The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

The novel is built on a foundation of doubles and doppelgängers. The two narrators—the editor and Robert Wringhim—provide competing and contrasting versions of events. Between these two versions, a sense of unreliability and uncanniness emerges. Nothing is fixed or reliable, to the extent that every version of something has a mirror or an alternative. The audience is left to piece together their own reality from any truth that emerges between the two versions of the same story. Likewise, Robert’s life becomes an exercise in unreliable duality. After his introduction to Gil-Martin, he begins to black out. He experiences extended periods of unconsciousness in which (he believes) he could not possibly have done anything. At the same time, people assure him that he has been very active and committed many immoral acts. Robert feels himself doubled, with his other self committing crimes and carrying out acts that Robert believes he would never commit. Robert’s narrative casts these incidents aside; he does not entertain the possibility that he committed such acts, yet everyone else is convinced he has done so. Reality is pieced together from the space between the two competing Roberts. Truth and reality emerge from the tension between doubles, both in narrative and character terms. The audience is given the option of believing the editor or Robert, while the people in the story are given the choice of believing whichever of Robert’s self happens to be active at any given moment.

Gil-Martin has the ability to adopt the appearance of anyone else. By changing his appearance, he is able to understand the thoughts and emotions of another person. He changes into George, for example, and is able to tell Robert where George is going. When he changes into Robert, he is able to understand Robert’s feelings. Gil-Martin uses his talents as a doppelgänger to wreak havoc. By turning into George, he orchestrates Robert’s attacks. By turning into Robert, he learns how to manipulate Robert. Gil-Martin evidently uses his powers for evil purposes, but his capacity to understand the thoughts and feelings of other people makes him one of the few characters in the novel who is capable of empathy. Colwan, George, Rabina, Robert, and Wringhim are all too swept up in their beliefs to risk empathizing with anyone. Gil-Martin is only character who shows a genuine desire to understand those around him. Empathy is weaponized through the process of doubling, in which a seemingly benevolent act is turned malicious.

In the city of Edinburgh, the competing factions create violent dichotomies. Jacobite faces off against Episcopalian, leading to fighting in the streets. Each person in the city takes a side, squaring off against their neighbors and peers based on minor differences in political opinion or religious belief. The duality of society is taken to an extreme, with the creation of a fundamentalist binary that cannot be tolerated by anyone involved. As Robert almost loses his mind amid accusations that his other self is out committing terrible sins, Scottish society is driven to the brink of insanity by the prospect of the emerging duality. The binary beliefs of Scottish society cause violence and chaos. Courts of law are undermined while every man sins against his neighbor, all the while assuring himself that he is good and just. Each side thinks themselves the hero, as Robert does, while fighting against people who are—for the most part—as similar as Robert and George. The society collapses into an obsession of doubled ideology, near-mirror images that create chaos through their minor differences. These tiny differences create a sense of uncanniness, a maddening obsession that suggests that the society, like Robert, is heading for a tragic end.