Film is the medium which brings life to screenwriting. A form of literature, screenwriting is frequently based on prose. Literary works are often the muse which inspires modern cinematography. An example of this inspiration can be found in the parallels between Edgar Allan Poe’s “William Wilson” and “Fight Club.” The movie, “Fight Club” contains doppelganger characters similar to the ones in “William Wilson” and can be considered a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe’s work.
Poe’s “William Wilson” begins with a foreshadowing of cryptic reality when the narrator immediately states, “Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson” (Poe 626). Unwilling to reveal his true identity, the narrator leaves the reader wondering if the claim is a lie or perhaps the result of a “conflict within the soul” (Doppelgangers). Further disclosing his inner conflict, the narrator admits “William Wilson [is] a fictitious title not very dissimilar to the real” (Poe 629). Acknowledging the similarities between himself and the other William Wilson, the narrator points to the first hint of doppelgangers, or doubles, in the story. Finally revealing the conflict between the two William Wilsons, the narrator addresses the other William Wilson as “Scoundrel! Impostor! Accursed villain!” (640). He continues to challenge the doppelganger, “You shall not–you shall not dog me unto death! Follow me, or I shall stab you where you stand” (640). The protagonist, often the narrator, of a doppelganger story has to “acknowledge what the double represents, and at the same time struggle against it” (Doppelgangers). As the narrator, the original William Wilson takes a stand against his doppelganger; the reader must remember this confrontation is an internal one.
The original William Wilson’s doppelganger, the impostor William Wilson reveals his origins are “of a race whose imaginative and easily excitable temperament has at all times rendered them remarkable” (Poe 626). Considering himself of a special race, the doppelganger Wilson hints that he is not a member of the human world. Existing in the mind of the original Wilson, the doppelganger confesses about the struggle with Wilson, as he admits “My namesake alone…presumed to compete with me in the studies of the class–in the sports and broils of the playground–to refuse implicit belief in my assertions and submission to my will–indeed, to interfere with my arbitrary dictation in any respect whatsoever” (629). When the doppelganger tells the reader that William Wilson “alone” is the one challenging him, the reader realizes that the rivalry is an internal one. The control that the doppelganger is attempting to maintain is another sign of the psyche battling against itself. The two William Wilson’s “story climaxes with a confrontation of the two” meeting the criteria of the typical doppelganger tale (Horsley). “Poe’s William must violently battle his alter ego in order to reclaim his identity, a scenario strikingly similar to” the movie “Fight Club” (Johnson).
Very similar to Poe’s narrator in “William Wilson,” the movie “Fight Club” features a narrator who struggles with an internal conflict. The unnamed narrator confronts a “dark opponent that the hunter faces can also be a figment of the hunter/hero’s mind,” Slotkin writes, “the struggle turns inward” (Slotkin in Doubling).
“Fight Club” introduces us to an insomniac protagonist so drained and oppressed by the empty pursuits of his consumer lifestyle that he is literally ready to try anything. “Like so many others, I had become a slave.” (Horsley). Frustrated with the materialistic lifestyle of Western society, the narrator turns inward, to Tyler. The two men bond, and become best friends. Self destruction is the bond that ties the narrator to Tyler.
Suffering from what he believes to be a lack of sleep, the narrator insists “with insomnia, nothing is real. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy” (Fight Club). This copy implication refers to the copy that Tyler is of the narrator. Through his supposed insomnia, the narrator is unable to distinguish reality from fantasy. The copy can also be considered a copy of himself– the formation of Tyler. The insomnia mentioned by the “Fight Club” narrator is mirrored in “William Wilson,” as the narrator ponders “have I not been living in a dream?” (Poe 626). The line between reality and fantasy is often smudged in a dreamer’s world. Both narrators are uncertain where the dreaming ends and reality begins.
After the duo co-creates “Fight Club,” the narrator realizes “after fighting, everything else in your life’s got the volume turned down” (Fight Club). With this admission, the audience is left to consider the meaning of fighting. The literal meaning of fighting refers to the loud punching and falling while the internal implications refers to the noise in the narrator’s head. As is the custom in doppelganger stories, “Fight Club” includes the impending stand the narrator must make against Tyler.
Like Edgar Allan Poe’s other William Wilson, the “Fight Club” alter ego, Tyler carries the weight of being evil. He “is the embodiment of pure id – the catalyst that allows you to see your own destiny” (Doppelgangers). According to Freud, the id doesn’t care about reality, about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction (Pulliam).
“Self-improvement is masturbation. Self-destruction is the answer” is Tyler’s motto (Fight Club). Self destruction is the original bond that the narrator and Tyler share (Taubin). Self destruction becomes inevitable in “Fight Club” when the narrator realizes he has control over himself and Tyler. Much like the narrator in “William Wilson” who stabbed the “sword, with brute ferocity, repeatedly through and through his bosom,” the “Fight Club” narrator also recognizes his own strength and control (Poe 641). As the narrator of “Fight Club” realizes he has control, he brings the gun to his own neck. When Tyler challenges him about killing himself, the narrator smartly replies, “Not my head Tyler–Our head” (Fight Club). At his own impending suicide, the narrator tells Tyler, “My eyes are open” (Fight Club). This remark refers to several things. The statement refers to a cured insomnia as well as a clear vision of what is happening in reality.
Very similar to the end of the movie “Fight Club,” the conclusion of Edgar Allan Poe’s “William Wilson” ends in a suicide/murder. Edgar Allan Poe finally reveals William Wilson’s psychological terror when the narrator realizes, “It was Wilson, but he no longer spoke in a whisper, and I could have fancied that I myself was speaking” (Poe 641). As is the tendency of a doppelganger story, the main character has to “acknowledge what the double represents, and at the same time struggle against it” (Doppelgangers). This is true of the movie “Fight Club” just as it is in Edgar Allan Poe’s “William Wilson.” Indeed, the movie “Fight Club” should be considered a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “William Wilson.”
Works Cited
“From Doubling to Schizophrenia and Narcissim.” July 18, 2007. “Doppelgangers: exploded states of consciousness in fight club.”
July 15,2007.
Johnson, Glen, Dr. “Doppelgangers and doubles in Hitchcock’s movies.” July 16, 2007.
Horsley, Jake. “Where is My Mind: Notes on Purity of Impulse in Fight Club.” July 15,
2007. Poe, Edgar Allan. “William Wilson.” Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Vintage Books. Random House. New York. 626-641.
Pulliam, June. “Sorry, I’m Not Myself Today.” July 8, 2007. http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/doubles/doppelgangers.html>http://www.divinevirus.com/fightclub.html>http://www.lsu.edu/necrofile/doppelganger23.htm>
Taubin, Amy. “So Good It Hurts.” July 14, 2007. http://www.edward-norton.org/fc/articles/sight.html>
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/freed/fightclub/doubling.html>http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1497/pg1/index.html
