The setting of 'William Wilson' is semi-autobiographical and relates to Poe's residence in England as a boy. Stoke Newington retains two parish churches: St Mary's Old Church (left) and New Church (right) The narrator feels as if he is pronouncing the words: 'In me didst thou exist-and in my death, see. Reflected at him, he sees 'mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood': apparently the dead double, 'but he spoke no longer in a whisper'. The enraged protagonist drags his 'unresisting' double-who wears identical clothes- into an antechamber, and, after a brief sword fight in which the double participates only reluctantly, stabs him fatally.Īfter William does this, a large mirror suddenly seems to appear. In his latest caper, he attempts to seduce a married noblewoman at Carnival in Rome, but the other William stops him. William is haunted by his double in subsequent years, who thwarts plans described by William as driven by ambition, anger and lust. The other William appears, his face covered, and whispers a few words sufficient to alert others to William's behavior, and then leaves with no others seeing his face. For example, he steals from a man by cheating at cards. William eventually attends Eton and University of Oxford, gradually becoming more debauched and performing what he terms 'mischief'. William then immediately leaves the academy and, in the same week, the other boy follows suit. One night he steals into the other William's bedroom and recoils in horror at the boy's face-which now resembles his own.

He begins to give advice to William of an unspecified nature, which he refuses to obey, resenting the boy's 'arrogance'. The boy also dresses like William, walks like him, but can only speak in a whisper. 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. William meets another boy in his school who has the same name and roughly the same appearance, and who was even born on the same date (January 19, Poe's birthday). Wilson and his 'double' at the carnival in an illustration by Byam Shaw for a London edition dated 1909

Wybór opowiadań by Edgar Allan Poe