The theme of violent tendencies flow through both Poe and Raymond’s novels, they are both used similarly and differently as well as for different effects. Also with different techniques.
In The Big Sleep Marlowe and Carmen Sternwood have a love hate relationship “I didn’t like her anymore.” Throughout chapter 31 they go from being friendly to each other to Carmen trying to shoot Marlowe to Marlowe tending to Carmen while she was unwell. Marlowe seems to genuinly care for Carmen "i caught her as she fell". He takes extra precautions to make sure she is ok "took all my strength to do it". Marlowe then protects Carmen from what has jus happened by keeping the truth from her which might scare her "what happened?" "Nothing why?". Their relationship is quite confusing and tends to turn very quickly. Similarly in Poe’s William Wilson the relationship that the main character has with his double is quite the same. At times he is fascinated by him “Deep awe” but that soon turns to hatred “Scoundrel!” Wilson's doppelganger is what you would say obssessed with Wilson, which other than looking exactly the same as him strains the relationship they have and turns it sour "imperious domination" . Wilson same as Marlowe was brought together with his double due to negative circumstances.
However Wilson’s relationship with his doppelganger is rather sinister in the fact that his doubles presence is somewhat paranormal “damnable whisper”. Wilson wants to kill his double, remove him from his life and doesn’t have a problem doing so “frenzy” describes his hatred. Whereas Marlowe and Carmen’s relationship is normal and friendlier in comparison “My, but your cute.” However in both pieces of text there is a scene of violence between the two characters.
Violent tendencies are demonstrated throughout William Wilson whether it is actions or just thoughts. Most of the violence is towards the end, however there are violent tendencies throughout the whole text. There is a sense of annoyance and hatred between the two characters; one because they are so dramatically alike and two because no one else can see it. At one point the original William sneaks into the other's room here is a hint of violent tendencies, not through actions but thoughts. Sneaking into someones room is seen as not normal and a quite threatening. Although they hate each other the original William is scared of the other which makes him more violent "keenness of feeling" shows how he makes him feel and "numbness" shows the cold-hearted attitude he has.
The last few pages of this text are where the violence really shows. The two Williams get into a fight. This is where the first William shows true anger and rage. There’s an underlying tone of anger “violently” but he finally confronts the situation. “I stab you where you stand” shows the hatred. The violence then goes up a notch “thrust him furiously”. He is crazy with rage he almost doesn’t know what he’s doing “frantic with every species of wild excitement”. Even though there was a fight between two people the true violence is more sinister as he comes to realise he has unintentionally killed himself.
Similarly in The Big Sleep when Carmen runs out of ammo she begins to shake violently and take a turn for the worst ending up unconscious this could be related to William Wilson because when he tried to overcome the other character he ends up killing himself “hast murdered thyself”. Here when Carmen tries to overcome the other character she ends up falling unconscious “she fell”. Both characters mad with rage ended up causing harm to themselves than the enemy they greatly desired to conquer.
Wilson has quite a dark mind "I began to murmur,- to hesitate,- to resist" he's become his own enemy. In my extract when Wilson is confronted by his double he turns wild with anger "frenzy of wrath" throughtout this part of the text there is a lot of physical violence between the two characters. Wilson, who has consumed alcohol which doesn't help begins to curse showing the reader a portion of his anger "imposter! Accursed villian!" He turns as evil as his enemy "voice husky with rage". Similarly when Carmen began to shoot at Marlowe she turned from sweet to sinister "sharp little teeth", she acted rather inncent and oblivious of what she had just done "not worried at all". Like Wilson, Carmen when at her climax goes mad with rage and darkness falls over her "scraped bone look". Both Camen and Wilson are come across animal like when in their element "not a nice animal". Wilson describes his actions as "brute" like. Only difference is Carmen isnt strong enough to kill someone "lay crumpled".
The language in both novels are drastically different obviously they were both published at the same time but they were written for different audiences. Edgar Allen Poe was being paid for every word he wrote so he tended to elongate and use complex lexical terms. This meant that he used words that didn’t exactly need to be there but still made perfect sense. On the other hand Raymond Chandler was paid for each finished product sold so he was able to write as much in a chapter or as little as he liked. This doesn’t mean the quality of the novel was any less that Poe’s. “Every species of wild excitement” is the perfect example of where Poe would elongate his sentences as he could have simple said really angry. Chandler on the other hand when describing the anger of a character he simply said “aged, deteriorated, become animal and not a nice animal” clear and to the point. Poe’s stories tend to be full of tension and the events happen quite fast this is because he wrote short stories, whereas Chandler could take his time and spread out upcoming events over numerous chapters however he did not drag it on for it to become boring. When reading both chandler and Poe’s pieces of text you would not think they were written around the same time Poe uses language such as “ yet henceforward art thou also dead – dead to the world” and “ in me didst thou exist – and in my death, see by this image which is thine own, utterly thou hast murdered thyself”. On the other hand Chandler uses language such as this “ stand there you son of a bitch” and “my but you are cute”. I think here there is what we call diachronic variation as both pieces of text were written around the same time but Chandler seems more modern that Poe.