The Doppelganger in Dostoevsky's The Double: A Psychoanalytical Study

This study deals with the theme of the doppelganger in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Double. It was first released in 1846 and tells the tale of Yakov Petrovitch Golyadkin, an unlucky and modest office worker. As his exact doppelganger joins his life and begins to take over, his difficulties begin. Golyadkin seeks assistance from his colleagues, but he increasingly feels encircled by enemies. His main problem lies not in external circumstances but in himself. His main enemy is his dark self, which drives him to insanity in the end. In the light of psychoanalysis, the researcher analyses the main character and the author's personality, which is mostly the reflection of his protagonists. The doppelganger is an alter ego that some critics believe to have other points of view different from those of the character in the story of the novel; hence, the conflict arises between this alter ego and the original.