William Wilson Versions of Reality Quotes

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

Quote #4

Yet this superiority—even this equality—was in truth acknowledged by no one but myself; our associates, by some unaccountable blindness, seemed not even to suspect it. Indeed, his competition, his resistance, and especially his impertinent and dogged interference with my purposes, were not more pointed than private. (14)

Here we begin to suspect that the second William Wilson may have been a figment of the first William’s imagination, because no one else notices that he exists.

Quote #5

Perhaps it was this latter trait in Wilson's conduct, conjoined with our identity of name, and the mere accident of our having entered the school upon the same day… (15)

As more and more details like this one are revealed, we grow less and less comfortable with William’s version of the story.

Quote #6

I cannot better describe the sensation which oppressed me than by saying that I could with difficulty shake off the belief of my having been acquainted with the being who stood before me, at some epoch very long ago—some point of the past even infinitely remote. The delusion, however, faded rapidly as it came; and I mention it at all but to define the day of the last conversation I there held with my singular namesake. (24)

Wilson still does not understand the meaning of this event from his childhood, suggesting that he lacks the perspective of his readers.