The novels The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Turn of The Screw and Dracula were all written in

the 19th century and include many of the same themes. The novels show the theme of
duality and doubles in characters to show fear and power. One idea is that the
doppelganger is a monster version of the character or visa versa. For example, at the
beginning of Dracula, Renfield is the less rational version of Dracula, but he crosses over as
Dracula becomes less coherent and sane to a more cooperating help to the group. The
theme of doubles can also be shown through the two objects, the mirror and the painting in
Dorian and Dracula.
The character of Mrs Grose in The Turn of The Screw is an illiterate and uneducated version
of The Governess. She is a great companion to her and treats her with respect and always
listens to her crazy theories. The governess, however, tends to overwhelm Mrs Grose, often
finishing her sentences or leaping to conclusions about what she is saying. The governess
subconsciously believes that she is more valuable than the servant. Although Mrs. Grose is
the source for most of the governess’s information, the governess does not take her words
at face value or ask Mrs. Grose for her opinions. Instead, the governess uses Mrs. Grose as a
“receptacle of lurid things”. She is what the governess would have been if she were not so
educated. Likewise, Renfield mirrors a lot of Dracula’s moods and tendencies, sometimes
with slight alterations. For example, while Dracula hunts children and people for him and his
female vampires to eat at his castle in Transylvania, Renfield is gauging off of bugs, flies and
birds in a mental institution in London. Both of them rely on these things, Dracula for life
and Renfield is obsessed with Dracula and blood. They are a double of each other because
Renfield is constantly aware of what is happening even without communication between
them, like a spiritual connection. This links to the theme of fairy tale, which is also evident in
Dorian. In Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Watton turns Dorian into his doppelganger by corrupting
him with hedonistic views. Dorian starts of innocent and with a captivating presence, but
with the help of Henry he starts becoming less innocent and ruining lives. He snowballs into
a murderer and opium addict. So, what Henry tried to make his equal, turned into a greater
and more extreme hedonist than him, causing Dorian’s life to go downhill very fast. It could
be said that Henry was the line of where hedonism is acceptable, because although it is
controversial it does not ruin or end lives, and Dorian crossed that line.
But Dorian’s downfall wasn’t only due to Lord Henry’s lifestyle ideals, it was also a curse
accidentally placed on him by himself, when he wished to never grow old and for his
portrait to take his age instead. But not only would the portrait age 18 years until his final
death, but because the painting mirrored his soul it changed appearance according to what
Dorian does. For example, the first time the portrait changed was after Dorian had dumped
Sybil because she was no longer acting and instead being herself. He broke her heart and
then saw the painting changing, causing him to reflect on his actions and want to fix it, for
purely selfish reasons. The equivalent for Dracula is the mirror. Dracula is half alive and thus
has half of a soul. This is shown towards the beginning of the novel when Harker sees that
Dracula has no reflection in the mirror. We all have doubles, we just have to look in a mirror
or a photo and then there is another one of us, but Dracula does not have this because his
soul is isolated. Hence, Dorian’s soul is inside his painting, whereas Dracula does not have a
soul, and this is shown through the mirror.
In Turn of The Screw, there is a duality in the story lines as well as the characters: the first is
that the Governess cannot deal with the two children and becomes stressed and unhinged,
she then feels as if she is slowly going insane when she begins to see ghosts, and believes
that the children are on the ghosts side. The whole story is one big mental breakdown
leading to death. The other version of the story is where the heroic governess attempts to
protect the children and face the ghosts, but the lengths she goes to to save the children
aren’t enough. The dual storyline perceptions highlight how differently the governess can be
judged, but at the same time it is still a scary horror story. This is the same as Dorian Gray,
one story line being an innocent boy being turned to hedonistic ways by bad influences, as
his life worsens and as his soul changes, the age and experiences he faces are reflected in
his portrait, and in an attempt to save his soul he tried to slay the painting and yet slays
himself. The other story line is that he is cursed by a selfish wish to an infinite life of
psychopathologic tendencies and is trapped to ruin lives forever. Then he gets scared of
what he has become and tries to fix himself, but instead kills himself. Both versions show a
somewhat fairy-tale about bad decisions. The duality of storylines in both novels allow the
readers to make their own interpretation of either, or a mixture of the two.
There is a certain duality in the personality of Miles in The Turn of The Screw. He could
either be a clever and deceitful toy of ghosts or merely an unknowing, unusually well-
mannered young boy. The governess changes her mind on the matter several times, leaving
us wandering Miles’s true character. When she first encounters Miles, she is struck by his
“positive fragrance of purity” and comes to the conclusion that he has known nothing but
love. She finds herself justifying him for any potential mishap because he seems too
innocent to misbehave. However, she also senses a disturbing blankness in Miles, an
impersonality and lack of history, as if he is a ghost himself. Once the governess begins
having her paranormal encounters, she comes to think that Miles is planning evil acts with
his ghostly friend Quint, and he starts acting strange. For instance, he steals the letter she
wrote to his uncle. He planned this incident so that the governess will think that he is “bad,”
and Mrs. Grose tells us that Quint was a bad influence on him, and that they are probably
just childish pranks. The fact that Miles is abnormally nice and well behaved otherwise
suggests that the disturbing quality of his behaviour exists only in the governess’s brain. The
governess eventually comes to the decision that Miles must be full of wickedness, reasoning
that he is too “exquisite” to be anything else, a decision she builds from only her own
assumptions.
Dracula also has a dual personality; he is courteous to make people trust him and lure them
into a false sense of security. For example, when Harker first came to the castle he felt at
ease because “the light and warmth of the Count’s courteous welcome seemed to have
dissipated all my doubts and fears”. However, the other side of his personality becomes
more apparent when he feeds a human baby to 3 women in his basement and crawling
down the side of the castle like a “lizard”. The Count can seem very friendly and welcoming
at first, but this is just a façade to get his prey to let their guard down before he attempts to
manipulate them or turn them into a meal. Likewise, Dorian’s appearance can contradict his
soul. There is the obvious factor of his age being 18 years older than he looks, yet also he
still looks as innocent as he once did before Lord Henry overtook his consciousness: his
actions does not affect his appearance. For example, he killed Basil, his former best friend,
by stabbing him repeatedly. The next evening Dorian is able to go to a dinner party and a
couple of comments are made about him acting unusual, but Dorian is barely shaken after
having killed his oldest friend. His soul and his morals are separate from himself, instead put
into his double in the form of the painting.