@Kimberly... I think that the double of Wilson had a bad impact on him. In the end he ended up killing himself when trying to rid himself of his doppelganger.
@KimberlyM - In the text, I never got the sense that the narrator was enjoying William's company but rather annoyed and angered by William Wilson. This is exhibited by him running from place to place trying to escape William.
Jessica - I strongly believe that Wilson was a doppelganger... The definition of a doppelganger is basically a ghostly double, and when you encounter them, it leads to your death.
Kimberly: I think he had a negative effect on the narrator because the narrator was obsessed with him rather than himself. Limiting himself to becoming his own person.
Jessica- Like they were saying in the inner circle, Wilson seems to be the narrator's conscience because of the opening quote, the fact that he can only talk in a whisper, and that when the narrator killed Wilson, he became immoral and base.
@Jessica - I think that he is both a man and a piece of his subconscious. William Wilson is following him, he is actually present. However, when he killed William Wilson he therefore killed himself, you can see that they are connected.
Jessica - I think that William Wilson is a part of the narrator's conscience, and that he represents the much darker, yet almost separate side of the human mind.
Jessica- I think the the other William Wilson is just the subconscious of the narrator. The quote at the very end leads me to believe that,"In me didst thou exist- and in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly though hast murdered thyself". Also, they were always dressed the same, and were always the same height, it just seems like it was not a different person.
Kimberly- I think that Wilson had a positive effect on the narrator, because after he died it almost gave him a realization of the evil in his life. Wilson represented good, while the narrator represented evil; without the death of Wilson, the narrator would not have realized how evil he was.
In the beginning of the text the narrator describes himself as the "slave of circumstances beyond human control" and later the "master of my own actions?" In what other ways do you think the narrator is the master or slave?
Mikaela- In the begging,i got the sense that the narrator was sorry and upset for everything that happened. I think that the doppelganger was trying to help him make the right decisions. And when William dies, the narrator finally got the message he was trying to show him.
Lauren- I believe he was really killing a part of his conscience to almost purify his mind. I don't believe he physically killed himself, just a piece of himself.
@Lauren - I think we can safely assume that the narrator didn't have intentions to kill himself, but rather became so annoyed by William Wilson (whether William be an actual human, a subconscious, or some other super natural being)that he wanted him dead. It was then that the reader can see the connection between William Wilson and the narrator.
Lauren - I stand by my thoughts that William Wilson is a doppelganger and that all the events are controlled by an outside force that taps in to the real William Wilson's mind. So I think when he killed William Wilson, he killed both of them because of these undetermined forces.
Lauren- I thought he killed both himself and the conscience. It says in the text that " It was Wilson; but he spoke no longer in a whisper". The last sentence of the story also led me to believe that both of them were dead.
Lauren- I think he killed his whole conscience. At the beginning of the story he says, "Men usually grow base by degrees. For me, in an instant, all virtue dropped bodily as a mantle." Referring to major event of the story, the murder of Wilson/the murder of his conscience.
Lauren, I think the narrator did kill himself, which in turn, killed William Wilson. It seems that William Wilson caused the narrator's suicide, but also in turn rid the narrator of the influence of Wilson.
Why do you think Poe uses Doppelgangers in so many of his stories? For example Roderick and Madeline in "The Fall of the House of Usher" and also in "William Wilson". What is he trying to say?
Maggie- I think the narrator is the slave. This second William Willson conquered his mind in a way because the double is always on his mind. This double also ends up conquering him in the flesh when the real William kills himself.
Lauren- With the death of one's conscience, how can one continue to live on? In a sense, he killed both himself and his conscience; for you cannot live without both.
Lauren - I think that he killed a part of his subconscious, or Wilson. At the end of the text when he reflects upon the demise of Wilson it seems that he can see this from an outside view, but that he himself is not suffering.
Maria- For me, it made me think that they were the same person. I thought that they were not too separate people but it William Wilson was the sub-conscience of the narrator.
