A Look into Duality or A View on "Fight Club"

When you hear the name “Tyler Durden” most people immediately see the character played by Brad Pitt, but what if I told you that you had it all wrong and that no one was really Tyler or that both the narrator and Tyler aren’t real.  When watching the film “Fight Club” you’re only getting the perspective of the narrator who upon further review is a very untrustworthy character.  He’s not really sure as to whom he is and therefore we can’t be too sure either.  The way the director, David Fincher, sets up certain scenes also suggests the blurring of reality such as in the beginning of the film when there are brief flashes of a character as the narrator is walking along in an airport, when both the narrator and Tyler talk about splicing porn into children’s films this is characters breaking the 4^th wall, and during one scene where the film itself appears to shake and start to burn.  This suggests the psychosis is taking root and reality is giving way.  The fact that the narrator is never actually named could lead you to believe that everything is all a part of a grand delusion, for all the viewer knows even the narrator is a made-up persona of someone else.

One could argue that the two characters are actually two parts of another person entirely, with one being the soft spoken, never give anyone grief, good natured narrator and the other being the loud, abrasive, chaotic Tyler.  Using this argument one could say that the entire film is the battle between a third entity’s light and dark halves.  The light half lives what most would see as a bland, boring, good natured life whereas the dark half lives in a chaotic, dirty, destructive life.  The main action of the film is the viewer trying to find balance between the two, and ultimately it’s down to the viewer as to who wins out.  Does the narrator win because he vanquishes Tyler, does Tyler win because he succeeds with his plans, or is there no winner because both succumb to mortal wounds?  These questions are only a small portion of what the director leaves up to the viewer to decide.  In the end it’s just like life only you have the final answer.