| Summary: | In many literary works, madness is represented as a repercussion of psychological tensions, expressing itself in ways that appear harrowing and distressing. One such manifestation is that of the ‘uncanny’ figure of the ‘double’ – an outward expression of the repressed ‘other’, also prominently known as the doppelgänger. Pitted against the assertion of critics like Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank that the doppelganger unwittingly emerges from within a character’s inner self as an external, “detached personification” of repressed desires or emotions that have been presumed to be stigmatized by society, doppelgänger characters tend to be portrayed in an evil and demonic manner. The pervasive investigation of this sinister, dark double of a character brings forth a deeper penetration into the human psyche. Simultaneously, it opens up a myriad of ways of conceiving the overarching notion of madness. This is arguably the reason why the concept of the double has been a paramount subject in literature throughout the ages. Bearing in mind the various issues pertaining to the subject of madness, this paper will seek to delve into thematic explorations of the doppelgänger through analyses of three highly acclaimed works which draw our focus to the notion of the double: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, along with its film adaptation by David Fincher, and Black Swan (2010), as directed by Darren Aronofsky.
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