Maggie- I think that the narrator is in a constant battle between himself and his conscious. Though out the story he is trying to get rid of his conscious. He wants to be the master of his choices but this conscious is looming over him and he can't make his own decisions.
@ Brooke I Think that Poe uses doppelgangers because they are something that is easy to imagine and is very weird they make you think while being easily understood
Lauren~ I believe that Wilson came up with the notion that the only way to destroy the doppelganger was to destroy himself, promisingly killing both. Whether it is to his mortal body or even just as a detachment from the world in terms of perception of murder.
Brooke- I think he uses the doppleganger so much because it can show that in every part of a society there is an alter ego or evil area that reflects the opposite of the good.
@Brooke- I think that the point that he is trying to get across is that all of these characters have something in common, like Madeline and Roderick were siblings, and William Wilson has the split personality that contributes to his thoughts and actions.
Brooke - I think the use of doppelgangers can help show a fall to madness and craziness. Because doppelgangers are a supernatural thing, to the people that to not experience these things, it makes the people who do seem that much more crazy.
@MariaK - I think that Poe felt he needed to give [William] a name because he was going to reference William many times within the story, and as we can see from Poe's other stories Poe doesn't find names to be important. But that brings me to the question: Why did he choose the name William Wilson, versus a simple name like Bob?.
Abby: Like was said in the middle circle,we see him with two DOUBLE U's, and both contain the word WILL. This suggests two personalities, two beings almost. This gets into questions of humanity: Is a split personality a seperate human?
Abby- I think that it makes the entire text seem more eerie. It helps exaggerate the extremes between their two personalities by showing that two people who seem the same on the outside, can contrast so much internally.
There is a disease called schizophrenia where the mind can create things that are not there. To go with the duel emotions. One can never feel pain if they didn't know happiness, you always need a counterpart to define the other.
Abby- In most literature, a name holds great important for a character. The narrator show his lack of important with out the real Wilson by not naming himself. It real shows how the narrator can't exists without Wilson.
Christiana - So then do you think that things, like this split personality, are "beyond human control" for the narrator, and the second William Wilson is "the master of his own actions?" That even though they are the same person one is in control of the other, and the other is dominated by the other?
Maria K- Since he doesn't give us his real name I think that it shows the struggle that he has with figuring out who he is, since his conscious kind of controls him through out the story he doesn't exactly know who he is.
Brooke- I think he is trying to show that there is evil in everyone, that eventually people are going to turn on each other. It makes all his characters seem like bad crazy people, which also adds to Gothic part of the text.
Do you have to feel hate so that you may love? Just as how you cannot be familiar with happiness and joy without having the knowledge or experience of pain.
Griffin - I agree. I think one of the reasons Poe, as well as other gothic authors use dopplegangers is because of their uncanniness. It is an unsettling idea that something so familiar and known as ones-self can control your actions/ideas.It is similar and familiar, yet unknown/uncontrollable.
Troy: You accidently bought up a brilliant idea with a typo. You said, "Duel emotions" rather than "Dual emotions", which sort of brings to mind the battle between the two consciences.
@NicholasS - I don't think that we can determine logically from the text whether William Wilson was an actual being or just a piece of narrators subconscious. There doesn't seem to be enough evidence for either side. Though I think we can still draw many things from the text without knowing for sure what William Wilson actually is.
I think that the first William Wilson was a little angry at his twin, because since they were identical in almost every aspect it prevented him from carrying out all his schemes, and I also think that there was a little fear, in the fact that he was seeing a mirror image of himself.
I do that that this split personality is beyond human control for the narrator. I think that part of why this "alter ego" has more control is because it is so familiar to him that it becomes unfamiliar.
Jessica- I think that the only way to experiences love and happiness is to go through situations where we see the opposite. If we don't ever experience hate or pain, there is no way to know what true happiness and love is.
Griffin: Both of these stories are inherently linked as they are both about descent into madness. This explores humanity and the mind, and brings to question what different consciences mean. "I think, therefore I am."
