Duality in Identity
Explore below to see how characters from rock stars to superheroes wrestle with duality, revealing the very human struggle to reconcile who we are with who we want to become...and where we might feel trapped.
Fight Club (1999) follows an unnamed narrator who escapes his mundane life with his alter ego, Tyler Durden. Together the two create "Fight Club,” an underground movement where men can escape their consumerist lives through bare-knuckled violence. Image courtesy: FillmGrab
The mid-1980s American animated musical television series, Jem, follows Jerrica Benton's alter ego Jem and her worldwide famous rock band the Holograms. The Jem identity is created by holographic technology, blurring the lines between alter ego and self. Image courtesy: YouTube
Frank Ocean’s 2016 album, Blonde, is his most acclaimed work. Most scholarly research on Blonde reads the work as an album of dualities. In this album, two things can exist at once. The title flickers between Blond and Blonde on the album cover and streaming services. Dual pitches of Frank’s voice and contradictory lyrics build upon a beat switch at the halfway point of the album. Image courtesy: Apple Music
Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) Cyrus lives a double life as a popstar in Disney Channel's Hannah Montana (2006-2011). The series follows Miley through her adolescence as she finds herself in friendship, music, and love. Image courtesy: Mike Schmid
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde explores the haunting duality between outward beauty and hidden corruption. Dorian’s perfect public image masks the moral decay preserved within his portrait, which he hides away. Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Ivan Albright
Jekyll and Hyde, the 1886 gothic novella turned Broadway success in 1990, is perhaps the most prominent exploration of duality in musical theatre. Dr. Jekyll seeks to separate his evil vices from the good, respectable side of himself by creating a potion. The potion allows Dr. Hyde to overtake Dr. Jekyll’s body, who quickly leaves destruction and death in his path. The musical ends with Jekyll committing suicide, realizing that Hyde cannot be removed from his body. Image courtesy: Paul Lyden via North Shore Music Theatre
In Moana, Te Fiti's dual identities reflect how creation and destruction can coexist in one entity. In Te Fiti's natural state, she is a goddess made of lush green earth and fertility. When her heart is stolen by Maui, she is Te Ka, a raging demon of earth, fire, and ash. Image courtesy: Disney Wiki
Tom Holland's portrayal of Spiderman is known for being youthful, a teen still growing into himself. Because of this, Peter Parker's duality shines even brighter as we can see the distinctions between the boy and his alter ego superhero persona more clearly. Image courtesy: FilmGrab