THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

1.1 Double, Double, Toil and Trouble The Avatar in Panamamaintains it is not death itself which is feared rather its expectation orimminence. 18 Ironically then, the character commits suicide byslaughtering the double to be rid of this dreaded fear: the characteractually assassinates another part of his ego. Perversely, the fear ofdeath and ageing, together with a narcissistic attitude manifests in thewish to remain young as depicted in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.Rank proposes two main defences employed againstnarcissism: the adoption of an attitude of fear and revulsion in the faceof the double, and the suffering the loss of the shadow or mirrored self.In the second, the presumed lost image becomes increasinglyautonomous and superior to the extent that it is not lost at all. Itstransformation indicates an extreme interest in the self which is in factthe definition of narcissism itself (73-74). This potentially gives rise totwo eventualities: a pathological self-love like that experienced byDorian Gray, or the defensive pathological fear of one’s own self. Thelatter often leads to paranoia and insanity and appears personified inthe pursuing shadow, mirror image or double found in Andersen’s “TheShadow”, Dostoevsky’s The Double or Poe’s “William Wilson”respectively. As noted, this downward spiral into madness is linked tothe apparently perceived pursuit of the protagonist by the double andregularly leads to suicide in this genre of literature.While Rank contends that the pursuer often symbolises asubstitute for the paternal figure, there is a tradition of the doubleportrayed as sibling or more specifically a twin (75). Rank cites an earlyvariation on the Narcissus myth, that of Narcissus believing he sees hisidentical twin sister in his own image, as a possible cause (20). Ininstances where this type of double was employed, it acted as afraternal rival for the affections of the protagonist’s object of desire andso thwarted the former’s love life. This role was one of the double’smain original functions. Bearing this in mind, the principal character’sdeath wish and impulse toward murdering the rival or double “becomesreasonably understandable” and is eventually fulfilled by either theannihilation of the double and/or the downfall of the character it ispursuing (76). Time and again the double drives the protagonist to thebrink of both sanity and reality and it is only when the character isteetering on the precipice of psychosis and reason that the doubleachieves its goal.A noteworthy deviation of Rank’s familial connection is “therebirth of the father in the son”. Superstitions associated with this beliefimply the likeness of a child to its parent results in the parent’s death asthe child has “adopted his image or silhouette” (53). Given this, theconnection of parent and child can easily be interpreted as indicative ofa legitimate doubling relationship. Accordingly, as family resemblance,18 Rank 76-77.18