The Comparison Study On The Characters Of ‘the Double’ In “Die Elixdere Des Teufels” And “the Double”

E.T.A.Hoffmann and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky were famous writers in the 19 th century in Germany and Russia,having a significant influence in the history of world literature.Created with the theme of dissociative identity disorder,both the Devil’s Elixirs by Hoffmann and the Double by Dostoevsky portrayed a character with dual personality.Depicting the inner contradictions and conflicts of the two heroes,these two masterpieces show the opposition of humanity and morality,which presents the spiritual distress of people and the conflict between human and social environment under the reform of European society in the 19 th century.According to Freud’s theory of personality structure,this paper focuses on analysing the development process of Id,ego and super-ego of the heroes in these two novels,and reveals their personality characteristics,as well as explore the characteristics of the image of ‘the double’ in these novels.Starting with these three aspects: social background,traditional philosophy and religious concept,this paper further explains the motivation of the two writers to create the image of ‘the double’,as well as literary value and aesthetic significance of the kind of image in their novels.This dissertation is composed of seven parts,introduction,body(five chapters)and conclusion.Combining with the current research of domestic and international literatus on the Devil’s Elixirs by Hoffmann and the Double by Dostoevsky,the introduction section summarizes the purpose and significance of this paper,also reveals its feasibility and innovation.Utilizing the theories and methods of comparative literature,these two novels are explored and analysed deeply.The first chapter introduces the biography of the two authors and the main content of these two novels,to experience their creative motivation and mental journey.The second chapter uses psychoanalysis related theories to analyze the commonalities of the character image of ‘the double’ in the texts of the two novels.The third chapter classifies and interprets the character images from the three perspectives of ‘Id’,‘Ego’ and ‘Super-ego’,and further grasps the personality characteristics of the characters image of ‘the double’ described by the author.In the fourth chapter,using social historical criticism theory and religious literary theory,the intentions of these two German and Russian writers in shaping the image of ‘the double’ and the origin of this image created in the texts are explored.Moreover,from these three aspects:social background,traditional philosophy and religious concepts,in-depth analysis of the creative intentions of the image is presented in this chapter.The fifth chapter interprets the significance and value of the image of ‘the double’ from the perspective of literature and aesthetics.In addition,it also specifically analyses the influence of the Devil’s Elixirs and the Double on the literary history of Germany and Russia and even on that of the world.Furthermore,from the perspective of ugly aesthetics,the aesthetic value carried by the image of ‘the double’is discussed in this chapter.The conclusion section briefly sorts out the overall mindset of this dissertation and summarizes the classification and image characteristics of ‘the double’ in Hoffman and Dostoevsky’s novels.Using the relevant theories of psychoanalysis,the research value and significance of this image are grasped.Finally,this section reveals the enlightening significance of ‘the double’ for understanding the complexity of human nature in real society.