Twins

Twins, biologically two parts of the same egg, symbolize the opportunity to explore the two sides of human nature, specifically the body vs. the spirit, or the flesh vs. desire. Yvonne and Yvette Crawford are monozygotic, that is identical, twins. The novel thus uses twins to test the complex makeup of an individual, the tension between aspirations and failings, between what reason dictates and what the body yearns for. The sisters are raised in the same home, share the identical upbringing. Yvette represents the cool, dispassionate experience of reason. She distrusts her body and the crazy signals of the flesh. She resists the physical, studies it, contains it, controls it, and in the end regrets it. She thinks her way through the theology of Catholicism, subjects its mysteries and its sacraments to the rigors of contemplation and argument. Yvonne, on the other hand, represents the heated...