The Inescapable Death Of The Doppelganger English Literature Essay

Within most Western cultures today the way we are socialized or called into being is completed through our integration with others. Similarly, one of the oldest works of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, surrounds the issue of needing connection and assimilation with others. Corresponding the traditions of socialization from as late as 2000 BCE with present day, this is “an old story, but one that can still be told, about a man who loved and lost a friend to death and learned he lacked the power to bring him back to life” (Mason, 1). The epic Mesopotamian poem revolves around the complementing friendship between two characters: Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Created by the gods in order to distract Gilgamesh from tyrannizing the city of Uruk, Enkidu was a wild man who would one day teach Gilgamesh many important lessons. The companions’ quest to conquer the guardian of the Cedar Mountain, Humbaba, as well as the slaying of the Bull of Heaven ultimately leads to the sentencing of Enkidu’s death. As a severe illness overtakes the character of Enkidu, both he and Gilgamesh quickly learn that fear and death are inevitable. As death reaches his friend, however, Gilgamesh is left to contemplate how he can escape fatality and become immortal. Acting as a ghostly double, Enkidu haunts his counterpart, ultimately troubling Gilgamesh’s conception of self-identity. The divine order which is developed through the introduction of Enkidu, the doppelganger of Gilgamesh, binds these friends both in life and death. Through the divine order, Enkidu offers Gilgamesh the experiences he needs in order to grow and change into the person he was destined to be. In mourning the loss of his doppelganger, Enkidu, in The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh loses his individuality as his identity becomes subsumed with Enkidu’s. Beginning to take on both the appearance and mentality of Enkidu, it is apparent that Gilgamesh is subconsciously becoming his lost friend. Gilgamesh’s loss of individualism ultimately leads him to find the person he was made to be through the learning that humans are not created to be immortal; they must simply accept the inevitability of death.

Every occurrence in one’s life takes place according to what they need to experience in order to grow and change. This can be defined as divine order or perception held by the soul. In order for Gilgamesh to develop into who he was born to be and tear him apart from the tyrannical path he is on, divine order takes over during the creation of Enkidu, the wild man who was one day to be referred to as Gilgamesh’s double. As Gilgamesh becomes aware of the divine order through a dream, his mother, Ninsun, tells him “this bright star from heaven, this huge boulder that you could not lift- it stands for a dear friend, a mighty hero… he will be your double, your second self, a man who is loyal, who will stand at your side” (Gilgamesh 83). Reassuring Gilgamesh, Ninsun, wise and all-knowing, believes a true friend is about to bloom for her dear son. His mother’s assumptions worry Gilgamesh but are comforting in the sense that he will soon have an equal, someone like him, someone to call a friend. When Gilgamesh and his equal, Enkidu, eventually meet in the city of Uruk, the characterization of Gilgamesh quickly changes due to divine order. As critic Jack Sasson pointed out: “the Semitic poet seems to have consciously attempted to fashion one personality who would combine the idiosyncrasies of his two major protagonists”, in order to reveal the role of the double within the epic poem (271). The onset of the poem describes Gilgamesh as “a king of unequaled potential and of boundless, […] undirected energy” (Sasson, 271). Generally, Gilgamesh is seen as conceited and insensitive toward the people living in the city of Uruk. As Enkidu is introduced, however, his “sexual excess is destined to end Gilgamesh’s” thoughtless behaviour, turning him into a contrasting “gentle, experienced, calm, and concerned” human being (Sasson 271). Although there are several apparent differences in the early behaviours of the friends, the creation “was to have been a zikru, a replica of Gilgamesh” which eventually led to supreme similarities and minor differences between the two characters (Sasson, 272). The creation of Enkidu occurred as Gilgamesh’s fate depended on the experience he would gain from Enkidu.