Brooke~ I believe it is incredibly important for everyone to have a separate identity, as without it people would not be able to be motivated in order to be known as the best at something or someone with special traits or characteristics.
Rachel - Then which Wilson is being described in the beginning of the story. This character is described as "imaginative" and "easily excitable" he sounds like a happy child someone who is in control. However he also brings up the reoccurring motif of a shadow, which could easily be the conscious.
@MariaB - I think the veil represents the hidden and the unknown (as William Wilson really is a very hidden, mysterious character), similar to "The Minister's Black Veil".
Maria: A black veil is usually worn to a funeral. I believe that the mind decided to kill the other conscience, and bought Wilson to his own funeral. He comes to regret "murdering" his split personality, showing his mourning of his innocence.
Kimberly- I think that he references the school so much to add to the familiar versus unfamiliar. The school he describes isn't how we would describe, he makes school seems a dark ere place.
Kimberly- I feel like Poe wants to ingrain the image of the school into our brains because he wants to display the significance of Wilson moving around so frequently and how he is trying to get away from everywhere he has been and everything he has done.
Mikaela- I think that Poe never tells us what or who the characters are is because leaving it up to our imagination can be more frightening than blatantly stating what he is.
Class: In my opinion, he "murders" his seperate conscience, his split personality, causing him to feel as though a murderer. Can two people exist in one person? Should each be considered an equal human? Or does only the original have a "right" to exist?
MariaB~ I believe the veil represents Wilson's shame in what he has done through his life involving his competition and attempts to become his own person. Just how the Minister seemed to be mourning shameful sins of his society or self.
Christian- I agree that the school seems ere. But its creepy that the narrator loved the time he spent at the school. I think that it really represents the type of character the narrator is before he killed Wilson.
I think that the descriptions are put into such detail in Poe's stories is because he is trying to subtly describe the characters inner thoughts and have something to take a double meaning off of.
Mikaela- Think of the personal connections we make with specific places. Each of the settings within the narrator's life holds a specific significance and meaning to him.
Maggie- It is easy to seem happy and normal on the outside to others, but one can still be haunted by things such as William describes the dark shadow.
Mikaela: We see him murder his other self. His split personality. In his mind, this makes him a murderer, because a conscience represents a human. How else should we define a human, as a simple vessel?
When Poe is describing the school, he also talks about walls and gates surrounding it. This could symbolize how trapped Wilson feels inside himself and/or his other identity.
Class - When the narrator is describing his boarding school it sounds, in many ways like a prison or an asylum. Especially when describing the campus, with "brick walls topped with a bed of mortar and broken glass" and "the prison-like rampart formed the limit of our domain." The people that live there are only aloud to leave 3 times a week unless someone comes to retrieve them, and these times are the only times that the gate with "studded iron bolts and surmounted with jagged iron spikes" ever opens. Is it possible that was a prison, or more likely an asylum. If he does have multiple personality disorder, then would make sense for him to be living in an asylum, or an institution?
Maddie- I think the narrator was scared because the resemblance between William Wilson and himself was so alike, it was almost super-natural, which connects to the definition of doppelganger.
People can always decide what is right and wrong. Even if it is perspective, things are either wrong or right. When we said that it was societies fault I completely disagree.They mentioned that he was from a family of such, however our ancestors owned slaves, however we would never dare of such a thing. It doesn't matter what ones family is.
On the very last page...third to last paragraph...Poe says "It was my antagonist--It was Wilson". Dictionary.com defines an antagonist as a person who is struggled/competed with.
Do you think that the narrator views William Wilson as simply a person who follows and competes with him?
Nicholas - But can't Wilson be a part or fragment of the narrators conscience? I don't it can be necessarily be said that just because Wilson resembles a person, he is an independent entity. In fact, don't we see Wilson appearing surprisingly often around the narrator? I think this implies Wilson is merely a fragment of the narrator's psyche.
Mikaela- I think it is because it really adds to the uncanny part of the Gothic text. It makes us think and use our imagination to figure out why this man is so disturbed. and it makes the story creepier.
