The Double

WARNING: Spoilers

The Double written by Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1846 (later edited in 1866). The book follows main character Yakov Petrovich Goliadkin (яаков петрович голиадкин). Mr. Goliadkin as he is referred to in most of the story is a bureaucrat in St. Petersburg Russia. He has a servant Pyotr, or Petrushka who lives with Mr. Goliadkin.

We do not know much about Mr. Goliadkin’s life before this story, only the things above are mentioned before are known about Mr. Goliadkin. In the beginning of the story Goliadkin contemplates visiting his doctor. This is where we learn that Mr. Goliadkin is not in the best mental state. After going back and forth with the doctor about Goliadkin has enemies, that Goliadkin only wears masks to balls, some people wear masks all the time. Its of course a very great introduction to the utter madness that Goliadkin will exhibit throughout the rest of the story for us. The interaction with the doctor is also a great example of how people will treat Goliadkin. They just don’t really respond just kind of pitch a line against going forward with any conversation and as you will find later in the story, just kind of hope that Goliadkin leaves them be.

I will not rehash every detail of this book though I really only want to touch on a few key things I took away from it.

1. The frustration I had trying to figure out what was going on
2. What is Goliadkin really suffering from?
3. Conclusion

Part 1: God this book is confusing

The book is told from the point of view of Goliadkin. We see what Goliadkin does, what he is thinking, the indecisiveness of Goliadkin alone is enough to put a reader off. But you do really feel the air, the kind of tone that is set in the book. Of course I do not live a life anywhere near the people in this story. 1860’s Russia is a much different place than to what I live today. It at times has made it hard to understand some of the minutia going on. The way polite society and how things are organized. There is even a note explaining the different levels of bureaucrat in Russia at this time. All very confusing on its own, but what I can understand is that when Goliadkin is talking with someone, you get an eerily familiar feeling.

If you have ever been at a bar and had the unfortunate circumstance of talking with a person way past their limit you know what its like to talk with Goliadkin. Different characters have different ways of dealing with Goliadkins antics but in short. A person talking with Goliadkin is reserved, they do not reveal much because it is clear to us (not Goliadkin) that they are not interested in talking with Goliadkin. That they have to think about what they say as to not get Goliadkin to respond, but you cannot be too rude because then Goliadkin will get offended and continue the conversation talking about his new found offense.

Just like if a guy at a bar talks you too much about his job or his favorite sports team after a few too many drinks. You have to think about really hard what you can say to get him to fuck off, without him knowing in express terms to fuck off.

But where this is important is the idea that no one in this story confronts Goliadkin about his double? The only person to mention it is Anton Antonovich who says it is perfectly normal for some people in their lives to have a double. Its interesting because I think that this is absolutely on purpose. Not mention to us the reader, whether through a character or the narrator that what is going on is absolutely madness. Because in order to understand Goliadkins affliction the best we have to read the whole story as if we only know what Goliadkin knows. Which is that there is a man, who looks exactly like him, talks like him, has the same job and same exact name. That is upending his life and using our main characters likeness against him. We never know why Goliadkins double is here, where he came from. All we know is that Goliadkin after sneaking into a ball and being “kindly” shown the door after making a scene starts seeing this man as he is walking home. Then the next day at work he discovers that man is his double.

Goliadkin throughout the story goes back in forth in a torturous manner to try and figure out how to deal with the double. At times cursing him for stealing Mr. Goliadkins good name and reputation but then at times where Goliadkin confronts him feels bad for him, like he cannot judge his double because his double has lived a hard life like he has and cannot fault him for taking over our hero’s life? Goliadkin actually has a terrible tendency to go back and forth on a lot of things. Whether or not to go to work, to go home, whether he should do this or that? Everything he does has to be thoroughly examined and ripped apart in his mind before deciding to do something, often times he overthinks so much he becomes so agitated and makes the worst decisions he can (couldn’t be me).

I think in order to fully understand the things you cannot understand in this book you do have to read it. I just feel like me hashing out the details of it will be of no service to you. If you feel that you want a mentally draining psychological drama on crack . Then this book is for you.

Part 2: What is Goliadkin suffering from?

I think right off the rip the more you read this story the more you will believe Mr. Goliadkin is suffering from a great case of Schizophrenia . We never are given a specific diagnosis from his doctor other than that he has prescribed a medication which Goliadkin never takes and actually breaks the vile in a crazy episode inside a tavern where he basically blacks out, forget what he was doing and when awakes is laughed at by the crowd of tavern goers so he flees and the vile leaves his pocket and breaks open on the floor. After some slight research this vile could have been laudanum which is morphine suspended in alcohol, usually wine during this time period. Sounds like a pretty good time if it wasn’t so expensive today . But I digress the vile he was prescribed probably wouldn’t have worked anyway other than to medicate himself so much that he could not leave his room (no foreshadowing to todays mental health practices).

Goliadkin does exhibit the main characteristics of a Schizophrenic mainly

1. Delusions

Mr. Goliadkin is very delusional about his state, he believes he is morally superior to nearly every person he encounters. Even his doctor is not spared. After their meeting where the doctor implores Goliadkin to take his medication, be with people and make drastic changes in his life to get better. Goliadkin leaves the meeting telling himself “That doctor is stupid”. Goliadkin also believes that he has many enemies when we never actually see anyone try to hurt Goliadkin, the tone of the other characters for the most part is that of concern but distance themselves from Goliadkin out of fear of him. Only those who are unfamiliar with Goliadkin like the bar crowd that laughs at him could ever be perceived as “enemies”.

2. Hallucinations

Mr. Goliadkin experiences many hallucinations, primarily that a man who is exactly like him is trying to destroy his life, other hallucinations are the things he reads. A letter from Klara Olsufyevna that states she is being held hostage and wants him to come save her, another letter from Vahramyev that states a bunch of things from things about the double living with a German woman, to them no longer being friends, to Goliadkin needing a new manservant.

3. Disorganized speech and thinking

My goodness could this not be more apparent from the moment we see the encounter Goliadkin has with his doctor we know he cannot put a whole sentence together, Goliadkin throughout the whole book will try and fail to explain himself. He stutters, gets off topic, even just completely stops conversations with characters because he is so mentally disorganized.

I would say that Goliadkin is certifiably in the Schizo category but its interesting to see that in this time period given all these signs Goliadkin was still given almost a week to run around St. Petersburg in such a fashion. Really makes you think how little was done back then to get people help for these kinds of things. In no way does anyone think that mental health was treated better in 1860’s Russia, but damn if my doctor gave me opium infused wine and told me to watch more movies when I was seeing a double of myself that was set on destroying me. I’d probably die within a week.

Part 3: Conclusion

So should you read the Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky? Maybe. Just if you want to be confused about it for a couple of days and then digress into the mainstream argument that Goliadkin is crazy, crazy people 150+ years ago did not get the help they need, here is a great example of what that looks like. Would I say this is Dostoevsky’s greatest or worst work I feel I haven’t read enough to answer. But I think its definitely not what I was expecting from him. In terms of an ending this book really does not contain one, in terms of answers to questions in the plot you will not find any. If you read Crime and Punishment and loved the ending to the main characters torturous mental state. Do not expect any resolve in this book.