THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

1.2 Fantastic Psychoanalysis and the Doppelganger The Avatar in Panamacette double vie mystérieuse qui fait douter s’il ya deux êtres en nous, ou si un être étranger,inconnaissable et invisible, anime, parmoments, quand notre âme est engourdie; notrecorps captive qui obéit a cet autre (70-71). 68The narrator is adamant that something is amiss and in atypical scenario pertaining to literature of the double, questions hissanity: “Ai-je perdu la raison? […] “Je me demande si je suis fou” (69,82). 69 Solitude is of great concern for Maupassant’s characters andalthough he is being pursued incessantly he suffers paranoia and anoverwhelming fear of isolation: “Il ne se manifeste plus, mais je le sensprès de moi, m’épiant, me regardant, me pénétrant, me dominant etplus redoutable, en se cachant, ainsi qu’il signalait par desphénomènes surnaturels sa présence invisible et constante” (84). 70These elements of isolation and alienation are viewed as apotential danger to the narrator’s psyche: “Certes, la solitude estdangereuse pour les intelligences qui travaillent […] Quand noussommes seuls longtemps, nous peuplons le vide de fantômes” (72). 71Inevitably, psychic meltdown is the result. He no longer has a will of hisown as “Le horla” takes possession of his body and mind in a long andagonising process of vampirisation, “Je suis perdu! Quelqu’un possèdemon âme et la gouverne! Quelqu’un ordonne tous mes actes, tous mesmouvements, toutes mes pensées” (85). 72Like many short stories of the fantastic genre, “Le horla”employs fairytale images and classic symbols including mirrors,butterflies, and forests. 73 La forêt de Roumare appears as the initial68 “Somebody must have drunk the water, but who? I myself perhaps? Yes, it couldonly have been myself! In that case I was a sleepwalker; unknown to myself I wasliving that mysterious double life which makes us wonder whether there are twocreatures in us or whether, when our mind is asleep, some alien being, invisible andunknowable, takes control of our captive body, which obeys that other being…” (321).69 “Have I lost my reason? […] I wonder if I am mad” (320, 331).70 “He no longer shows himself but I can feel him near me, spying on me, penetratingme, dominating me, and more to be feared when he hides in this way than if herevealed his constant invisible presence by supernatural phenomena” (332).71 “There can be no doubt that solitude is dangerous for active minds. […] When weare alone for any length of time we people the void with phantoms” (323).72“I am done for! Someone is in possession of my mind and controlling it! Someone isdirecting my every movement, my every thought” (333).73Forests used to be places of danger to a degree difficult to appreciate today, whenfor modern city-dwellers they are retreats or playgrounds. Traditionally they are dark,labyrinthine and filled with dangerous beasts. In the Grimm fairytales, the woods areinhabited by magical creatures that know and perform feats mortals cannot. MichaelFerber, A Dictionary of Literary Symbols (Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1999) 78.55