Why do you think that when Poe describes Wilson's past (often dreary scenarios), he explains how the environments were "soothing" as well as "dream-like" to the character?
@Maggie-I think so. If this other William Wilson is only a figure of his imagination then there may be a very valid reason for why he is in this so-called "institution."
What is meant when the narrator says "In childhood I must have felt with the energy of a man what I now find stamped upon memory in lines as vivid, as deep, and as durable as the exergues of the Carthaginian?"
Maria- I don't think the point of the story is to determine what Wilson is. The uncertainty surrounding Wilson is what makes this story Gothic. The important thing is what the narrator did in response to Wilson.
Maggie- Yes in a way he is a prisoner of his own mind. In the end he controls all of his actions, however there is something in him that is influencing everything he thinks and does. I do think that at that young age both exist but the influence might not be as strong.
@MariaB - I see William Wilson as an actual human...though he is a subconscious of the narrator. Like Troy was saying at the beginning, that seems a bit weird for your subconscious to be an actual person, but that's the sense I got from the beginning.
Do you think Wilson had a good or bad impact on the narrator.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that William Wilson is another man, or just an imagined mirror identity of the narrator's sub conscience?
ReplyDeleteKimberly- I think that Wilson had a good impact because he stopped the narrator from doing bad things.
ReplyDelete@Kimberly... I think that the double of Wilson had a bad impact on him. In the end he ended up killing himself when trying to rid himself of his doppelganger.
ReplyDelete@KimberlyM - In the text, I never got the sense that the narrator was enjoying William's company but rather annoyed and angered by William Wilson. This is exhibited by him running from place to place trying to escape William.
ReplyDeleteJessica - I strongly believe that Wilson was a doppelganger... The definition of a doppelganger is basically a ghostly double, and when you encounter them, it leads to your death.
ReplyDeleteKimberly: I think he had a negative effect on the narrator because the narrator was obsessed with him rather than himself. Limiting himself to becoming his own person.
ReplyDeleteKimberly~ I believe that Wilson was good for the narrator as it forced the narrator to continually try to be better.
ReplyDeleteKimberly- I think that the double had a bad impact on Wilson because it makes him see all his faults which kind of creates his downfall.
ReplyDeleteKimberly- I think the double of Wilson was good and bad. I think he had kind of like a love hate relationship.
ReplyDeleteJessica- Like they were saying in the inner circle, Wilson seems to be the narrator's conscience because of the opening quote, the fact that he can only talk in a whisper, and that when the narrator killed Wilson, he became immoral and base.
ReplyDelete@Jessica - I think that he is both a man and a piece of his subconscious. William Wilson is following him, he is actually present. However, when he killed William Wilson he therefore killed himself, you can see that they are connected.
ReplyDeleteJessica - I think that William Wilson is a part of the narrator's conscience, and that he represents the much darker, yet almost separate side of the human mind.
ReplyDeleteClass: Did the narrator kill himself as well as William Wilson, or do you think he just killed part of his conscience?
ReplyDeleteJessica- I think the the other William Wilson is just the subconscious of the narrator. The quote at the very end leads me to believe that,"In me didst thou exist- and in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly though hast murdered thyself". Also, they were always dressed the same, and were always the same height, it just seems like it was not a different person.
ReplyDeleteDo you think a conscious can create another human being? In what way? Could it be creating another human from within the original human being?
ReplyDeleteKimberly- I think that Wilson had a positive effect on the narrator, because after he died it almost gave him a realization of the evil in his life. Wilson represented good, while the narrator represented evil; without the death of Wilson, the narrator would not have realized how evil he was.
ReplyDelete@ Lauren I think that he just killed what he thought he was there which was just a part of his imagination
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the text the narrator describes himself as the "slave of circumstances beyond human control" and later the "master of my own actions?" In what other ways do you think the narrator is the master or slave?
ReplyDeleteMaria- I agree, which helps me answer Kimberly's question, I think Wilson had a bad impact on the narrator, it did lead to his death.
