A doppelgänger ( / ˈ d ɒ p ə l ɡ ɛ ŋ ə r , – ɡ æ ŋ -/ DOP -əl-gheng-ər, – ⁠ gang- , also doppelgaenger and doppelganger ) is a magical copy of a living person. It often haunts the person it is copying.

In stories, myths, and everyday language, a doppelgänger is often seen as a ghost or a strange event. It is usually thought to bring bad luck. In books, a doppelgänger can be the evil twin of the main character. Today, people sometimes use the term "twin stranger" instead.

Spelling

The English word doppelgänger comes from the German language, where it means a person who walks as a double or mirror image. In German, the singular and plural forms are the same, but in English, the plural is often written as doppelgängers. German also has a feminine form of the word: Doppelgängerin (plural Doppelgängerinnen). The first known use of the word, spelled Doppeltgänger, appears in the 1796 novel Siebenkäs by Jean Paul. In a note, he explains the meaning of his new word, though the term Doppelgänger is also used in the novel with a different meaning.

In German, the word is written with a capital letter at the beginning, like Doppelgänger. In English, it is usually written with a lowercase letter, and the umlaut over the "a" is often removed, making it doppelganger.

Mythology and folklore

English speakers recently began using a German word to describe a supernatural idea. In 1787, Francis Grose used the word "fetch" in his book Provincial Glossary, defining it as "the ghostly image of a living person." Later, in 1848, Catherine Crowe's book The Night-Side of Nature helped popularize the German term. The idea of having a second self or a spiritual double has existed in the myths, stories, and beliefs of many cultures throughout history.

In Ancient Egyptian mythology, a "ka" was a physical spirit that shared the same memories and feelings as the person it belonged to. In a story about the Trojan War, a ka of Helen tricked Paris, helping to prevent the war. This idea also appears in the play Helen by the Greek writer Euripides. In Norse mythology, a "vardøger" is a ghostly double that is seen doing the actions of a person before they happen. In Finnish mythology, this idea is called "etiäinen," meaning "a firstcomer."

In Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah describes a "sefirotic-tree" with three parts. The left side represents strictness, the right side represents kindness, and the center balances these qualities. Hasidism explains this with the human body: the left side is weaker, and the right is stronger. For example, performing acts of kindness requires more courage. Jewish mystics also use the book Sefer Yetzirah and the Hebrew letter "Tet" (ט) to explain this balance. The Tet has a unique shape, like a curve, which represents differences in the world and nature.

In many Muslim-majority countries, the concept of a "karin" or "qarin" exists. This is a spiritual double that shares the same sex, race, and personality as the person it is connected to. It can be helpful or harmful and may influence the person to act on bad desires. Some Sufi mystics believe the karin is a devil living in a person's blood and heart. The idea is more common in some countries, such as Egypt, than in others like Sudan.

In Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary (1898–1905), the word "dopple-ganger" is listed as a term from northern England and marked as no longer used.

Examples

Izaak Walton wrote that John Donne, an English poet, saw his wife's doppelgänger in Paris in 1612. This happened on the same night their daughter was stillborn. This story first appeared in a book published in 1675, called Life of Dr. Rizvan Rizing. The story was told by someone described as "a Person of Honour" and was said to have been shared with great detail and insistence. Walton claimed he believed the person who told him the story truly believed it.

Two days after arriving in Paris, Mr. Donne was left alone in a room where he had previously shared a meal with Sir Robert and others. When Sir Robert returned shortly later, he found Mr. Donne alone but deeply changed. Mr. Donne looked extremely upset and confused, and Sir Robert asked him what had happened. Mr. Donne paused for a long time before finally saying he had seen a vision. He described seeing his wife walk through the room twice, holding a dead child. He said she looked directly at him before vanishing. Sir Robert suggested he might have dreamed it, but Mr. Donne insisted he was awake and certain of what he had seen.

R. C. Bald and R. E. Bennett later questioned whether Walton’s account was true.

On July 8, 1822, the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned near Lerici, Italy. On August 15, while in Pisa, Shelley’s wife, Mary Shelley, wrote a letter to Maria Gisborne. In it, Mary described how Percy had told her he had seen his own doppelgänger. This occurred a week after Mary suffered a near-fatal miscarriage. On June 23, Percy had a nightmare about a flood destroying a house. The next day, he told Mary he had seen visions, including a figure of himself walking on a terrace and speaking to him. He said the figure had not said anything frightening. Mary’s friend, Mrs. Williams, claimed she saw Shelley walking on the terrace twice, though Shelley was not there.

In Percy Shelley’s play Prometheus Unbound (1820), there is a scene where the character Zoroaster sees his own image walking in a garden. The play describes two worlds: one visible and one hidden beneath the earth, where the shadows of living things exist until death unites them.

