William Wilson Freedom and Confinement Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)

Quote #1

Thenceforward my voice was a household law; and at an age when few children have abandoned their leading-strings, I was left to the guidance of my own will, and became, in all but name, the master of my own actions. (3)

Before the arrival of William Wilson, the narrator was used to being in control.

Quote #2

These, moreover, utterly trivial, and even ridiculous in themselves, assume, to my fancy, adventitious importance, as connected with a period and a locality when and where I recognise the first ambiguous monitions of the destiny which afterwards so fully overshadowed me. Let me then remember. (5)

The narrator has just finished proclaiming his own sense of control, only to reveal that he believes himself subject to a cruel fate.

Quote #3

The house, I have said, was old and irregular. The grounds were extensive, and a high and solid brick wall, topped with a bed of mortar and broken glass, encompassed the whole. This prison-like rampart formed the limit of our domain (6)

We start to doubt the narrator’s claim that he was in control of his environment as a child.