"Doubles" in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper describes that in the use of "doubles", Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde" are more nearly similar than either of those works are like Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". The author points out that in both "Secret" and "Jekyll", the doubles reside in one man and the doubles are clearly delineated, one good and the other evil, but in "Heart" both Kurtz and Marlow have doubles within them.The paper explains that the psychological issues of the uses of doubles in the three works are twofold: How is it that a man comes to be made aware of the evil within himself, and how does he respond when that confrontation takes place?

From the Paper:

"Conrad's The Secret Sharer is easily the most complex of the three stories, for it can be taken as the portrayal of both the double externalized and internalized. Clearly, in either case, Leggatt is meant to be the evil side of the young captain. The captain is kin to Marlow in that both set off on a journey, internally and externally, in relative innocence, and both end up far more aware of the evil in the world."

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