wilson speaks his final words: “In me didst thou exist—and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself” (Poe).

This last quotation speaks to this doppelganger effect--in reality not two identical, separate people but one entity, and comments on the different sides people can become. This different side could be known as the alter ego. As Floyd Stovall states: “the obsession [of the doppelganger] grows upon him so that at intervals afterward he imagines his namesake intervenes to prevent some dishonorable action. Eventually, William Wilson imagines he kills his personified conscience and thereafter acts without restraint.” That final image of the murder or suicide points to the link between the body and the mind. The narrator is infected with his alter ego so much so that it develops into a second rival. His stab from the sword breaks this notion between the mind and body, destroying his tortured mind (Stovall).

This short story creates suspense because each time one learns about an additional similarity between the two William Wilson the mind is drawn to how or why these similarities could be possible. This question is continually posed throughout the short story creating that desire for knowledge and thus its suspense. In essence, suspense addresses the mental uncertainty of a situation or the state of being doubtful. Like Alfred Hitchcock, Poe examines the mental uncertainty that not only the audience feels when experiencing the art, but also what the characters feel. In other words, in addition to suspense, Poe uses psychologically tormented characters to torment the audience. “William Wilson” is a perfect example of this because the character is driven to madness through the competitiveness and alter ego of himself. This doppelganger effect is a powerful relationship in which both characters (or rather one entity) transforms, and sometimes by ending one part of the whole (ie. the first William Wilson killing the second William Wilson). As J. Gerald Kennedy states as comparing William Wilson to "The Man of the Crowd," "he falls prey to the same sensational influences which distort the perceptions of William Wilson." In other words, these sensational influences from the doppelganger effect are the powers that corrupt William Wilson and even the audience (Kennedy).

Besides the powerful relationship, “William Wilson” also includes the Gothic motif of the house. It is important to note that the first experience in which the narrator meets the alter ego, the second William Wilson is at an Elizabethan house that the narrator describes as Gothic. Poe is a little overzealous and it shows that Poe even recognizes himself that he is displaying these gothic motifs to instill suspense to the readers. Accordingly, “William Wilson” uses the Gothic motifs of the powerful love or relationship, houses, and death and decay.