Jekyll Chapter 6-8

• Chapter 6: Link to Freudian psychoanalysis: the mind has three components, the id, the ego and the superego. The id is a pleasure seeker and acts upon hedonistic desires, the superego is conducted by morality, and the ego is a balance between the two, trying to find a compromise between hedonism and upholding socio-cultural norms
• "and for more than two months, the doctor was at peace"• Ephemerally, it seems Hyde's influence is supressed, this introduces a power battle between the dual natures of Jekyll. Hyde's momentary weakness is useful to quantify his overpowering nature later in the novelld

  peace" is ironic as repressing himself within the respectable persona of Jekyll is anything but peaceful, it is plagued with shame and guilt
• "If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also"

  • This advertises the dual nature of man. The act of sinning itself too has a dual nature it is rewarding as it involves indulging in hedonistic desires, but sinning comes with punishment, and thus suffering
• "taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll"


  • This is almost a pseudo-simile, Stevenson says Jekyll is ‘like’ a prisoner however he is in fact a prisoner within the social realm , his actions in the way he presents himself are so strongly policed that he is ultimately imprisoned.
  • He perceives it "impossible" to leave his room
• Jekyll seems to be losing vibrancy claiming he is "very low. It will not last long, thank

  God."


  • Jekyll seems to engage with religion colloquially, "thank God" is almost idiomatic, we know it is not genuine as it will be science that brings about the termination of his current state.
  • Religion is losing its significance in the name of science as shown by the syntax- God is at the end of the sentence alike to how it is last on his mind
• Hyde is said to portray "Satan's signature upon a face"


  This similarly conveys his intentions and emotions clearly, but they are all encompassed into a universal symbol of epitomised evil, the devil. This captures a society in which morality was navigated in terms of Religion, evil was synonymised with the devil
• "clothes of the doctor's bigness"


  • Poole and Utterson witness this as the act of Hyde stepping into Jekyll's shoes begins to be realised
  • The metaphor of "doctor's bigness" serves as a reminder of how Dr Jekyll was once the more developed aspect of his nature, also now mourn the loss of his respectable individual as all that is left of him is his clothes
  • Clothes are superficial, highlighting how it was only the superficial aspects of his personality left to live , everything else was too fragile and was contrived at the start
• ‘Copy of a Pious work ,for which jekyll had several times expressed a great esteem , annotated , in his own hands blaspehemies’


  • Hyde is a distillation of Jekylls reservations about religion,whilst Jekyll mearly embraces science Hyde overly rejects it
  • Hyde exerts his power over Jekyll by targeting Jekyll's belongings and more specifically belongings that are symbolic of his internal divisions and question morality
• It is not uncommon within literary texts for clothes to be used symbolically . It allows the author to easily depict the public presentation of a person and detach this from the person themselves