Jekyll

• Jekyll's Character:

  • Duality of human nature
  • Conflict between personal desires and societal norms
  • Potential dangers of intellectual hubris (too much pride)
• "I concealed my pleasures [...] already committed to a profound duplicity of life" - Chapter 10

  • Jekyll tries to hide the actions that society considered shameful by creating Hyde
• "slowly losing hold of my original and better self [...] incorporated with my second and worse" - Chapter 10

  • Loss of control symbolises take over of animal instincts --> Darwin's Theory of Evolution & how society feared they'd go back to becoming apes (kind of like Hyde)
• Sigmund Freud's Theory of Personality: The id, ego, and superego:

  • Jekyll feels pressure to adhere to society's standards of perfection and restrained instincts (Ego - balances instincts by using rational thought and logic, Superego - incorporates morals and social behaviours)
  • So once Hyde (Jekyll's Id {drive to fulfil desires immediately} ) is in control, he loses the ego and superego completely
• "I felt younger, lighter, happier in the body" - Chapter 10

  • Jekyll felt freedom as Hyde as he didn't have to care for his social image in his alter ego
  • It sounds like switching to Hyde was like a drug to him
• "I swear to God I will never set eyes on him again" - Chapter 5

  • Jekyll is promising he will never see Hyde again, we Know he is lying through his teeth, this quote shows the lack of control that Jekyll has, the moment he lies for Hyde he has lost control, he is a slave of himself --> at the end he loses control of Hyde as well as himself meaning he loses control of everything around him
  • this could be a message to not mess with God because you cannot create life