ReplyDelete@Lauren- I think he killed William Wilson, because when he died the other side of him died as well.
ReplyDeleteMikaela- In the begging,i got the sense that the narrator was sorry and upset for everything that happened. I think that the doppelganger was trying to help him make the right decisions. And when William dies, the narrator finally got the message he was trying to show him.
ReplyDeleteLauren- I believe he was really killing a part of his conscience to almost purify his mind. I don't believe he physically killed himself, just a piece of himself.
ReplyDelete@Lauren - I think we can safely assume that the narrator didn't have intentions to kill himself, but rather became so annoyed by William Wilson (whether William be an actual human, a subconscious, or some other super natural being)that he wanted him dead. It was then that the reader can see the connection between William Wilson and the narrator.
ReplyDeleteClass: The narrator states that his name is not actually William Wilson, how does this affect the story and the events that unfolded?
ReplyDeleteLauren - I stand by my thoughts that William Wilson is a doppelganger and that all the events are controlled by an outside force that taps in to the real William Wilson's mind. So I think when he killed William Wilson, he killed both of them because of these undetermined forces.
ReplyDeleteLauren- I thought he killed both himself and the conscience. It says in the text that " It was Wilson; but he spoke no longer in a whisper". The last sentence of the story also led me to believe that both of them were dead.
ReplyDeleteLauren- I think he killed his whole conscience. At the beginning of the story he says, "Men usually grow base by degrees. For me, in an instant, all virtue dropped bodily as a mantle." Referring to major event of the story, the murder of Wilson/the murder of his conscience.
ReplyDeleteLauren, I think the narrator did kill himself, which in turn, killed William Wilson. It seems that William Wilson caused the narrator's suicide, but also in turn rid the narrator of the influence of Wilson.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Poe uses Doppelgangers in so many of his stories? For example Roderick and Madeline in "The Fall of the House of Usher" and also in "William Wilson". What is he trying to say?
ReplyDeleteMaggie- I think the narrator is the slave. This second William Willson conquered his mind in a way because the double is always on his mind. This double also ends up conquering him in the flesh when the real William kills himself.
ReplyDeleteClass- Why would the narrator want to go by 'William Wilson?' What can we inference in the text as to why he wants to remain a mystery?
ReplyDeleteLauren- I think the narrator died (or is dying) out of guilt and realization of what he did. He destroyed his conscience.
ReplyDeleteLauren- With the death of one's conscience, how can one continue to live on? In a sense, he killed both himself and his conscience; for you cannot live without both.
ReplyDeleteLauren - I think that he killed a part of his subconscious, or Wilson. At the end of the text when he reflects upon the demise of Wilson it seems that he can see this from an outside view, but that he himself is not suffering.
ReplyDeleteMaria- For me, it made me think that they were the same person. I thought that they were not too separate people but it William Wilson was the sub-conscience of the narrator.
ReplyDeleteMaggie- I think that the narrator is in a constant battle between himself and his conscious. Though out the story he is trying to get rid of his conscious. He wants to be the master of his choices but this conscious is looming over him and he can't make his own decisions.
ReplyDelete@ Brooke I Think that Poe uses doppelgangers because they are something that is easy to imagine and is very weird they make you think while being easily understood
ReplyDeleteLauren~ I believe that Wilson came up with the notion that the only way to destroy the doppelganger was to destroy himself, promisingly killing both. Whether it is to his mortal body or even just as a detachment from the world in terms of perception of murder.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that he dies, he clearly is alive if he can wright about it and think. He just murdered part of him.
ReplyDeleteBrooke- I think he uses the doppleganger so much because it can show that in every part of a society there is an alter ego or evil area that reflects the opposite of the good.
ReplyDelete@Brooke- I think that the point that he is trying to get across is that all of these characters have something in common, like Madeline and Roderick were siblings, and William Wilson has the split personality that contributes to his thoughts and actions.
