Two-Faced Women: The "Double" in Women's Melodrama of the 1940s

Abstract

The Double. One of the most compelling branches of the genre of the fantastic is the literature of the double, of the split or multiple self. As many historians have noted, the theme is quite ancient and can be found in various primitive rituals and superstitions. In certain societies, for example, when twins are born, either one or both are slain, for fear of their emboding evil spirits.2 The double theme appears as well in archetypal myths and legends. There is the fable of Narcissus, for instance, with his haunting duplicate mirror-image, or the legend of Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome. Even fairy tales reveal a similar fascination with the doppelganger. Thus, a Swedish folk story centers on a maiden who mysteriously loses her shadow upon making a pact to retain her beauty. The figure of the double has been manifest in diverse forms. At times the doppelganger has shown itself as an ethereal being-a shadow, a reflection, or an animated portrait. At other points, it has taken the shape of an identical being-a person of kindred appearance, a relative, a twin. While the theme of the double has existed in ancient rites and