I have bantered about all kinds of ideas as to who these twins represent. While I thought it was most likely Castor and Pollux because of some similarities (horses, gambling) and I still think they offered some inspiration I COMPLETELY missed another important set of brothers because they were not twins.

I came across this while writing Christianity and Religion in Marguerite Young’s Magnum Opus.

Cain and Abel

The relationship between Mr. Spitzer and his deceased brother, Peron, is central to the narrative. The novel hints at Cain and Abel, with Mr. Spitzer pondering whether he is responsible for his brother’s death or if he is living out his brother’s thoughts and desires.

The story of Cain and Abel, from the Book of Genesis, recounts the first murder: the farmer Cain killed his brother, the shepherd Abel, out of jealousy after God rejected Cain’s sacrifice while accepting Abel’s. God punished Cain by banishing him from the land, marking him for protection but condemning him to a life of wandering. The story illustrates themes of sin, envy, divine judgment, and grace, highlighting the consequences of giving in to temptation and the importance of righteous offerings and brotherly love.

In the novel, the relationship between the twin brothers Joachim and Peron Spitzer is imbued with profound allusions to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, though the narrative explores these themes through psychological and metaphorical lenses rather than literal fratricide. The direct mention of “Cain slew his brother Abel” by Mr. Bonebreaker establishes a foundational theme of sibling conflict and its enduring consequences within the novel.

Peron, the more flamboyant, impulsive, and gambling brother, is described as the “bright madcap” and a “jester with bells”, often associated with a life of reckless abandon, horse races, and transient pleasures. His death, a likely suicide by jumping from a fourteenth-floor window, is a pivotal event that, paradoxically, seems to initiate Joachim’s true, albeit tormented, existence. Joachim posits that Peron’s suicidal act was not merely self-destruction but an attempt to “kill the Mr. Spitzer who was the pale reflection in his own heart,” thereby making the “loser” (Joachim) the “victor” in a twisted sense. This suggests Peron’s death was a “master stroke” designed to cancel out the perceived reflection of himself, leaving Joachim to bear the existential burden. In this way, Peron, like Abel whose death marked Cain, becomes the catalyst for Joachim’s subsequent, cursed life.

Joachim, the quiet, methodical musician and lawyer, is the one who survives, but his survival is a form of “partial nullification”. His life after Peron’s death is marked by a profound “stain of immortal guilt” and “heavy sense of woe”, as if he were perpetually paying for a mistake that was not his own. He feels that he “should have died” instead of Peron, and his existence becomes a “prolonged act of ghostly retribution”. Peron, through his death, effectively “killed” Joachim’s simple life, his music, and his clear sense of self, leaving him with an “unfinished song” and a profound sense of loss.

While Cain’s envy of Abel led to murder, Joachim’s relationship with Peron is characterized by a complex mix of obligation, resentment, and even envy. Joachim, the “altruist”, constantly pays Peron’s gambling debts and manages his affairs, even in death. He retrospectively envies Peron’s vibrant life and even his escape through death, which Joachim himself often desires. This unacknowledged envy mirrors Cain’s resentment of Abel, transforming Joachim’s survival into a form of punishment.

Just as Cain was marked and cursed to wander the earth, Joachim is burdened by a perpetual confusion of identity and an aimless existence. He is constantly mistaken for Peron by others, and at times, even he questions his own identity, wondering “which brother he was”. This blurring of self serves as a “mark” of his intertwined fate with Peron. His “aimless peregrinations through city streets”, searching for lost heirs (which is also a search for his lost brother and, by extension, himself), echo Cain’s wandering. He lives in a state of “eternal bereavement”, unable to escape the shadow of his deceased brother, who continues to influence his thoughts and experiences.

Miss MacIntosh, My Darling reinterprets the Cain and Abel story not as a straightforward act of violence, but as a deep psychological exploration of identity, guilt, and the inescapable bonds of siblinghood, where one brother’s death casts a long, haunting shadow over the other’s life, forcing him into a perpetual state of wandering, self-questioning, and vicarious suffering.

Now keeping in mind that there are tons of foreshadowing as to his real identity and don’t forget that Jock Cartwheel is in there for good measure. This still seemed pertinent because I had not thought before about the Cain and Abel references and it seems to make sense, of course, in a symbolic/metaphorical way as was Young’s expertise in this novel.