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Discuss the role of the doppelganger in Hogg's `Confessions of a Justified Sinner', or in any other novel or novels of the period.

By Craig Roberts

Before commencing with this discussion I feel it necessary to pause and consider the very term `doppelganger'; which The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines as "an apparition or double of a living person". It is a term adapted from German, which literally translated means: double-goer. We are invited, from a literal standpoint, to view doppelgangers as `apparitions', as unreal and uncanny projections of a second self or identity. But we may also consider the doppelganger as a `double', as a very real and tangible reflection in the flesh. Ironically, the very definition of "doppelganger" has a duel nature: it is a term for both the real and the unreal, the flesh and the fancy; it possesses, even in its name, a duality. It is to `duality' -the perceived doubling of identity -that I wish to attend to; for here lies the crux of our discussion.
Deliberations over Gil-Martin still widely contest his role in the Confessions: for critics view him as a doppelganger, an allegorical figure, or the hallucinatory result of mental neurosis. Indeed, the complication arises partly from the structure of the narrative, with two editorial narratives standing, at varying times, in accord or discord to the main narrative of the sinner himself.

This arrangement has been thought to derive from the alternating standpoints of the eighteenth-century epistolary novel. But it may also owe something to the many occasions in the past when a text, whether or not dubious or contentious, had been editorially presented.

Hogg originally intended the Confessions to be anonymous. The appearance of a letter to Blackwoods magazine signed JAMES HOGG, and dated from Altrive Lake, August 1st, 1823 renders the authorship of the editor's narrative dubious. Hogg, by the second segment of narrative, has become a character, and thus the editor is his textual doppelganger. But the challenge issued to Hogg's letter by the editor, also challenges the authenticity of all parts of the narrative: if Hogg's letter contains falsity, then so may the remainder of the Confessions. The fragmentary nature of the text prevents a conclusive reading of doubled identities.
However, it is worth noting that Gil-Martin is usually only perceived by characters in a state of hysteria; in particular by women suffering from emotional stress. Consider the passage narrating the encounter of Mrs. Logan and Bell Calvert with a landlady:

"It is he!" cried Mrs. Logan, hysterically.
"Yes, yes, it is he!" cried the landlady, in unison.
"It is who?" said Mrs. Calvert; "whom do you mean, mistress?"
"Oh, I don't know! I don't know! I was affrighted."

All of the women are "affrighted" into a profound state of mental confusion, believing themselves to perceive Gil-Martin and Robert -the murderers at large. Logan experiences a course of hysteria at the mere prospect of seeing the men; which subsequently provokes both turmoil in the landlady, and mere bewilderment in Mrs. Calvert. Deciding whether Gil-Martin is the Devil incarnate, a doppelganger, a delusion of hysteria, or simply a man misidentified, is thus a highly problematic task. The witnesses to Gil-Martin are constantly unreliable: they consist of women blinded with hysteria or vengeance (like Logan and Mrs Keeler), a thief with her own agenda (Bell Calvert), and a series of characters related in the unreliable narrative of Robert himself (who may, for all intents and purposes, be a delusional maniac).
Nonetheless, let us consider Gil-Martin's character as a doppelganger of some description -whether as a physically tangible being; or a double in the ideological sense; or even as the projected subconscious of Robert imposed on a flesh-like entity. Therefore we must accept Gil-Martin as a man with a "mysterious appearance" and a chameleon-like ability to change and adapt. His capacity for physical change is an indication of duplicity: his external appearances change to indicate the instability of his internal mind. Indeed, even the very name `Gil-Martin' expresses a dual nature; he is both `Gil' and `Martin' simultaneously. Robert's conception of Gil-Martin as "the same being as myself" is an overt indication of his own duplicity, his own hypocrisy and duality of temperament. Robert is an unreliable narrator, not merely because his voice cries in discord to the Editor's narrative; but because his very character is "weary and distressed in mind" and wavering in opinion, like the ever-changing nature of the chameleon-like man with which he associates.
As a physical, chameleon-like being, Gil-Martin acts as the intermediary between Robert and George. Robert is struck by "the likeness between him and my late brother" during the latter part of the narrative; and one can not forget Gil-Martin's first appearance as Robert's mirrored self. He is the doppelganger to both Robert and George; and thus Gil-Martin unifies the dysfunctional family at a supernatural level. Nonetheless, such a bizarre unity is to be short lived: Gil-Martin, as doppelganger, is the portent of death for both men. Indeed, one can not deny the possibility that Robert's delusions stem from Gil-Martin's influence. The Devilish being will not abandon Robert to free will and happiness: he is the unrelenting persecutor of Robert's fading humanitarian aspects, and the instigator of his psychotic tendencies. As the devilish tormentor threatens:

Sooner shall you make the mother abandon the child of her bosom; nay, sooner cause the shadow to relinquish the substance, than separate me from your side. Our beings are amalgamated and consociated in one.

and thus Robert is doomed to be united with Gil-Martin until death (an echo of Frankenstein and his creature, and their futile chase across the frozen wastes). It is a frightening prospect -one which ultimately drives Wringhim to suicide. But if we consider Gil-Martin as a doppelganger, then Robert is equally so to George: he is the tormenting, unrelenting brother -the dark voice of a malign social conscience. Robert's contempt towards his brother, his scathing criticism against blasphemy, and his disdain for Mrs. Logan (Georgeís surrogate mother), all propel George into a situation where ultimately he will be murdered. One can not forget the scene on Arthur's Seat, where George imagines his brother before him:

What an apparition was there presented to his view! He saw, delineated in the cloud, the shoulders, arms, and features of a human being of the most dreadful aspect. The face was the face of his brother, but dilated to twenty times the natural size.

