Critical Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was at the height of his career when he wrote “William Wilson” in 1839. The short story illustrates many key traits of the American Gothic: like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” this short story features suspenseful and mysterious atmospheres that include supernatural occurrences and unsettling emotional states—among them the sense that one is on the verge of madness. The sprawling Elizabethan schoolhouse described in the beginning of “William Wilson,” likely modelled after Poe's own childhood school, is common for the Gothic narrative as well. It is at this schoolhouse that the protagonist, William Wilson, meets another William Wilson, a boy with physical features strikingly similar to his own. Their relationship is largely adversarial, with the schoolmate continually harassing William throughout his life until the two have a deadly altercation. As the story ends, the reader is left to wonder from whom the blood truly drips.

This story is an early example of the complicated monsters that will appear in later texts. The “monster” in this story bears no obvious signs of monstrousness, and one may be tempted to argue that he is no monster at all. If one does grant that William Wilson is a monster, deciding which William is the monster becomes quite difficult. Poe's story is introspective, psychological. It prefigures psychoanalytic ideas as it demonstrates that confronting a self that is outside of oneself, something both familiar and unfamiliar, is terrifyingly complicated. The difference between the self that is known and a version of the self that is unknown or disfavoured is difficult (if not impossible) to identify, and, as Poe may be alluding to, the true monster might actually be returning our gaze in the mirror.

Reading Questions

Who or what is the monster that Poe is portraying in this story? When you come to a conclusion, consider the monstrous traits you relied on to make your decision: what about this monster is fear-inducing or “wrong”? Do those traits correlate with other monsters in this volume or those that exist in works not included here?