Although the technique of the double is sometimes viewed as a facile device of melodrama, in the hands of a skillful and sophisticated writer such as Carlos Fuentes, it can offer a wide range of interpretative possibilities. Reflecting the inherent psychic duality of human nature, be it expressed in terms of logos-eros or reason-instinct, literary doubles tend to assume a patently antithetical configuration. That is, writers often "either juxtapose or duplicate two characters; the one representing the socially acceptable or conventional personality, the other externalizing the free, uninhibited, often criminal self." In part, "Las dos Elenas" falls into this stereotype pattern.

The beginning of the story finds the two Elenas and their husbands united for a customary Sunday family dinner. The opening paragraph, which constitutes the narrative's first logical division, centers on the older Elena's negative reaction to her daughter's liberated ways. (pp. 6-7)

The conflictual situation arising...