For in that image lies the germ of our debate -the problem of misguided perceptions. George sees the image "dilated" before him "twenty times" larger than the reality permits: he exaggerates his perception through personal anxieties of being followed by Robert, and through his fanciful imagination (one will recall that he has been musing over "The little wee ghost of the rainbow"). Indeed, George's "dilated" vision suggests that his perception has been elaborated by the working of his eyes, by the dilation of his pupils in an abject state of fear: Robert appears before him as the projection of his subconscious mind, an "apparition" of his fancy.
As I have discussed, a doppelganger is an omen of death for whoever it resembles: and, indeed, during George's vision he is about to be killed by Robert (who is, at this point, stealing up from behind) and although the supernatural sense of the double-goer is fulfilled (its role as an omen), it is subtly transgressed. The doppelganger is only an omen for its physical counterpart; and George is not an exact copy of his brother: The doppelganger's role has developed, from omen of death, to omen of threat and challenge. Robert is the lower class surrogate-son of the reverend Wringhim; whereas George is the aristocratic heir to Dalcastle: George's exaggerated vision of Robert as a hideous threat, is thus the vision of the overwhelming common mass, the mob, and its threat to aristocratic power; and also, to a lesser extent, the embodied threat of Calvinist extremes.
For the most part, Robert is led by "the image of my devoted friend", and an image lacks substance or dimension: it is the coinage of imagination stamped on reality. Indeed, an image, according to The Concise Oxford Dictionary is "a representation of the external form" or an "optical appearance"; and we have already witnessed the deception of an optical appearance in George's "dilated" vision. Thus we must consider the nature of the doppelganger, not necessarily as a tangible entity, but as a vision: the product of a deluded mind. Robert laments that Gil-Martin "haunted me like my shadow" and a shadow is inseparable from its source: not because it is closely affiliated with the body, but because it is part of the body. Indeed, a shadow is a dark area untouched by the sunlight; and at a symbolic level, it represents all that is unenlightened: all that is carnal instinct and desire -all that enlightenment wishes to suppress.
Robert's duality, which I introduced earlier, is not merely conveyed through his relation to Gil-Martin; for he often projects his inner-self, however confused, onto an external image: this is the image of the second self; that of the dark shadow where carnal desires and suppressed instincts lie. In relation to Gil-Martin, "from viewing my own features in a glass, the features too were the very same" and the concept of reflection is one which relates heavily to the idea of image. A reflection is an image of the self, but it lacks substance and the cognitive capacity for thought or action. Indeed, in the manner of their first meeting, Robert and Gil-Martin approach each other with exactly reflected movements (both men look each other in the eyes and raise their hats). Gil-Martin is the embodiment of Robertís second self: he is the reflection in the mirror that "generally haunted me when I was alone, keeping aloof from all other society." To be alone and still haunted, is not to be haunted by the physical entity of a doppelganger. Wringhim talks of Gil-Martin throughout the narrative as a tangible character, as a man akin to Czar Peter of Russia: if Gil-Martin is the haunting presence of his life, then he would directly state it -but here he does not: he claims to have been aloof and alone. The haunting comes from within his split psyche, not from without.
Indeed, the image of Robert "slipped down through the double warpings of a web" in the weaver's cottage, is a fitting reflection of his snared mind. He is entrapped by his own duplicity -the machinations of his `justified' narrative have tangled and bound him within his dual nature as a cold murderer and member of the elect. Ultimately these two selves cannot be reconciled and suicide is the only recourse to unity. As the rural "folks countit uncanny" that the son of a reverend/laird should become a delusional murderer, I feel it necessary to point out that "everything is uncanny that ought to have remained hidden and secret, and yet comes to light." In other words: the internalised doppelganger, that is the second self, escapes into the world of the real (or becomes perceived by its originator in the world of the real) and runs amok, fragmenting the unity of its owner's mind. Thus the doppelganger loses its status as a tangible entity and becomes the semi-rational explanation for a mind that is fast losing its ability to reason. Indeed, during the assault of Logan and Calvert, Wringhim has no defence against the women, for "There was no friend, no Gil-Martin there to hear or assist him"; and Gil-Martin is not there, because he never truly exists outside the sphere of hysteria and delusion.
If we must see the doppelgangers in Confessions as mental projections of hysteria and delusion, then we must also understand the origins of this delusion. Robert is informed by Gil-Martin, that he is never on a truly conscious level:

