Literature has a strange ability to force an individual to look introspectively at their own existence and to question their own qualities - to self-evaluate. In the case of the chosen pieces, short story "William Wilson"" by Edgar Allan Poe and the poem "The Tunnel"" by Mark Strand, both stories slowly draw the reader into an empathy with the main characters. The short story by Poe forces the reader to attempt to find veiled redeeming qualities within the main character, William Wilson. Even as Wilson chooses to alter his own name for the story, it is obvious that his own personal qualities do not lend themselves to qualities that would easily escort an individual in popularity as an adult. Similarly, the odd behaviors of the unnamed main character in Mark Strand's "The Tunnel"" also lead one to conjecture the respectable and upright virtues of a character that we cannot help but to feel empathy and compassion for. As in any great literary work, both accounts engage the mind in such a way as to find a suitable explanation for their behaviors and their feelings. Both stories draw the reader to look within themselves to find similarities and contradictions that would both relate ourselves to the characters while also placing a separation between the spectator and the performer, but it is the ultimate refusal and rejection of these doppelgangers that is most profound and prominent.
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The venue's chosen by both authors differ in various degrees. As Edgar Allan Poe chooses to indulge many emotions of the main character he draws the reader into an understanding of who the main character is and why he is drawn into such strong feelings and reactions. Poe shows a distinct picture for the reader in his description of the boyhood school of Williams Wilson. "The grounds were extensive, and a high and solid brick wall, topped with a bed of mortar and broken glass, encompassed the whole. This prison-like rampart formed the limit of our domain.
