Enemy (2013): The Doppelganger and the Spider
Enemy (2013): The Doppelganger and the Spider
Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy (2013), starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is an amalgamation of symbolic themes that vilify and hypersexualise women through the split personality of Gyllenhaal’s character Adam, or Anthony and the visual and poetical use of spiders. Adam’s doppelganger, Anthony, implies a split personality and unfaithful disposition within himself. At the same time, spiders are used as an allegory for women, a motif which represents perceptions of inferiority, toxic masculinity and fears of commitment.The Doppelganger: Adam vs Anthony
First, we will discuss the central question of the film: Who is Adam, and who is Anthony? Adam, the protagonist of the film, whos narrative we follow throughout. He is first portrayed as living a tedious and repetitive life, with the career of a college professor specialising in history, primarily focusing on dictatorship. He lives in a small apartment with his girlfriend, Mary, where their relationship appears as timid and loveless, primarily driven by sex. Conversely, Anthony is portrayed as an erratic movie star who lives in a luxurious apartment with his pregnant wife.When we first hear Adam speak, he is addressing his class, “Control, it’s all about control. Every dictatorship has one obsession, and that’s it.” This passage is an ironic and integral piece of information that establishes the duality of his character, which is constructed on the idea of control and shown in two contrasting ways. First, he has a desire to control the women around him, a trait illustrated in an early scene where he attempts intercourse with Mary, who is asleep and unable to consent. Second, the idea of him losing control over his faithfulness is what he obsesses over. As Adam discovers Anthony’s existence, we begin to understand the underlying message of the film: Adam and Anthony are the same person. While it is never explicitly stated in the film, many notable moments validate this concept. Anthony cannot comprehend the idea of being tied down by marriage, so to control his urges, he constructs an alternative persona within his mind. Anthony is the physical embodiment of the character, while Adam is the spiritual manifestation, representing the suppression of his wicked and sexual desires.The distinction between Adam and Anthony appears confusing at face value but can be easily recognised and interpreted. Adam does not physically exist, and the small apartment and relationship with Mary are a farce. However, they appear as apparations of Anthony’s prior life, these being his old apartment and his mistress. While it is true that Anthony works as a professor, his acting career is a facade he uses to shield his true self as he grapples with his conflicting sexual desires. Mary is a woman he once had an entanglement with, now appearing as a projection in his mind to cope with his urge to cheat again. He has recreated his past experiences with Mary, which explains their loveless and repetitive interactions; Mary now exists only in his memory.The Clues: The Mystery, The Sex Club, and The Death of Adam and Mary
Throughout the film, multiple clues hint at the intertwined lives of Adam and Anthony. The first clue emerges in the opening scene, where Anthony is at a sex club. A wedding ring can be seen as he watches reluctantly through his fingers, an instant revelation that this character may not uphold faithful traits.We are then introduced to a photograph of Adam with a woman, though her face is torn away, leaving her identity a mystery. Later, the same photograph appears intact in Anthony's house, revealing that the woman is Helen. This suggests that Adam has mentally removed Helen from his life, instead becoming consumed by his obsession with Adam and Mary’s apparitions. We begin to see Helen’s concern for her husband, at this moment still portrayed as Anthony, when she first becomes aware of Adam’s existence. When Anthony receives a call from Adam, Helen does not believe him, asking if he is “seeing her again?”, hinting at Anthony’s past entanglements. Helen finds the address for Adam’s workplace amongst Anthony’s belongings, a hint to his regression as this address is, in fact, Anthony’s. She visits the college and sees Anthony, now portrayed as Adam, who does not recognise her. He asks how far along her pregnancy she is, and she replies, “Six months”, a detail which proves essential later. He gets up to leave, and Helen begins to dial Anthony’s number. Only when Adam turns the corner does Anthony pick up the call, unaware of Adam and Helen’s encounter. This is essentially the most obvious clue in deciphering the doppelganger mystery; Helen never sees Anthony and Adam in the same room. Helen is left in a state of