The Wrong Daughter

The recurring presence of doubles and mirrored identities is the novel’s central motif, driving the plot and exploring the theme of identity’s malleability. The novel relies heavily on the concept of the doppelgänger, as an impostor successfully assumes Olivia’s life, demonstrating that identity can be a performance convincing enough to deceive even family. This substitution forces Caitlin to question the very nature of selfhood, as she struggles to reconcile the sister she remembers with the stranger who returns. The motif suggests that a person isn’t a fixed entity but a collection of memories, mannerisms, and narratives that can be studied, imitated, and ultimately stolen. This erosion of authentic identity, a form of psychological violence, destabilizes every relationship in the novel, leaving characters uncertain of who to trust and what is real.

The most disturbing iteration of this motif is Heath Ledbury’s obsession with recreating his dead sister, Elinor. He imprisons young women chosen for their resemblance to her, violently imposing a new identity upon them within the gothic confines of Ledbury Hall. Those he targets become (to him) living doppelgängers for Elinor, their identities erased to serve his delusional fantasy. Elinor’s identity was completely dependent on her brother: “Without Heath, where would she be? What would she be?” (23). Her questions reveal the fragility of an identity constructed entirely by another, an idea that Heath carries to a horrific conclusion. The novel’s dark mirroring of sibling relationships (the healthy bond Caitlin craves versus the toxic codependence of Heath and Elinor) connects to the theme of Sibling Relationships as Both Sanctuaries and Battlegrounds, a place of shelter yet a site of terrifying absorption where one identity can be consumed by another.