ReplyDeleteBrooke - I think the use of doppelgangers can help show a fall to madness and craziness. Because doppelgangers are a supernatural thing, to the people that to not experience these things, it makes the people who do seem that much more crazy.
ReplyDelete@MariaK - I think that Poe felt he needed to give [William] a name because he was going to reference William many times within the story, and as we can see from Poe's other stories Poe doesn't find names to be important. But that brings me to the question: Why did he choose the name William Wilson, versus a simple name like Bob?.
ReplyDeleteAbby: Like was said in the middle circle,we see him with two DOUBLE U's, and both contain the word WILL. This suggests two personalities, two beings almost. This gets into questions of humanity: Is a split personality a seperate human?
ReplyDeleteMariaK~ I believe that from this comment we can derive his feeling of not wanting to be affiliated in any way with the doppelganger.
ReplyDelete@Troy - if the narrator isn't actually dead, what part of him died along with William Wilson?
ReplyDeleteAbby- I think that it makes the entire text seem more eerie. It helps exaggerate the extremes between their two personalities by showing that two people who seem the same on the outside, can contrast so much internally.
ReplyDeleteThere is a disease called schizophrenia where the mind can create things that are not there. To go with the duel emotions. One can never feel pain if they didn't know happiness, you always need a counterpart to define the other.
ReplyDeleteAbby- In most literature, a name holds great important for a character. The narrator show his lack of important with out the real Wilson by not naming himself. It real shows how the narrator can't exists without Wilson.
ReplyDeleteChristiana - So then do you think that things, like this split personality, are "beyond human control" for the narrator, and the second William Wilson is "the master of his own actions?" That even though they are the same person one is in control of the other, and the other is dominated by the other?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about a possible connection between the houses in this story and in Fall of the House of Usher
ReplyDeleteMaria K- Since he doesn't give us his real name I think that it shows the struggle that he has with figuring out who he is, since his conscious kind of controls him through out the story he doesn't exactly know who he is.
ReplyDeleteJessica- Then why would he want to have the same name as William Wilson if he wanted to be separated from him?
ReplyDeleteBrooke- I think he is trying to show that there is evil in everyone, that eventually people are going to turn on each other. It makes all his characters seem like bad crazy people, which also adds to Gothic part of the text.
ReplyDeleteDo you have to feel hate so that you may love? Just as how you cannot be familiar with happiness and joy without having the knowledge or experience of pain.
ReplyDeleteGriffin - I agree. I think one of the reasons Poe, as well as other gothic authors use dopplegangers is because of their uncanniness. It is an unsettling idea that something so familiar and known as ones-self can control your actions/ideas.It is similar and familiar, yet unknown/uncontrollable.
ReplyDeleteHow important is it to have your own identity?
ReplyDeleteHis drive was competition, something that everyone feels. People always want to be the best
ReplyDeleteTroy: You accidently bought up a brilliant idea with a typo. You said, "Duel emotions" rather than "Dual emotions", which sort of brings to mind the battle between the two consciences.
ReplyDelete@NicholasS - I don't think that we can determine logically from the text whether William Wilson was an actual being or just a piece of narrators subconscious. There doesn't seem to be enough evidence for either side. Though I think we can still draw many things from the text without knowing for sure what William Wilson actually is.
ReplyDeleteI think that the first William Wilson was a little angry at his twin, because since they were identical in almost every aspect it prevented him from carrying out all his schemes, and I also think that there was a little fear, in the fact that he was seeing a mirror image of himself.
ReplyDeleteMariaK~ I think it was just a way for him to falsely represent to us in the beginning that his name is not the same as that to his doppelganger.
ReplyDeleteI do that that this split personality is beyond human control for the narrator. I think that part of why this "alter ego" has more control is because it is so familiar to him that it becomes unfamiliar.
ReplyDeleteClass - On the last page of the story, William Wilson enters the scene and "A mask of black silk entirely covered his face."
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think this black mask represents? Why is it black? Why is he wearing a mask? How can this connect to "The Minister's Black Veil"?
