William Wilson Opinion: Human Nature And The Society (Essay Sample)

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3. William Wilson Opinion Essay
What statement is Poe making in William Wilson about human nature and society in general?
Poe uses the story “William Wilson” to explore a number of themes among them, human nature and the society. Throughout the story, Poe portrays human nature to be driven by hate and love, and self and alter-ego. In other words, our human nature is driven by hatred, love and ego. On the other hand, it is the society that shapes these characters by providing the environment in which the values are developed. Poe achieves this through Williams’ doppelganger.
At the beginning of the story, William is reluctant of exposing his identity. However, he narrates about a classmate whom they share same name; and almost same everything. At school, William is able to defeat all his classmates a part from his ‘doppelganger’. At the end of the story, we learn of the undefeatable classmate as his other side. Poe talks about William’s doppelganger to explain human nature and how the society shapes our characters. Human beings exist in two personalities; a “cool” one and a darker one. Even though we can fight and defeat everyone else, we can’t fight or defeat the other side of us. In the same manner, no matter what we do, we can’t cheat ourselves. In whatever we choose to do, there is always that other side that thinks differently. In the end, it is us who choose who we want to be. This is well demonstrated through Wililiam’s life from the time he gets in school throughout his transfers until he dies.
At first, William is controlled by his alter-ego which turns out to be his other dark side. He does things that he is not fully aware of...