The attraction
of a vague, ambiguous and contradictory story like ‘The Double’ is that it
allows readers open-ended interpretations of what the work is all about. Is
this the simple progression of poor Golyadkin’s illness, and his halucinations
have produced the double? Or perhaps the double is an actual separate person
upon whom Golyadkin projects his fantasies and neuroses. Perhaps the story
takes place through the looking glass and represents the reality of his
unconscious life. Or maybe it is the reality
of a repressed private, secret, side of his personality.
Aprehensive,
abject, downtrodden Golyadkin—he is so inarticulate, awkward and anxious that
it always takes me by surprise to know that below him exists Petrushka, his
servant. The reality of Golyadkin’s life is filled with fear; of urban life; of
superiors in his office; of social exclusion; of sexual love. But there exists
within him a hero, a version of himself that can conquer these fears and
enemies. I don’t think of the materialization of his double as a metamorphosis,
but rather an example of accelerated evolution in the Darwinian sense. The milquetoast
Golyadkin cannot survive in his environment and he knows it; he is a non-entity
to all around him. He must change or perish. And so he brings forth his new
persona, and in doing so, lives in a nightmare of paranoia as his new self
gathers strength and succeeds where his old self could not.
Thus there is
hope for Golyadkin when his old self surrenders to, or is supplanted by, the
new.
And now for
something completely different…
In Golyadkin’s
chapter two interview with Doctor Rutenspitz, I had the odd feeling I was
reading an old Monty Python script. The characters were speaking at
cross-purposes and Golyadkin was baffling his doctor with one non sequitur
after another. ‘I confess I have not quite followed you,’ says the doctor,
playing the straight man. This phrase was repeated several times throughout the
novel. Golyadkin finally bows his way out of the room, leaving the doctor utterly
amazed, and me chuckling at how it resembled the Monty Python skit featuring
the client who attends a clinic to consult with an ‘argument specialist.’ He
inadvertently enters the office of the ‘abuse specialist’ and is totally
confused before find his correct consultant. You can see what I am talking
about here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDjCqjzbvJY
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