Jessica- I think that the only way to experiences love and happiness is to go through situations where we see the opposite. If we don't ever experience hate or pain, there is no way to know what true happiness and love is.
ReplyDeleteGriffin: Both of these stories are inherently linked as they are both about descent into madness. This explores humanity and the mind, and brings to question what different consciences mean. "I think, therefore I am."
ReplyDeleteBrooke- I think it is very important to have your own identity, only if you can accept all parts of who you are, evil and good, dark and light, etc.
ReplyDeleteClass- Why do you think Poe spends so much time describing the school that the narrator went to?
ReplyDeleteRather than wonder whether William is an actual being or a piece of subconscious....
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Poe never tells us what William Wilson ACTUALLY is?
Brooke~ I believe it is incredibly important for everyone to have a separate identity, as without it people would not be able to be motivated in order to be known as the best at something or someone with special traits or characteristics.
ReplyDeleteRachel - Then which Wilson is being described in the beginning of the story. This character is described as "imaginative" and "easily excitable" he sounds like a happy child someone who is in control. However he also brings up the reoccurring motif of a shadow, which could easily be the conscious.
ReplyDeleteClass- What happened when the narrator went into William Wilson's room and put the light over his face? (page 5)
ReplyDelete@ Kimberly I think that he describes it for so long because it is where he met William Wilson
ReplyDelete@MariaB - I think the veil represents the hidden and the unknown (as William Wilson really is a very hidden, mysterious character), similar to "The Minister's Black Veil".
ReplyDeleteMaria: A black veil is usually worn to a funeral. I believe that the mind decided to kill the other conscience, and bought Wilson to his own funeral. He comes to regret "murdering" his split personality, showing his mourning of his innocence.
ReplyDeleteKimberly- I think that he references the school so much to add to the familiar versus unfamiliar. The school he describes isn't how we would describe, he makes school seems a dark ere place.
ReplyDeleteI though of the same question Daniel brought up in the middle.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Poe spend sooo much time describing the setting?
Kimberly- I feel like Poe wants to ingrain the image of the school into our brains because he wants to display the significance of Wilson moving around so frequently and how he is trying to get away from everywhere he has been and everything he has done.
ReplyDeleteMaria- I think that he is wearing a black mask to symbolize sin. Sin that he is about to commit and sin that he has already committed.
ReplyDelete@Maddie- I think he finally realized that this person is exactly the same as he is, and I think it takes him aback a little bit.
ReplyDeleteMikaela- I think that Poe never tells us what or who the characters are is because leaving it up to our imagination can be more frightening than blatantly stating what he is.
ReplyDeleteClass: In my opinion, he "murders" his seperate conscience, his split personality, causing him to feel as though a murderer. Can two people exist in one person? Should each be considered an equal human? Or does only the original have a "right" to exist?
ReplyDeleteMariaB~ I believe the veil represents Wilson's shame in what he has done through his life involving his competition and attempts to become his own person. Just how the Minister seemed to be mourning shameful sins of his society or self.
ReplyDelete@RachelB - Where in the story do you see sin the narrator has committed or will commit?
ReplyDeleteChristian- I agree that the school seems ere. But its creepy that the narrator loved the time he spent at the school. I think that it really represents the type of character the narrator is before he killed Wilson.
ReplyDeleteI think that the descriptions are put into such detail in Poe's stories is because he is trying to subtly describe the characters inner thoughts and have something to take a double meaning off of.
ReplyDeleteMikaela- Think of the personal connections we make with specific places. Each of the settings within the narrator's life holds a specific significance and meaning to him.
ReplyDeleteMaggie- It is easy to seem happy and normal on the outside to others, but one can still be haunted by things such as William describes the dark shadow.
ReplyDeleteMikaela: We see him murder his other self. His split personality. In his mind, this makes him a murderer, because a conscience represents a human. How else should we define a human, as a simple vessel?
ReplyDeleteWhen Poe is describing the school, he also talks about walls and gates surrounding it. This could symbolize how trapped Wilson feels inside himself and/or his other identity.
