Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

William Wilson

If you buy the epigraph’s suggestion that the double is William’s conscience, then he indeed acts as a guide for the narrator, or rather, part of the narrator’s character acts as a guide for the other part of the narrator’s character. William admits that his double had a strong moral sense and would often guide him towards the “right” action, at least before they became mortal enemies, at which point he forced the right action onto his facsimile.