The Symbolic Uses of the Doppleganger as Alter Ego:
Character Development Through Symbolism
Alligator mississipianus, Collier County, Florida. Heidi Lange, 2007.
As the novel has evolved, writers have experimented with various ways of developing their stories, and there are pros and cons to choosing one method or another for expressing the story and creating the protagonist's character. Finding ways to present the hidden and unknown aspects of a person is key to telling a story well, and key to good writing. As writers must "show," not "tell about" their characters, using symbolism to develop a character is a major method which writers use to realistically create complex, believable protagonists whose personalities leap from the page to speak to us as people with whom we share the same nature and similar struggles, and whose meaning and identity, joys and sorrows, we take into ourselves.
The more complex a character is, the more appealing it is for us as readers to explore his character. Although most authors are intuitive and do not necessarily go about "building" a character step by step, we, thankfully, can reverse the process and find, in exploring the protagonists' personalities, a multitude of fascinating facets which combine to make these characters worthy of our attention.
Doppleganger as Literary Foil
The symbol of the doppleganger is a unique way in which authors can reveal the depth, complexity, contradictory natures, and inner struggles of their characters. Traditionally, a doppleganger, which is a German word for "double," is a mysterious person who is in some subterranean way a psychological and often physical "twin" of a protagonist. But unlike biological twins, dopplegangers have very different character traits than their "originals," traits which are usually (though not always) contradictory to those of the protagonist.
Doppleganger as Revealer of Repressed Thoughts: Lex Luthor's Alter Ego
Specific traits which an author draws out through use of a doppleganger depend upon the purpose of the piece. In the 3rd season of the TV Series, "Smallville," Lex Luthor is trapped on a desert island for three months, during which time a wildman who has adapted to that life keeps Lex company. After several months, Lex finds a skeleton which has a necklace with the intials "LL" on it: these are the initials of Lex's father. The wildman comes upon the scene and asserts that he has had to kill his own father, because his father demanded unreasonable things of him and was a maniac. It is at this point in the story that we realize that the wildman is Lex's doppleganger, an alter ego who reveals to us Lex's true attitudes and feelings towards his father, which, when in his "right mind," Lex refuses to admit to himself.
Doppleganger as Dark Side: Mr Hyde's Pride
In Robert Lewis Stevenson's short story, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dr Jekyll uses science as an excuse to allow the dark, evil side of his nature to reign whenever he wishes to unleash it. His belief in and use of science is supposed to be "objective," and he makes it clear in the beginning of the story that he believes that investigating the dark side of humanity will lead us to freedom, knowledge and power. Jekyll assumes that he can conduct these investigations on himself, and transfer his neutrality as a scientist to experiments upon his own person. His theory is that if he purposefully allows the dark side free reign periodically, he will "purify" the normal side of himself, and establish a new, "free" human nature. Jekyll's doppleganger is a purposeful creation...at least, initially.
Doppleganger as Psychological Support: Captain, My Captain
In Joseph Conrad's short story, The Secret Sharer, we meet one of the most mysterious characters in literature. The protagonist is a newly commissioned captain, assigned to a ship whose crew he feels alienated from, and whom he does not lead, due to his personal fears. On the first night of his commission, he sees a stranger in the ocean, swimming towards the ship, who is strangely luminescent. He helps the stranger aboard and hides him when the man asserts that he has accidentally killed a fellow crew member aboard another ship. As the story progresses, the captain gains courage from his hidden friend, whom he refers to consistently as his double. In the final section of the novella, the "Secret Sharer" leaves the ship, slipping away after the captain has successfully navigated the ship through a difficult waterway. Although he has appeared to be real, the Secret Sharer is a figment of the Captain's imagination, which has created him to help the captain psychologically navigate the treacherous waters of his deep-seated fears of being in command of the ship.
The doppleganger is a literary device with infinite potential, because each one will be a look into the most mysterious, unfathomed, and intriguing aspect of the world: the human soul. When we met a doppleganger, we meet an uncharted part of ourselves.