William Wilson (short story)

"William Wilson"
The Gift, Carey and Hart, Philadelphia, 1840
Author	Edgar Allan Poe
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Short story
Published in	Burton's Gentleman's Magazine
Media type	Monthly magazine
Publication date	October 1839

"William Wilson" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839, with a setting inspired by Poe's formative years on the outskirts of London. The tale follows the theme of the doppelgänger and is written in a style based on rationality. It also appeared in the 1840 collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, and has been adapted several times.

The story follows a man of "a descent" who calls himself William Wilson because, although denouncing his past, he does not accept full blamefor his actions, saying that "man was never thus ... tempted before". After several paragraphs, the narration then segues into a description of Wilson's boyhood, which was spent in a school "in a misty-looking village of England".

William meets another boy in his school who shared the same name, who had roughly the same appearance, and who was even born on exactly the same date (January 19, Poe's own birthday). William's name (he asserts that his actual name is only similar to "William Wilson") embarrasses him because it sounds "plebeian" or common, and he is irked that he must hear the name twice as much on account of the other William.

The boy also dresses like William, walks like him, but he could only speak in a whisper, he imitates that whisper exactly. He begins to give advice to William of an unspecified nature, which he refuses to obey, resenting the boy's "arrogance". One night he steals into the other William's bedroom and recoils in horror at the boy's face—which now resembles his own. William then immediately leaves the academy, and in the same week, the other boy follows suit.

William eventually attends Eton and Oxford, gradually becoming more debauched and performing what he terms "mischief". For example, he steals from a man by cheating at cards. The other William appears, his face covered, whispers a few words sufficient to alert others to William's behavior, and then leaves with no others seeing his face. William is haunted by his double in subsequent years, who thwarts plans described by William as driven by ambition, anger, and lust. In his latest caper, he attempts to seduce a married woman at Carnival in Rome, but the other William stops him; the enraged protagonist drags his "unresisting" double—who wears identical clothes—into an antechamber, and stabs him fatally.