Dorian's Doppelganger
What is a Doppleganger?
a ghostly double of a living person that haunts its living counterpart.
Myra Khan
Hanna Jones
Andrea Giron
Elizabeth Galicia
dopple: double
ganger: goer
Dorian's portrait is his doppleganger
Historical Context
In many Gothic novels, doppelgangers were used often because of the belief that within every man has an inner duality.
Wilde writes Dorian Gray using a doppelganger to emphasize the fact that there is evil within everyone, and that superficial beliefs are not to be trusted.
Dorian's Portrait
Dorian's portrait haunts him with the truth, it is set as a constant reminder of his sins. Although Dorian is able to live with his beauty, which to him is the most important thing, he is troubled .
Eventually...
- Dorian becomes more and more corrupt, knowing it will only affect his portrait
- Curiosity draws him to continue to test his soul's capacity for evil
- When he tries to finally redeem himself, and take responsibility for his actions instead of allowing his 'soul' to do it for him, he cannot because his doppelganger has taken over him
- He tries to get rid of it, but it has become him and he ultimately ends his own life
Progression of
Dorian's doppelganger
He realizes that his soul is destroying him
“For it was an unjust mirror, this mirror of his soul that he was looking at. Vanity? Curiosity? Hypocrisy? Had there been nothing more in his renunciation than that?”
The portrait first haunts him when he first sees it
"I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose? Every moment that passes takes something from me and gives something to it....It will mock me someday- mock me horribly!"
He is fascinated by this double but also feels horrified that it reflects his change
"As he often remembered afterwards, and always with no small wonder, he found himself at first gazing at the portrait with a feeling of almost scientific interest. That such a change should have taken place was incredible to him. And yet it was a fact. Was there some subtle affinity between the chemical atoms that shaped themselves into form and colour on the canvas and the soul that was within him? Could it be that what that soul thought, they realized?--that what it dreamed, they made true? Or was there some other, more terrible reason? He shuddered, and felt afraid, and, going back to the couch, lay there, gazing at the picture in sickened horror."
Seeing the change makes him feel guilty towards Sibyl
After the initial overwhelming, Dorian embraces his dual nature and decides to take advantage of it.
"For there would be a real pleasure in watching it. He would be able to follow his mind into its secret places. This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal to him his own soul."
It dehumanizes him, allowing him to witness his internal corruption as it appears on the portrait instead of experiencing the consequences himself.
