"the double"- necessity to create an alter-ego
final part
The long path to the comprehension what the double means for our consciousness and our balanced dimension finds its deep analysis in the past century when the world was involved into a process of changes, innovations and new scientific theories characterizing the industrial period since the second half of the 19th.
Man feels to face a strong crisis concerning the posivitistic thought which becomes “unease” towards modern civilization , as Freud affirms underlining the consequent individual uncertainties and disorientation so that to split the apparent unique and solidity into a double or moltiplication of the ego.
In this sense the identity crisis makes man feel alienated, emarginated from a society hostile to a fragmented human being, as it is difficult to understand the complexity of a troubled psyche and doubtful future, hence the need to “create”a mask or another self to survive the estrangement in a confused level where Man is supposed to act.
Luigi Pirandello is the author who better represents human condition now distorted ,insecure, alienated. Surrealistic expression is used especially in “One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand” , a novel based on a kind of mystical faith on nature: here the duality”Personage/Person” is weakened as life is experienced by a person itself just identifying into the various aspects in nature.
Pirandello focuses on the contrast between “Form-Life” , that is to say “Personage-Person” which are not complementary elements , rather contraddictions.
It is the human being himself to require “a deceiving elf”, in this case self -delusions are necessary to organize his own life around these deceits reinforced by certainties, rites and institutions in a limited area where he can develop through “Form- like Appearance-
This is quite evident in Psycho where Norman Bates strongly alienated, apparently sane, skilled in wearing a mask of hesitation and courtesy, showing a kind of helpful and friendly man , convinced to be on the right side when considering as harmful young women guests in the hotel, holds on keeping the Form! What could happen if any Norman existing in reality was not so able to play the role which gives self -recognization of being a man of reliability?..
The level of wearing a mask proves to be greatly negative since it blocks the thrust of the vital impulses and consenquently the tendency to live moment by moment out of any ideal purpose and civil law: Appearance paralizes true life.
How many doubles inside us then? the question is around what side is the most true and natural defining our own identity in reality!
The subject is not a coherent and a unified person, it becomes a personage with a mask playing the role society demands , a role the personage fits him through individual moral ideals-
In “Il Fu Mattia Pascal” /The Late Mattia Pascal”the personage istself creates its double, an alter-ego permitting him to get free from any obligation of daily life, from family to society, a certainty which would reveal like illusionary since life wholly estranged from social conventions is impossible.
Pretending to have passed away, changing his name Mattia with “Adriano Meis”he begins a new life hoping to get free under another identity. The problem is “social conventions”, escaping them he thinks to reach individual freedom , yet with no personal documents nor official identity,he can ‘t act blocked into his absence in society. He tries to turn back to himself, plans a false suicide to get his true self but nobody can recognize him, Mattia takes his old job in the library, however he is compelled to be condemned to live a life feeling a complete estrangement from the world: he was Mattia, now..who is he?
Mattia interacts with his own mirror since he would receive his true identity from the reflection- he does not know who is really, no more Mattia nor Adriano, even changing his physical aspect: while mirroring his image again he sees the previous Mattia, once abandoned in the hope to live another life-
The Mirror reflects his image together with his thoughts sending a humorous part to art , so that to reflect upon life just breaking ordinary routine , in the same way the mirror gives Man the possibility to look inside himself, to consider an aspect of the ego and consequently a deep and complex image, a feature which we could not watch while living everyday life.
The reflection of the self is an important step to reach awareness of who we are in truth. The “mirror” is a device to elicit a self -consciousness. Mattia -like everyman -keeps inside the sense of the “double” as he used to repeat the same specular situations in his life, he has passed twice, he has seduced two women twice and he has created new identities twice , failing in the process to skip strict social rules..
If Mattia has a double bind with himself and perversion or “paranoid” is just in his will to escape institutions then another type of perverted double is between victim and aggressor, when the victim starts doubting “her own” sanity and certainties.
If something violent is said under a kind mood or disquieting words are pronounced calmly our brain loses the power to understand if it is an abuse, offense or if really we are misunderstanding what the violent double throws at us..
The victim gets the point where she can affirm “finally it is my guilt, if my partner traits me badly it’s because I deserve being abused” ,the weak part of the inner double emerges and the violent role play is established. Another type of death is considered, not necessarily physical but the victim is psychologically broken into pieces, losing her own identity definetely..
(M.F.Hirigoyen)