The Double: Mirrors the Social and Moral Attitudes of Its Author
While not to the extent of the paranoid, delusional schizophrenia thatYakov Petrovich Golyadkin suffers, in many ways, the novel "The Double"(Dostoyevsky, 1997) mirrors the social and moral attitudes of its author,Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky. Some of these attitudes come fromDostoyevsky's life experiences. These views he transmitted through hiswork. This essay will show that the author's protagonist Golyadkin is ametaphorical struggle for Dostoyevsky's soul and also the dichotomy thatwas Russia. It is a struggle to find an identity. And even the creationof a multiple personalities still leaves us looking. Without delving into a summary of the novel, consider only Golyadkin'scharacter. He is hardly the physical Adonis-like specimen that we seeheroes of novels, even if they are tragic heroes. He is slim of build. Heis balding. He is also miserly. He hoards away his money from his job asa clerk in a Russian organization. He is the very epitome of theapparatchik. As for his emotions, Golyadkin is pathologically shy. Everyattempt at contact with another person is met with an almost stupefying
We also know thatFyodor suffered from epilepsy. One might suppose also that his sex drive issignificantly diminished since he is reduced to a clumsy boor whenconfronted by women. He even writes a letter telling the other that theyboth cannot exist and even challenges him to a duel with pistols. Then there is an "Excellency" who has a higherposition than any other character in the novel. Though FyodorMikhailovich's background was bourgeois, he showed signs of support for aclassless society in Russia. Hemistakenly believes that he is happy in his state of solitary bliss. The information is trifling but pity invokingnonetheless. Dostoyevsky describes Golyadkin's multiple personalitydisorder to the hilt. His own servant Petrushka is hard-pressed not to laugh athim. He actually defends this anti-social behavior. The notion of transference was mentioned earlier. Golyadkin relies on their goodgraces for his support.
Common topics in this essay:
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Freud Jung,
Personality Disorders,
Church Weil,
Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky,
Dissociative Disorders,
Russia Dostoyevsky's,
Double Dostoyevsky,
Interestingly Dostoyevsky,
Klara Golyadkin's,
multiple personality,
multiple personality disorders,
multiple personality disorder,
real life,
personality disorders,
personality disorder,
mental illnesses,
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golyadkin believes,
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Acceptance Essays