Furthermore, the divine order and consciousness of the soul are found throughout the quest that Gilgamesh and Enkidu embark on together. On their journey to defeat the guardian of the Cedar Mountain, Humbaba, the friends contemplate over whether they should take on this quest or not. Continuously reminding each other that they have the power to make, in the least, their names immortal, they decide they must distract themselves from their deep fears of slaying the monstrous guardian. Learning how to overcome the inescapable feelings of fear on their way to their possibly deadly quarrel, the two friends teach each other how to cope with trepidation by allowing themselves to feel like they are part of a community. Gilgamesh’s new characteristics revealed by Enkidu allow him to realize that working with others and maintaining friendships provides the chance to be part of something more significant than what may be possible individually. Strengthening their friendship and enclosing the distance between them, flesh to flesh Gilgamesh and Enkidu use each other for comfort “clasp[ing] hands like brothers”, ultimately, but only momentarily, allowing for all of their fears about death and their infamous image, or simply no image at all, of themselves to fade (Gilgamesh, 102). Binding together in both life and death, Enkidu consoles Gilgamesh throughout their quest to kill Humbaba by reminding him that they will prevail. The re-socialization of Gilgamesh through the divine order has taught him the importance of community, which in due course lessens his fears of death.

Once Enkidu has re-established Gilgamesh’s fears of death, the inevitable began to take over Enkidu’s own life. Angering the gods with their killing of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven, the gods announce that one of the two heroes must die as compensation for their offenses. Enkidu’s nightmare suggests that he will be the one receiving the punishment of death as in his dream “Anu said, ‘they have slaughtered the Bull of Heaven and killed Humbaba… therefore one of the two must die.’ Then Enlil said to him, ‘Enkidu, not Gilgamesh, is the one to die'” (Gilgamesh, 141). Frightened by the possible truth of this trance, Enkidu rushes to his companion, Gilgamesh, with the hope of finding the comfort and reassurance he seeks. His nightmare turns into reality as he suddenly falls ill and suffers terribly, dying twelve days later. Leaving Gilgamesh hysterically troubled over the loss of his most favoured companion, like Shamash had predicted, he wonders if he must also die. With the overwhelming feeling of grief, Gilgamesh contemplates: “how can my mind have any rest? My beloved friend has turned into clay- my beloved Enkidu has turned into clay. And won’t I lie down in the dirt like him, and never arise again?” (Gilgamesh, 167-168). Concerned about the loss of his dear friend causes Gilgamesh to consider what will happen to him, when will it be his turn? Although he is grieving for Enkidu, he is moreover grieving for himself, for the realization that death will one day overtake him as well. Additionally, he is mourning for the reason that he has lost the presence of Enkidu in his life, not genuinely for the loss of Enkidu. Grasping the idea that Enkidu was more than just a friend and in fact a double or doppelganger of him, Gilgamesh takes the grieving more manically that he should. Critic Jack Sasson argues that these two characters have been “made to complement each other both physically and psychologically… and are projections of the crippled or struggling personalities… with whom the author is primarily concerned” (273). Agreeing with the critic, I acknowledge that Gilgamesh is the primary focus of the poem and also the one who holds a struggling personality after the loss of his double. Unsure of what to do with himself, Gilgamesh sets out on a lonesome quest to find Utnapishtim, who had survived the great flood and holds the knowledge of the secret to immortality.

At this point in the poem, Gilgamesh’s “life became a quest to find the secret of eternal life” which he also hoped he could take back to Uruk in order to selfishly revive Enkidu (Mason, 47). As Gilgamesh reaches Utnapishtim and requests that he tell him the secret of becoming immortal, Utnapishtim’s telling of the story about the flood causes Gilgamesh to realize how ridiculous and nonsensical his quest for escaping death is. Without Enkidu by his side, however, he feels alienated from the community he once felt a part of and therefore needs to find the secret to eternal life in order to once again create happy, positive feelings for himself. Beginning to understand that death is impossible to escape as it is part of the human condition, the knowledge that humanity will continue on whether one dies or not is the idea that is rooted in Gilgamesh’s mind. Unsuccessful in his quest for the secret to life, Gilgamesh loses his sense of the self. He seems to be “alone as he had never been alone” (Mason, 46). Continually trying to find himself, to unravel his true being like a ball of yarn, Gilgamesh mourns for his loss of Enkidu and at the same time, for the death that he will inevitably face.

