THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in Panamamelded with that of his dead uncle; yet it is the story “El fantasma”which is treated with aplomb and shares a decisive incident withJaramillo Levi’s “Suicidio”. “El fantasma” begins with a reference to asecond self:Se dió [sic] cuenta de que acababa de morirsecuando vió [sic] que su propio cuerpo, como sino fuera el suyo sino el de un doble, sedesplomaba sobre la silla y la arrastraba en lacaída. Cadáver y silla quedaron tendidos sobrela alfombra, en medio de la habitación. […] Seinclinó y se miró en su cadáver como antessolía mirarse en el espejo. ¡Qué avejentado! ¡Yesas envolturas de carne gastada! 23The narrator is disappointed that death is even lonelier than life- there are no angels, no supernatural life awaits him nothing haschanged. His inability to vocalise after death is much like that of thenarrating-protagonist in Jaramillo Levi’s “Suicidio” and to a lesserextent, in Poe’s “William Wilson”. 24 The repeated scenario of theprotagonist experiencing an interruption by an external agentconsequently causes a change in the course of events. This is also thecase in a similar scene in Jaramillo Levi’s “Suicidio” where the wifesuddenly forces her way through the door and into the room and as aresult the narrator unintentionally suicides after changing his mind at theeleventh hour. Not realising that he has actually ended his life, heattempts to tell his wife he is not actually dead although his body issupine and bleeding. He is unable to do so however as now he is amere observer of his own existence and the events that are to unfoldaround him:Quiso explicarles. Estaba a salvo. Había sidosólo una debilidad momentánea. No volvería aasustarla así. Lo del espejo era un fenómenoóptico, una alucinación colectiva. Cosas asípasaban a veces. Tóquenme, dijo. Estoy bien.23 Anderson Imbert, “El fantasma”, Cuentos Fantásticos Argentinos, ed. NicolásCócaro (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1960) 85-88. (85).24 Poe’s “William Wilson” describes an unknown person attempting to open the door ofthe antechamber where the protagonist is duelling with his masked double. Wilson hasjust administered the final blows to his doppelganger and in hastening to prevent theimpending intrusion he takes his eyes of his dying antagonist only to discover thatwhen his glance is returned the physical aspects of the room have changed. AlthoughWilson and his double do vocalise, the voice of his alter-ego is barely raised above awhisper until he meets his death when it assumes its normal register: “It was Wilson;but he spoke no longer in a whisper, and I could have fancied that I myself wasspeaking”. Poe, “William Wilson”, 641. See footnote 34, 152.126