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Madeleine Usher
The name that the narrator assigns himself, knowing that his real name is detestable. The narrator was once a confident, sociable child, able to dominate the playground. But over the course of the story he loses his confidence, turns to drinking, then to gambling, attempts to financially ruin a man who considers him a friend, and to having affairs with married women. He blames his fall on a mysterious double, who shares nearly every attribute with him—name, birthday, appearance—with the exception of their voice. His doppelganger speaks only in a whisper. The narrator ultimately runs from his doppelganger, and in his flight stoops to ever greater levels of degradation. The doppelganger appears at these lowest moments, revealing the narrator's weaknesses, crimes, and sins, and the seemingly supernatural doppelganger begins to seem like perhaps the narrator's own conscience. Ultimately, the narrator attacks his doppelganger, and in doing so kills himself.
William Wilson Quotes in Poe's Stories
The Poe's Stories quotes below are all either spoken by William Wilson or refer to William Wilson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
William Wilson
Quotes
Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation. This has been already too much an object for the scorn – for the horror – for the detestation of my race.
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A large mirror, – so at first it seemed to me in my confusion – now stood where none had been perceptible before; and, as I stepped up to it in extremity of terror, mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood, advanced to meet me with a feeble and tottering gait.
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William Wilson Quotes in Poe's Stories
The Poe's Stories quotes below are all either spoken by William Wilson or refer to William Wilson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
William Wilson
Quotes
Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation. This has been already too much an object for the scorn – for the horror – for the detestation of my race.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
A large mirror, – so at first it seemed to me in my confusion – now stood where none had been perceptible before; and, as I stepped up to it in extremity of terror, mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood, advanced to meet me with a feeble and tottering gait.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
