Gothic double

Gothic double motif
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the most famous examples of the Gothic double motif in literature.
Stylistic originsGothic fiction, Romanticism, Horror
Cultural originsOriginated in Celtic folklore through lookalike figures such as the fetch, and in late 18th-century German literature
PopularityConsistently popular in literature from 18th century to 21st century, present in famous texts such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
FormatsPresent in a wide variety of formats including novels, films, short stories, and plays
AuthorsJohann Paul Richter, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Daphne du Maurier, Jeff VanderMeer
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The Gothic double is a literary motif which refers to the divided personality of a character. Closely linked to the Doppelgänger, which first appeared in the 1796 novel Siebenkäs by Johann Paul Richter, the double figure emerged in Gothic literature in the late 18th century due to a resurgence of interest in mythology and folklore which explored notions of duality, such as the fetch in Irish folklore which is a double figure of a family member, often signifying an impending death.[1]

A major shift in Gothic literature occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, where evil was no longer within a physical location such as a haunted castle, but expanded to inhabit the mind of characters, often referred to as "the haunted individual."[2] Examples of the Gothic double motif in 19th-century texts include Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), which use the motif to reflect on gender inequalites in the Victorian era,[3] and famously, Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886).

In the early 20th century, the Gothic double motif was featured in new mediums such as film to explore the emerging fear of technology replacing humanity.[4] A notable example of this is the evil mechanical double depicted in the German expressionist film Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927). Texts in this period also appropriate the Gothic double motif present in earlier literature, such as Daphne du Maurier's Gothic romance novel Rebecca (1938), which appropriates the doubling in Jane Eyre.[5] In the 21st century, the Gothic double motif has further been featured in horror and psychological thriller films such as Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010) and Jordan Peele's Us (2019).[1] In addition, the Gothic double motif has been used in 21st century Anthropocene literature, such as Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation (2014).

  1. ^ a b Luckhurst, Roger (2021). Gothic : an illustrated history. Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN 978-0-500-25251-2. OCLC 1292078562.
  2. ^ Aguirre, Manuel (1998). Bloom, Clive (ed.). "On Victorian Horror". Gothic Horror: A Reader's Guide from Poe to King and Beyond: 214. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-26398-1. ISBN 978-0-333-68398-9.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Webber, Andrew J. (1996-06-27), "Gothic Revivals: The Doppelgänger in the Age of Modernism", The Doppelgänger, Oxford University Press, pp. 317–357, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159049.003.0006, ISBN 978-0-19-815904-9
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).