Assignment 10: "Jean-Ah Poquelin"

In the short story, "Jean-ah Poquelin", Cable describes two brothers, one of which mysteriously disappears. The two characters are Jean and Jacques, who one might argue could be a doppelganger? Jean's younger half brother, Jacques, is described at the very beginning as gentle. The reader finds out that the once strong, Jean, is now a recluse and his brother, Jacques, has disappeared 7 years prior to the setting. We see qoutations around the descriptions of Jacques at the beginning of the story when he is being described by his older brother as good, wise, just, far-sighted..etc. At the beginning we see that this could possibly indicate some hostility from Jean towards Jacques or maybe Jean the "recluse" is trying to hide something. The two brothers are very opposite but seem to make one person. Whereas Jacques seems good, but weak, his older brother Jean is strong, but appears to have some mysterious qualities about him. The narrator even tells us that these very different qualities in the two men led to the estate's decay. It makes the reader wonder at first if it is one person with a double? Anwyay, the reader sees a lot of Jacques' meagerness portrayed as a characterisitic in White, when White tries to stop the angry mob from going to Jean's estate. He is able to subdue the crowd at first, but later in the night the crowd overpowers White's authority. But, we do see some of White's authority and strength described before he decides to privately "investigate" Jean Poquelin's property. It seems at this point that White loses his strength and becomes completely weak as he flees from the terrible scene at the estate. I feel as if Jean and Jacques could maybe be two-sides to White's personality.