Couples and Doubles Flashcards
1) The motif of the double in Literature
Literature has relied on this theme of the double for ages. The other who is similar to one’s own self and different at the same time stems from the Latin phrase “alter ego”
alter (v.)
late 14c., “to change (something), make different in some way,” from Old French alterer “to change, alter, “from Medieval Latin alterare “to change,” from Latin alter “the other (of the two),” from PIE root *al- (1) “beyond” + comparative suffix -ter (as in other).
Intransitive sense “to become otherwise” first recorded 1580s. Related: Altered; altering. ego (n.) by 1707, in metaphysics, “the self; that which feels, acts, or thinks,” from Latin ego “I” (cognate with Old English ic; see I); its use is implied in egoity.
Ipse vs idem (Paul Ricoeur, Soi-même comme un autre
Induces the question of repetition and difference: mere duplication of the original or variation in the repetition. The double may not necessarily be the exact copy of the original.
Idea that Pip and David Copperfield are more or less twins: Letter to John Fortser, early October 1860:
“The book will be written in the first person throughout, and during these first three weekly numbers you find the hero to be a boy-child, like David.”
The “double” may hint at
The “double” may hint at some subterranean characteristic, something hidden, not quite straightforward: “double entendre” of puns for instance, or duplicity (“dishonest talk or behaviour, especially by saying different things to two people”).
Motif of the doppelgänger
“a spirit that looks exactly like a living person, or someone who looks exactly like someone else but who is not related to that person.”
The theme of the double implies on the one hand the question of “what makes me who I am?” and also “what makes the others so different from myself?”.
What follows from those two existential interrogations is obviously a crisis of identity, a kind of reaction for or against the characteristics which you are made of.
In terms of characterization:
Novel which contains an intricate set of characters, many designed to parallel and contrast one another.
Pairs of the novel’s main characters, or doubles serve to reveal both the effects of social class and the presence of common human traits in apparently different people.
Doubles in GE
Two father figures: Joe / Magwitch (whose first name is Abel)
Two convicts: Magwitch/ Compeyson: Abel and Cain the two enemy brothers. Compaysan/ co-patriot
Two (inadequate) mother figures: Mrs Joe Gargery/ Miss Havisham
Two potential love interests: Biddy/ Estella Two evil characters: Orlick cf p. 90/ Drummle cf p. 158: described in similar terms.
Two couples in the end: Joe-Biddy / Herbert-Clara / hypothetical couple of Pip/. Estella
Chiaro-scuro effect: chiaro: Herbert/ Clara vs scuro Pip/ Estella
Two father figures:
: Joe / Magwitch (whose first name is Abel)
Two convicts
Magwitch/ Compeyson: Abel and Cain the two enemy brothers. Compaysan/ co-patriot
Two (inadequate) mother figures:
Mrs Joe Gargery/ Miss Havisham
Two potential love interests:
Biddy/ Estella Two evil characters: Orlick cf p. 90/ Drummle cf p. 158: described in similar terms.
Two couples in the end:
Joe-Biddy / Herbert-Clara / hypothetical couple of Pip/. Estella
Chiaro-scuro effect:
chiaro: Herbert/ Clara vs scuro Pip/ Estella
Other less expected pairs:
Magwitch/ Miss Havisham Something wonderful in both of them: fairy tale characters: the good and the bad witch: double of Pip’s parents.
Estella and Pip: more similar than may look at first sight: both “adopted” by Miss Havisham, both from the lower classes and raised above their status to have great expectations.
Pip / Orlick: Orlick frees Pip from Mrs Joe Gargery, makes her pay instead of Pip. See “The Hero’s Guilt”, p. 657, 658, 659.
Pip/ Herbert: original violence between brothers re-enacted: only this time the relationship will be redeemed from its initial bad start.
Herbert: positive double of Pip (has managed to overcome his disappointed with Estella). Herbert’s family may be seen as the double of Pip’s family.
Wemmick: Jagger’s double and his own.
Miss Havisham/ Molly: female oppression.
Molly = Estella’s double, p. 165 Drummle/ Startop
