I think the ending of The Double can be interpreted in several ways. That being said, I would like to share what I thought and felt, while watching the movie. If you have not seen the movie yet, check out my spoiler free review first.
-Major spoilers ahead-
A harsh place
The world of The Double is a very bleak and lonely one. Everybody is busy, trying to make some money to pay the bills. It's like nobody is even noticing each other anymore, especially for someone like Simon. When his doppelganger James shows up, nobody even realizes that they look exactly the same. No one cares.
That shows how anybody is easily replaceable in this society and for people like Simon it's like they don't even exist. What is their role in this world? What can they do as individuals? Is there actually anything unique about them, or are they all just copies of each other?
Are we all actors?
No matter how hard Simon works, nobody cares, but for people like James, who are good at socializing and putting on a mask, everything is so much easier.
It's not just our appearance and looks, but the way how we act and behave that can make all the difference about who we are and how others see us in society.
A constant fight with ourselves
What if all of us have both a Simon and a James in us. Simon is the one we are deep down, our true nature so to speak and James is our social mask. It is uncomfortable to stay too long in James's body and it might feel like we lose track of Simon, but it is also nearly impossible to be Simon all the time. Some people might naturally have more of James in them and for others it's the opposite. But most of the time, when we set a foot in society, we have to make a compromise with ourselves and sometimes that can be quiet painful, even if we don't realize it right away.
In the movie we can see how both Simon and James get injured simultaneously, as they hurt each other. I think that really shows how we have to constantly fight with ourselves, to be accepted in society. We have to stick to the rules and often hide our true self, trying not to get hurt on the way.
I think the moment, when James locked out Simon out of his own house, was the time when James took over full control over their body. Simon had to just observe everything from the side and after a while he couldn't take it anymore.
All of us want to be unique, we want to be seen as who we are and not just as a puppet of society.
Sometimes we need to put off the mask
I think at the end of The Double Simon had made a decision. He didn't want to be James anymore and he would do whatever it takes to get rid of him. He knew that it could kill him too, but instead of living this dull and pointless life he wanted to break free for once. As we could see in the movie, suicide was a reoccurring theme and many others failed after struggling with similar problems in this society, that wants everybody to fit into a certain type of box.
Simon and Hannah were lucky, because they finally found someone to share their true identity with and I think they saved each other in that way. Even though it took them some time to get to that point.
We all need someone who can take us for who we are, someone we can share everything with and who appreciates our true unique color. Even if we might not be able to make it through this world completely without James, all of us need times where we can be fully accepted as Simon and breath without a suffocating mask attached to our faces.
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