In his autobiography Dichtung und Wahrheit (1811–1833), the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote briefly about a strange experience. While visiting someone named Frederica, Goethe claimed he saw his own figure walking toward him on horseback, wearing a dress he had never worn. The figure disappeared when he shook off the vision. Eight years later, Goethe found himself on the same road wearing the same dress by accident. He said this strange experience helped ease his sadness about leaving a place called Alsace.

In 1845, a French teacher named Émilie Sagée, who worked in a boarding school in what is now Latvia, was said to have a doppelgänger. This figure sometimes mimicked her actions. Once, her students tried to touch the doppelgänger and felt a slight resistance, like touching fine fabric.

This story was reported by Robert Dale Owen.

In the Victorian era, there was a claim that Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon appeared in his family’s drawing room in London on June 22, 1893. He was said to have walked past several guests without speaking, while he was supposed to be on a ship in the Mediterranean. Later that night, his ship, HMS Victoria, sank after colliding with another ship, HMS Camperdown, following an unexplained order to turn toward it.

In fiction

Lord Byron uses doppelgänger imagery to explore the two sides of human nature.

In The Devil's Elixirs (1815), one of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s early novels, a man kills the brother and stepmother of his beloved princess. He discovers that his doppelgänger has been punished for these crimes instead. He frees the doppelgänger, but the doppelgänger later kills the princess.

In addition to describing the doppelgänger as a counterpart to the self, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s drama Prometheus Unbound (1820) mentions Zoroaster meeting "his own image walking in the garden."

In Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 short story William Wilson, the main character is followed by a doppelgänger his whole life. The doppelgänger causes trouble and plays tricks on him. Eventually, the main character kills the doppelgänger and realizes it was only mirroring him. First published in 1839, the story was also included in his 1840 collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1846 novel The Double presents the doppelgänger as a different personality that takes over the protagonist’s life by using his weaknesses. In Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell (1939), a character named Pauline Anstruther sees her own doppelgänger throughout her life. Clive Barker’s story Human Remains in his Books of Blood is a doppelgänger tale. The doppelgänger motif is a common element in Gothic fiction.

In Vladimir Nabokov’s 1936 novel Despair, the narrator and main character, Hermann Karlovich, meets a homeless man in Prague, whom he believes is his doppelgänger.

In Jorge Luis Borges’ The Other (1972), the author finds himself sitting on a bench with his older doppelgänger, and the two have a conversation.

In Bret Easton Ellis’ novel Glamorama (1998), the protagonist, actor–model Victor Ward, is often mistaken for his doppelgänger by people who claim to see him at events he does not remember attending. At one point, Victor travels to Europe, but reports of him attending events in the U.S. appear in newspapers. Victor’s doppelgänger may have been created by his father, a U.S. senator, to replace Victor and improve his own public image. The novel is narrated by Victor, but some chapters are unclear, making it uncertain whether they are written by Victor or his doppelgänger.

In Stephen King’s book The Outsider (2018), the antagonist uses the DNA of others to become their near-perfect match through a science-fictional ability to change appearance. The group trying to stop the antagonist refers to this ability as a doppelgänger. The group also discusses other examples of fictional doppelgängers from history.

In Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline (2002), the heroine meets improved versions of her parents and neighbors in the world of the Other Mother.

In Das Mirakel and The Miracle (both 1912), the Virgin Mary (as the doppelgänger) takes the place of a nun who ran away from her convent. Both works are based on the 1911 play The Miracle by Karl Vollmöller.

The Student of Prague (1913) is a German silent film in which a diabolical character steals the reflection of a young

In non-fiction

The main idea of Naomi Klein's 2023 book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is the concept of having a doppelganger. In the book, Klein discusses today's political disagreements and beliefs about conspiracies by comparing her own views with those of Naomi Wolf, a person who is often mistaken for Klein.

Scientific applications

Research has shown that people who are "true" look-alikes share more similar genes than people who do not look alike. These shared genes affect not only facial features but also some physical traits and behaviors. This suggests that differences in the way genes are controlled and the bacteria in the body have only a small effect on how a person's face looks.

Heautoscopy is a term used in psychiatry and neurology to describe a hallucination in which a person sees their own body from a distance. This experience can happen in people with schizophrenia or epilepsy and is sometimes linked to reports of seeing a doppelgänger.

Criminologists use the ideas of facial familiarity and similarity because of cases where people were wrongly convicted based on eyewitness accounts. In one example, a man was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years and consistently claimed he was not involved in the crime he was accused of. He was finally released when another person was found who looked very similar to him and shared the same first name.

In 1914, Otto Rank began studying the concept of the Doppelgänger and its possible use in psychoanalysis. Later, in 1919, Sigmund Freud expanded on this idea in his work The Uncanny. Freud explained that the Doppelgänger, or "the double," is connected to children's belief in their own importance. This idea appears in mirrors, guardian spirits, and thoughts about death. The Doppelgänger starts as a symbol of immortality but is later seen as a sign of death. It also represents hidden thoughts linked to the idea of negation in psychoanalysis. The way the Doppelgänger appears helps to understand a person's sense of self.