Psuchology- Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Psuchology- - Essay Example The circumstances force both of them to interchange places and Jean steals identity of John. The Englishman John is a simple and lonely person who is academic in nature. He soon finds himself struck up in the complex and different life of another family. He faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing. The Scapegoat is a masterpiece exploration of doubling and identity, and of the dark side of the self. John meets his exact double jean in a railway station, at first, both are surprised but later they agree to sit and drink together. While talking John gets over drunk and once he wakes up in a hotel room, he finds that his clothes have been swapped with Jean, his identity has been stolen by him and the double has vanished. Soon the driver of Jean comes to hotel to pick him up. John is unable to convince the driver that he is not Jean. The driver thinks he is drunk and takes him along to J ean de Gue’s chateau. Now John decides to live the life of Jean, as he always wanted a change in his boring life. The family of Jean assumes him as Jean. They expect him to continue running the family glass-making business and arranging shooting parties – things that John has absolutely no experience in.   Before long, it starts to become obvious that Jean is using John as a scapegoat. Jean’s family and business are both in a mess and he wants someone else to have to deal with them. John goes completely unprepared into Jean’s life. Jean has a chateau, a glassworks, a wife, a mistress, a lover, a brother, a mother, a daughter and a sister who has not spoken to him for fifteen years. When John arrives at the house of Jean, he finds it very difficult to run the affairs but eventually understands every character around him and their relationship to Jean. From the neglected pregnant wife and the hostile elder sister to the resentful younger brother and the r eligious ten-year-old daughter, every character is well explained and memorable. The story takes place over one very intense week in which John tries to correct the mismanagement in life, business and family done by Jean. It is only the dog of Jean who knows that John is not Jean and barks at him. John deals the life better than Jean. On the business side, John renews the glass contract and saves business. In family, he tries to re-connect and build relation with wife, children mother and sister. He saves life of the child trying to jump out of window, saves the pregnant wife and the baby and stops drug addiction of mother. After reading about death of a family member in the newspaper, Jean gives a telephone call to John and returns. Jean is surprised to see the way John managed his problems. Jean tells him that he remained in London in John’s flat and sold his flat while clearing his debts. Jean now suspects that John might want to keep his wealth and family but John say he only loved all this and leaves quietly out of the life of Jean. Function of each character in group The story revolves around two characters John and Jean. Jean makes a scapegoat of John. In the words of common street people, Jean can be called a doppelganger. Jean is Frenchman who is incapable of handling his life. He is charming, idle, and destructive French aristocrat. His character has many functions like; master of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a large and embittered family, and keeper of too many secrets. He has a glass factory and