thou art dreaming -thou art dreaming

and to be consistently "in a dream" is to lack the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. But if we read Wringhim as a Hamlet-like figure, clad in "black clothes", then we may understand his problematic situation. Like Shakespeare's Hamlet, Wringhim is confronted with two opposing perceptions of Gil-Martin: he is either "a spirit of health or goblin damn'd" (Hamlet, I.v.40) and Wringhim's inability to perceive Gil-Martin's true nature (as an allegorical figure of the devil) leads to his eventual corruption and mental decay. But Gil-Martin is merely the projection and intensification of the Wringhim family tenets:- the hysteria and delusion that Robert experiences at Gil-Martin's hands, is truly the hysteria of extreme Calvinist faith: Gil-Martin's role is to represent an extremist sect gone awry in society.
Robert and George believe themselves (whether consciously or through allusion) to be the victims of doppelgangers. But such psychosis can only be accounted for in their upbringing:

George was brought up with his father. He was a generous and kind-hearted youth; always ready to oblige, and hardly ever dissatisfied with any body. Robert was brought up with Mr Wringhim and there the boy was inured to all the sternness and severity of his pastorís arbitrary and unyielding creed.

Robert has two father figures; the supposedly surrogate father Wringhim, and the supposedly natural father Colwan. Equally, George has two mothers; the surrogate mother Mrs. Logan and his estranged natural mother. Karl Miller, in his book Doubles: Studies in Literary History, argues that the nature of the double-self arises from infancy and develops into the desire of the adolescent "to supplant and to emulate the father he resembles". Wringhim certainly conforms to such an interpretation. His dual nature can be explained as two conflicting patriarchal influences: in other words, Wringhim's perception of fatherhood is decisively split between the natural and the surrogate roles; between the laird he detests and the reverend he admires. If Miller's hypothesis is right, then Robert sees doppelgangers, merely because he sees two patriarchs: the doppelganger Gil Martin has subsumed the divided roles of his fathers. But this may also be true of George in terms of matriarchal influences -he alludes to Robert as a double, or shadow, because he sees the mother in both surrogate and natural roles; and Robert is the product of his own natural mother, a fragment of his own flesh and, in that respect, a brother-double.
But if this is sufficient ground for psychosis, then why does George not succumb to the same murderous drive as Wringhim? Obviously religious doctrine plays a key role in splitting Robertís psyche; but this alone does not lead Rev. Wringhim into anything more than devout and sadistic prayer. Robert's psychotic behaviour finds its origin in the class structure of his society. The doppelganger focuses the desire for wealth and land. As Miller muses, "duality and social mobility may go together" for the delusional Robert wishes to kill Logan to gain "possession of the family plate as well as a thousand valuable relics, and great riches besides". Gil-Martin is the projection and intensification of greed -it should be remembered that he carries gold pistols and is supposedly the Czar of Russia (a symbol of wealth and power). Indeed, Miller suggests Gil-Martin is the warped projection of guilt; that he is the figure of McGill -the child that Robert ruthlessly slandered to gain intellectual prominence. But Robert's slandering of McGill also betrays his greed for praise -he is nothing more than a "conceited gowk". Thus Robert's desire is not only to be a member of the religious elect, but also to be a member of the social elite -his desire is to become part of the aristocracy.
Robert's "wholly incomprehensible" perception of the doppelganger Gil-Martin is thus the pinnacle of his mental psychosis -an instability arising from his convoluted family, his warped religious tenets, and his greedy conceit. Indeed, Gil-Martin's desire to become Robertís disciple can be seen as nothing more than an extreme egotism on Robert's part; for he is, indeed, a "religious maniac". Gil-Martin may well take an allegorical status within the text; but his origin still remains in Robert's subconscious. Religious doctrines "inured" in Robert provide the source of this allegorical caricature; and Robert merely projects this image onto the world in order to justify his psychotic tendencies. Indeed, Robert has "fine sport maltreating and abusing" women, and would gladly slaughter Mrs. Logan:

"I would tear her to pieces with my dogs, and feed them with her flesh"

and thus his character loses its `justified' portrayal: Robert is a callous murderer led astray by his narcissistic ego. And narcissism it is, for Robert's continual reference to Gil-Martin as a reflection and shadow indicates that he is merely absorbed with his own image. The doppelganger becomes the embodiment of all that we wish to be; whether that is a powerful Czar, a wealthy aristocrat or a member of the religious elect. The doppelganger loses its status as a supernatural phenomena and becomes "a radical psychological presentation of schizophrenic hallucination". Robert is "the very object whom he had been all along describing"; and Gil-Martin has no role outside of Robertís confused psyche.




Bibliography

Ian Campbell `Author and Audience in Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner' in Scottish Literary News, 1972 Volume 2 p.66

Kenneth W Graham, Gothic Fictions: Prohibition and Transgression (AMS Press, 1989)

James Hogg, Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Worlds Classics, 1995)

Karl Miller, Doubles: Studies in Literary History (Oxford University Press, 1985)

The Gothick Novel, ed. Victor Sage (Macmillan 1990)

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Worlds Classics, 1994)

The Concise Oxford Dictionary, ninth edition, Della Thompson ed. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995)

Karl Miller, Doubles: Studies in Literary History (Oxford University Press, 1985)