Thematic use of manifest doubling in selected tales by Henry James

Critics suggest that a search for self carried out by a divided individual is implicit in all of Henry James's work. Of particular interest, then, are ten short stories in which James makes this divided self explicit, tales whose donnee is the manifest double consciousness of a thereby self-haunted protagonist. Deserving of study as a group because they share this overt presentation of the elsewhere latent divided self, the tales are further unified by common themes and motifs. Each tale treats one or both of two of James's recurring concerns: the strong attraction the past exerts on the sensitive individual, and the nature and situation of the artistic personality. Each tale also employs some variant of the ancient motif of the Double. Whether the protagonist is "double" because he is an artist inspired by genius or because his affinity with the past involves the demon of an idee fixe, each seeks to escape the same human limitation: biological mortality. Some retreat into the productivity of the studio; others react to a relic of the past, an item which has survived its creator. In this way they all participate in the "madness of art," the attempt to forge a link with eternity. These tales of manifest double consciousness, which merge several of James's major interests through a common symbol, thus provide a possible key to his entire canon.