ReplyDeleteClass - When the narrator is describing his boarding school it sounds, in many ways like a prison or an asylum. Especially when describing the campus, with "brick walls topped with a bed of mortar and broken glass" and "the prison-like rampart formed the limit of our domain." The people that live there are only aloud to leave 3 times a week unless someone comes to retrieve them, and these times are the only times that the gate with "studded iron bolts and surmounted with jagged iron spikes" ever opens. Is it possible that was a prison, or more likely an asylum. If he does have multiple personality disorder, then would make sense for him to be living in an asylum, or an institution?
ReplyDeleteMaddie- I think the narrator was scared because the resemblance between William Wilson and himself was so alike, it was almost super-natural, which connects to the definition of doppelganger.
ReplyDeleteMikaela- I saw it at the end of the story when he went to go "kill his conscious". Do you think that the Black mask has a different meaning?
ReplyDeletePeople can always decide what is right and wrong. Even if it is perspective, things are either wrong or right. When we said that it was societies fault I completely disagree.They mentioned that he was from a family of such, however our ancestors owned slaves, however we would never dare of such a thing. It doesn't matter what ones family is.
ReplyDeleteRachel - So then is he a prisoner in his own mind? At this age do the two Wilsons exist?
ReplyDeleteOn the very last page...third to last paragraph...Poe says "It was my antagonist--It was Wilson". Dictionary.com defines an antagonist as a person who is struggled/competed with.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the narrator views William Wilson as simply a person who follows and competes with him?
Why do you think that Poe describes Wilson the way he does
ReplyDeleteClass- Poe talks a lot about how the narrator did not like school when he was little. Do you think this is important to the rest of the story?
ReplyDeleteMaggie: It makes sense, yet how would he escape to Italy then? He was just told to leave oxford by Lord Glendinnings, and he does.
ReplyDeleteClass--
ReplyDeleteI see a lot of different opinions here in our discussion... So let's ask flat out...
What do you think William Wilson is? A doppelganger? A split-personality?
Nicholas - But can't Wilson be a part or fragment of the narrators conscience? I don't it can be necessarily be said that just because Wilson resembles a person, he is an independent entity. In fact, don't we see Wilson appearing surprisingly often around the narrator? I think this implies Wilson is merely a fragment of the narrator's psyche.
ReplyDeleteMaggie- I think that is his view of the place, not how it actually is. That's what he sees, but others may see it differently.
ReplyDeleteMikaela- I think it is because it really adds to the uncanny part of the Gothic text. It makes us think and use our imagination to figure out why this man is so disturbed. and it makes the story creepier.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that when Poe describes Wilson's past (often dreary scenarios), he explains how the environments were "soothing" as well as "dream-like" to the character?
ReplyDelete@Maggie-I think so. If this other William Wilson is only a figure of his imagination then there may be a very valid reason for why he is in this so-called "institution."
ReplyDelete@Rachel - No I agree, I was curious as to where you saw sin...I see though. Do you think he sees his conscious or William Wilson as very negative?
ReplyDeleteMikaela- I think that the narrator sees William Wilson as a mysterious being who he is being forced to compete with.
ReplyDeleteWhat is meant when the narrator says "In childhood I must have felt with the energy of a man what I now find stamped upon memory in lines as vivid, as deep, and as durable as the exergues of the Carthaginian?"
ReplyDeleteMaria- I don't think the point of the story is to determine what Wilson is. The uncertainty surrounding Wilson is what makes this story Gothic. The important thing is what the narrator did in response to Wilson.
ReplyDeleteMaggie- Yes in a way he is a prisoner of his own mind. In the end he controls all of his actions, however there is something in him that is influencing everything he thinks and does. I do think that at that young age both exist but the influence might not be as strong.
ReplyDelete@MariaB - I see William Wilson as an actual human...though he is a subconscious of the narrator. Like Troy was saying at the beginning, that seems a bit weird for your subconscious to be an actual person, but that's the sense I got from the beginning.
ReplyDelete