This Study deals with the theme of the doppelganger in Vladimir Nabokov's Despair, published in 1934. The story's protagonist, Hermann Karlovich, a Russian of German origin and proprietor of a chocolate business, meets a destitute guy in Prague who he believes is his doppelgänger. Even though Felix, the alleged doppelgänger, appears to be ignorant of their similarity, Hermann insists on their strong resemblance. Hermann's fixation with seeing the sameness in everything reflects the human mind's collapse in its most severe form.
In the light of psychoanalysis, the researcher analyses the main character and the author's personality, which is mostly the reflection of his protagonists. The doppelganger is an alter ego that some critics believe to have other points of view different from those of the character in the story of the novel; hence, the conflict arises between this alter ego and the original.
This Study deals with the theme of the doppelganger in Vladimir Nabokov's Despair, published in 1934. The story's protagonist, Hermann Karlovich, a Russian of German origin and proprietor of a chocolate business, meets a destitute guy in Prague who he believes is his doppelgänger. Even though Felix, the alleged doppelgänger, appears to be ignorant of their similarity, Hermann insists on their strong resemblance. Hermann's fixation with seeing the sameness in everything reflects the human mind's collapse in its most severe form.