shock, in denial of a repeating situation she knows too well: Anthony is losing himself to Adam again. When she arrives home, she confronts Anthony about Adam, mentioning that she went to his workplace. Anthony seems confused and asks why, to which she replies, “I think you know why,” acknowledging that he falling back into his unfaithful habit. Another crucial clue unfolds when Adam visits Anthony's talent agency. The receptionist mistakes Adam for Anthony, commenting that he has not seen him in "at least six months," and hands him a package. This package, unopened until later in the film, becomes significant when we remember that Helen is six months pregnant. Inside the package is a key to a sex club, a detail that ties directly to the timeline of Anthony's absence. His absence from the agency for six months reflects the period after Helen became pregnant, during which he ceased attending the club. We finally see Adam’s decision to let go of his desires. A scene is shown where he and Mary are in a car when he deliberately crashes it, symbolising the death of Mary and Adam’s apparitions; otherwise, Anthony’s unfaithfulness. He now understands that he is ready to commit to his wife and child. However, this is short-lived, as by the film's end, we realise that the opening scene is, in fact, the closing scene, shown in a nonchronological order.Women and Spiders: Helen’s Portrayal
The physical imagery of spiders throughout the film is powerful in understanding the story's intent. Each spider scene relates to a woman, symbolising Helen's character. While spiders are typical motifs used to induce fear, Enemy reverses this idea, and instead, spiders fear humans, or metaphorically, Helen fears Anthony. The ending is the most profound example. Anthony rediscovers the key to the sex club and fiddles with it, attempting to decide his fate. When he asks Helen, who is in another room, if she has any plans that night, stating, "I think I need to go out," we understand that he has made his decision. Moments of silence pass as he enters the room to find Helen, only to see a giant spider backed into the wall by fear. Helen knows Anthony's intentions without needing to have any knowledge of the key. She has seen Anthony fail to defeat his desires, and so she, or the spider, recoils in fear of him and his negligence.Despite her efforts to help Anthony through his internal battle, alongside Anthony 'killing' Adam and Mary within his mind, he cannot be the faithful, family-man he needs to be. This concept links back to one of the first quotes of the film, following the monologue about dictatorship, obsession and control. "It's important to remember this, that this is a pattern that repeats itself throughout history", is what Adam says during the montage of his repetitive life. Anthony’s unfaithfulness follows a predictable pattern: he cheats, apologizes, and temporarily regains control over his wife’s trust, only to betray it again. This cyclical behaviour reflects his deeper inability to change or confront his toxic tendencies.In the opening scene, which we now know follows the events of Helen’s transformation, a tarantula is carried onto the stage of the sex club on a silver platter, where it is placed on the floor. A woman in high heels lifts her foot with the intent to crush it. Anthony watches reluctantly as the spider is crushed. He watches Helen, represented by the spider, be killed by another woman, who represents those he desires, whether it is Mary or multiple others. The spider is crushed by the foot of a woman to illustrate control and dictatorship, the epitome of Anthony's character.
Conclusion
In Enemy, Denis Villeneuve presents a haunting exploration of masculinity, control, and identity through the doppelganger of Adam and Anthony and the recurring image of spiders. The film ultimately suggests that the battle for self-control and faithfulness is not just an internal struggle but also one that manifests in destructive relationships. Is Anthony’s failure to remain faithful a personal flaw, or does it represent a larger societal issue about the expectations placed on men and women in relationships? The recurring imagery of spiders, often associated with fear and femininity, raises further questions about how women are perceived—as both objects of desire and fear—in the minds of men who cannot reconcile their own anxieties. What Enemy leaves us with is not a neat resolution but a meditation on the cyclical nature of human behaviour. If Anthony’s infidelity is a pattern, what does it say about the ways in which people are trapped in their own psychological cycles? And more broadly, what does the film suggest about the nature of control in relationships? Does the desire for control inevitably lead to destruction?References
Villeneuve, D. (Director). (2013). Enemy [Film]. Entertainment One.
