The Double follows Golyadkin, a troubled, middle-aged man living and working in St. Petersburg. He is plagued with anxiety, and his mental struggles invade his daily life, preventing him from succeeding socially and professionally. As his personal life cascades into chaos, he begins to spiral psychologically, ultimately descending into madness as his hallucinations and delusions of persecution lead him to act irrationally and erratically. Golyadkin believes his peers wish to orchestrate his demise, as he explains to his doctor: 

“'I have enemies, Christian Ivanovich, I have enemies; I have malignant enemies who have sworn to ruin me . . .” Mr. Golyadkin answered in a frightened whisper.

  Christian Ivanovich is deeply concerned by his patient’s fears, so he recommends a drastic set of changes. He worries that Golyadkin is affected by his lack of social outlets and companionship and fears that the younger man is becoming antisocial and paranoid. As such, he prescribes a strict regimen, recommending:

a change of habits. . . . Entertainment, for instance, and, well, friends — you should visit your acquaintances, and not be hostile to the bottle; and likewise keep cheerful company.

Golyadkin takes Christian Ivanovich at his word and misinterprets his advice. Rather than slowly integrating into the social sphere, he decides to show up uninvited to a dinner party his boss, Olsufi Ivanovich, is holding at his home. As one might expect, his presence invites only confusion, and Olsufi Ivanovich’s servants turn Golyadkin away at the door. At this point, Golyadkin is paranoid and upset, but his anger is directed toward other people and their reactions to him. He seems blissfully unaware of his role in creating the awkward social situations he so dislikes and instead imagines the world to be a massive conspiracy meant to keep him quiet and unhappy. 

Later, in yet another misguided attempt to integrate into the social lives of his superiors, Golyadkin sneaks into a luxurious ball Olsufi Ivanovich threw in celebration of his daughter, Clara Olsufyevna’s birthday. Golyadkin is obsessed with Clara; he admires her beauty and musical accomplishment, and in his haste to speak to her, he reveals his extreme obliviousness and social incompetence: 

On the way he jostled against a councilor and trod on his foot, and incidentally stepped on a very venerable old lady’s dress and tore it a little, pushed against a servant with a tray and then ran against somebody else, and, not noticing all this, passing further and further forward, he suddenly found himself facing Clara Olsufyevna.

In these early scenes, Golyadkin seems confident and self-assured; even though his certainty is rooted in delusion, he still has a clear sense of self that drives him forward. When his double appears, and his identity splits, divided into Golyadkin Sr. and Jr., the original Golyadkin seems to lose all confidence; he becomes self-conscious and timid, peering around every corner in anticipation of his enemy, who seems to lurk just out of sight. Golyadkin Jr. appears during a snowstorm, seemingly conjured by Golyadkin Sr.’s distress at being summarily thrown out of Olusfi Ivanovich’s party. As Golyadkin Sr. stares at this identical version of himself, he is horror-struck when he realizes that the man before him is, in fact, him. The narrator explains his mental state as follows: 

His hair stood on end, and he almost fell down with horror. And, indeed, there was good reason. He recognised his nocturnal visitor. The nocturnal visitor was no other than himself — Mr. Golyadkin himself, another Mr. Golyadkin, but absolutely the same as himself — in fact, what is called a double in every respect....