Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the Strange

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson explores the duality of human character. Written before the advent of modern psychology, this novel suggests a co-existence in the human body and soul of goodness, morality, and idealism along with evil, depravity, and sadism.

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory states that an individual's personality is divided into three different parts, the id, ego, and superego. The id consists of unethical, irrational, driving instincts for sexual gratification, aggression, and general physical and sensual pleasure. The superego represents the outer expectations forced on the personality by society and culture. The ego acts as the mediator between the impulses of the id and the superego. The ego allows the personality to cope with the inner and outer demands of its existence. The balance of these three parts determines a person's personality.

Because the novel was written prior to modern psychology, terms such as repression, sublimation, and denial, terms which come much more easily to the modern reader, were not yet available. However, a clear subtext in his work is the repression and denial of the existence of evil.

The story is of a scientist, Dr. Jekyll, who drinks a potion in the hopes of separating and purifying the good and evil aspects of his character. The doctor manages to isolate and separate his evil side from the whole, creating in the process two very different people; Jekyll, who represents not pure good, but the whole of a person, and Hyde, who represents pure evil, and contains little, if any, of Jekyll in him. These two characters stand in stark contrast to one another.

Discussion

Through the character of Dr. Jekyll, Stevenson claims that a man is not truly one, but two. He frames the human soul as the battleground for an angel and a fiend, each struggling for mastery. Jekyll's potion, which he hoped would separate and purify each aspect of his soul, succeeds only in bringing his dark side into being. Hyde comes forth, and once unleashed slowly takes over, until Jekyll ceases to exist.