Enduring his pain and grief, the mighty hero of Gilgamesh has completely faded into that of a broken mortal. With the belief that taking on the role and appearance of his lost friend will help him overcome his sorrows, Gilgamesh dismisses the exterior grief and instead internalizes it. Turning to nature, Gilgamesh becomes the wild man that Enkidu once embodied before retreating to the city of Uruk. Intentionally taking on his companion’s appearance, “he had put on the skins of animals and thrown himself into the dust” and also grew his hair long with the hope of making the loss of his friend easier on himself along with the hope of never losing the infatuation he once held for Enkidu (Mason, 47). In the same way that Gilgamesh takes on the physical appearances of Enkidu, he also begins to portray the same mentality that his double used to occupy. As he unexpectedly abandons the glory and wealth he once boasted about, as well as his power as a noble figure which were all once part of his dreams and ambitions, Gilgamesh instead takes on a more concerned and loving role in response to the loss of his brother. Gilgamesh’s journey to find Utnapishtim wholly changes him into a new being. Many critics argue that his loss of individuality causes him to find and redefine who he really is before gaining a true sense of self-distinctiveness. On the return to Uruk from his journey, Gilgamesh is faced with an important realization taught to him by the gods. He learns “to eat, to drink, to be well clothed, and have lasting companionship [are] among the gifts that the gods gave to mankind” and the eternal life is not an included gift, regardless of his actions (Sasson, 274). Becoming someone else, someone who was believed to be a better person, will not change his odds of immortality. Therefore, he must accept and appreciate the gifts that the gods can give him while he is alive because nothing more is possible for a human to obtain. Haunted by his now ghostly double, however, Gilgamesh is constantly reminded of what is no longer with him. Needing reassurance and advice on how to dismiss not only the external but also the internalized grief, Gilgamesh turns to Siduri, the god of wine. Offering him her most shrewd advice and bringing him back to reality, Siduri states: “you will never find the eternal life that you seek. When the gods created mankind, they also created death, and they held back eternal life for themselves alone” and therefore believes Gilgamesh should appreciate the goals that are only achievable for him (Gilgamesh, 168).

Returning home as a refurbished man, Gilgamesh’s attitude has changed. Having found the person he was intended to be, Gilgamesh has not only received advice which assisted him in the dismissal of his grief and acceptance of man’s destiny, but also continues to hold a strong memory of his doppelganger in his thoughts. The death of Enkidu leads Gilgamesh on the right journey, to all the correct humans and gods, which finally teach him the lesson of life or how to accept death. If his doppelganger did not exist or did not haunt him, Gilgamesh would have never faced the kindness from Utnapishtim and his wife or the great advice given by Siduri. His change in attitude as he reaches home is renewed by his acceptance of life without Enkidu; his realization that he can be a gentle, caring, individual without a constant sense of community. Furthermore, Gilgamesh finds that he needs to moreover appreciate the community of Uruk in order to continue being part of something greater. As a helpful doppelganger, Enkidu has, in a ghostly manner, pushed Gilgamesh to his limits in order to force him to find himself and accept his destiny.

What brought Gilgamesh out of his morbid and egocentric behaviour was one of the greatest things that ever happened to him. The divine order which was brought upon by Enkidu, a human created specifically to re-socialize Gilgamesh, did indeed teach Gilgamesh many fundamental lessons. A few of these lessons included the importance of community and friendship, the inevitability of death, and to enjoy life while you can. Unfortunately, the loss of his complementary friend struck Gilgamesh in the heart, tearing him down and causing him to lose his sense of individual identity. Allowing his grief to completely engulf him, Gilgamesh begins to dress, think, and speak like his lost friend, Enkidu. As his ghostly double haunts him throughout his quest to find the secret to eternal life, Gilgamesh begins to find the person he was made to be and along with that, the real key to life. Still troubled at the idea of death, readers wonder why Gilgamesh would not be happy to meet his lost companion in Heaven or in death. His cruel and tyrannizing behaviour could hint toward Gilgamesh’s fear of death, for maybe he believes he will end up somewhere uninviting and unpleasant compared to that of his friend. Finally, though, plenty of advice and comfort from the gods and other humans lead Gilgamesh to accept the fate of human life. The inevitability of death becomes tolerable through the discovery of his true self and the memory of his beloved, lost friend. Leaving readers wondering whether Gilgamesh now looks forward to death as the possibility of once again seeing his friend, or rather continues to secretly hold his fear of death inside, Gilgamesh appears to have returned happily back to Uruk, finding familiarity in the great walls of the city.