[Vwoolf] Vwoolf Digest, Vol 95, Issue 8

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

Fair point. Without VW's statement few if any would probably see 
Septimus as Clarissa's double.

More generally, doubles can be recognized even when two characters lack 
obvious similarities if

  * Other people take the double for the character doubled
    (Dostoyevsky's Golyadkin)
  * A character is fascinated by the double (which might apply to Clarissa)
  * A character actually refers to another character as "my double" (
    the captain and Leggatt in Conrad's "The Secret Sharer".
  * The double can be said to represent a character's repressed desires
    (this has been argued of Orlick in /Great Expectations/, who (again
    it has been claimed) carries out Pip's repressed wishes. (Could at a
    stretch be applied to Clarissa's desire for death?)

Jeremy H


On 20.2020 17:06, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:
> I am at a loss: how would we know that Septimus is Clarissa’s double 
> without VW’s statement?  How can we connect them, except through 
> similarities?
> Over to you, Book Group.
> Stuart

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