Writing the Duality of Man into Your Characters

[Nietzsche]

I am trying to write about the duality in every person (how thoughts differ from action, what we say compared to what we mean).

I have plenty of ideas on the two distinct sets of traits I want my characters to possess, that's not the problem.

My issue is how to distinguish the two while writing my script.

How do I let the reader know that I am trying to showcase one person while splitting the character into two pieces? Essentially, two different characters.

It'll be easy on film (dress them differently, different make up, etc.)
but I find it hard to do on paper.


Any help would be great.

Thanks

 

[DerekEastham]

If you truly want to distinguish between the two as though the one character were two... there are endless possibilities for tackling this challenge...

One that comes to mind is to write the character as two individual characters...

Another might be to write them as one, much like Gollum & Smeagol...

There are many more than this... but those are just two ideas to start with.

Best of luck.

 

[Nietzsche]

Thanks for the input, man.

Much appreciated.


I think I figured out how to do it.

 

[MarkG]

One that comes to mind is to write the character as two individual characters

I went to a play once which had two actors on stage at the same time playing the same character... most of the dialogue at the start was done by one of the actors, and by the end it was being done by the other actor.

Of course the fact that the character had to change gender part-way through the play kind of required them to do something weird .