The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a study in dualism
Abstract
R. L. Stevenson's novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a prominent example of Victorian fiction. The names Jekyll and Hyde have become synonymous with multiple personality disorder. This article seeks to examine the novel from the view point of dualism as a system of philosophy and as a religious framework and also from the view point of Freud's structural theory of the mind.
Keywords: Dualism, literature, psychiatry
DUALISM
Dualism derives from the Latin word duo, meaning two. Simply put, dualism can be understood as a thought that facts about the world in general or of a particular class cannot be explained except by supposing ultimately the existence of two different, often opposite, and irreducible principles. Dualism is most often discussed in context of the systems of religion and philosophy.
The purpose of this book is to examine Robert Stevenson's famous novel, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” from the view point of the above mentioned systems and to discuss the novel from a psychological perspective.
THE AUTHOR AND THE NOVEL
Robert Balfour Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet. Born in 1850, he was a qualified advocate but earned his living as a writer. He was chronically afflicted with tuberculosis, and dabbled with various psychotropic drugs such as alcohol, cannabis, and opium. He is well known for his dark and sinister tales like Markheim, Thrawn Janet, and racy adventure novels such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Successful and famous, he died at a young age in 1894. Interestingly enough, Stevenson later claimed that the plot of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was revealed to him in a dream.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde deals with a Dr. Henry Jekyll who is widely respected, successful, and possesses a brilliant intellect but is only too aware of the duplicity of the life that he leads, and of the evil that resides within him. Dr. Jekyll covertly provides utterance to the evil in his soul by various unspeakable acts, but is afraid of doing so openly because of the fear of social criticism. In the course of his experiments, he succeeds in producing a concoction that enables him to free this evil in him from the control of his good self, thus giving rise to Edward Hyde. Edward Hyde is pure evil and amoral. Not only is his psyche different from Dr. Jekyll but also his body is grotesque and deformed. Thus, Dr. Jekyll thinks that he can receive the pleasure that both parts of his being crave without each being encumbered by the demands of the other. However, Mr. Hyde evokes feelings of dread and abhorrence in Dr. Jekyll's friends who beseech him to give up his “friendship” with this Edward Hyde. Edward Hyde gradually becomes ever more powerful than his ‘good’ counterpart and ultimately leads Dr. Jekyll to his doom. “Jekyll and Hyde” as an eponymous term has become a synonym for multiple personality in scientific and lay literature and the novel has also been considered a case demonstration of substance dependence.
DUALISM, RELIGION, AND THE NOVEL
A religion that is dualistic admits not only that the universe comprises good and evil, or light and darkness, but also that though these are eternally opposed they are coeternal, coexistent, and equipotent. This is an important distinction from nondualistic, monistic religions where evil comes about as an accident during creation of the Universe or as a result of powerful beings that can be good or bad as per what serves them or injures them and not because they are evil for the sake of being evil. Here, the good and the evil are often derived from the same source or from one another, much like the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata. Zoroastrianism is often cited as an example of a dualistic religion where the concentration of all that is good is around Ahura Mazda, and all that is evil around Ahra Mainyu. These two forces are at constant war and only at the end will good finally vanquish evil. Interestingly, Christianity, the religion Stevenson was born into, rejects dualism and preaches a monistic origin to the universe from one, infinite, and self-existing spiritual being who freely created everything. However, the dualism of the human soul and the body which it animates was made clearer and is emphasized by the church. In the same vein, Christianity holds that evil is the necessary limitation of finite created beings and is a consequence of creation of beings possessed by free will. As an imperfection inherent in the manufacturing process of individuals, evil is tolerated by God.
In the novel, Stevenson creates a hero in Dr. Jekyll, who aware of the evil in his own being, and sick of the duplicity in his life, succeeds by way of his experiments on himself in freeing the pure evil part of his being as Mr. Hyde, so that each can indulge in a life unfettered by the demands of the other. As Dr. Jekyll says, “With every day and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and intellectual, I thus drew steadily to that truth by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.” He further adds,”… that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man;… if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both”. Mr. Edward Hyde he describes as, “a second form and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me because they were the expression, and bore the stamp, of lower elements in my soul” and that, “Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil”. Thus, Stevenson creates in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, two equipotent, coexistent, and eternally opposed components that make up a “normal” individual. Here, good and evil are not related but are two independent entities, individuals even, different in mental and physical attributes and constantly at war with each other. Evil now does not require the existence of good to justify itself but it exists simply as itself, depicted as being the more powerful, the more enjoyable of the two, and in the end ultimately it is the one that leads to Dr. Jekyll's downfall and death.
This is because Dr. Jekyll in the last phases of his lucidity recognizes the danger that Mr. Hyde poses to society and altruistically decides to do away with himself. Stevenson seems to discard Christian notions of monism and embrace dualism as described above.
The novel needs to be looked at in the context of its setting of Victorian London. Stevenson seems to make a comment not only about the dualism present in every individual but also in society as a whole, where the aristocracy that superficially was genteel and refined, had dark secrets to hide behind the high walls of the mansions in which they lived. Most of the action takes place in the night time and much of it in the poorer districts of London, considered the abode of evil-doers. Most significantly, Mr. Hyde enters and leaves Dr. Jekyll's house through the back door which seems a metaphor for the evil that lies behind the façade of civilization and refinement.
DUALISM, PHILOSOPHY, AND THE NOVEL
Dualism as a philosophy signifies the view that the universe contains two radically different kinds of being or substance-matter and spirit, body, and mind. The ancient Greeks distinguished profoundly the soul and the body as the dictum states: “The body is a tomb.” Evil therefore was a result of an infinite soul trapped in a finite body. Plato for instance was strongly dualistic in that he expressed the view that the soul exists independently of the body. The rational soul is a spiritual substance distinct from the body within which it dwells, much like the chariot and a charioteer. Dualism served a great purpose in the European Renaissance when Descartes described the mind exclusively as a substance that thinks and matter exclusively as an extended substance.
This dualism enabled a wholly mathematical science of physics to come about where every fact in the material world was to be explained on basis of measurements. In this scheme, the psyche is immeasurable and thus not open to either understanding or intervention.
In the novel, Stevenson creates a hero who by way of a concoction (that he compares with alcohol in course of the novel) intervenes in his “normal” mental processes and unleashes Mr. Hyde. This new persona not only is pure evil but also has a countenance that suggests “Satan's signature” and a body that is “something troglodytic”. Here, not only the psyche is shown as a process that can be mediated by external tangible methods (the mysterious concoction) but also that a change in the psyche is associated with a change in the body or the soma. Stevenson seems to eschew traditional mind– body dualism to a remarkably modern monistic way of looking at the mind–body functioning.
ECHOES OF “THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE” IN FREUDIAN PSYCHODYNAMIC CONCEPTS
The issues raised in the novel find resonance with the Freudian concepts of instincts, life and death instincts, and the structural theory of the mind propounded by Freud.
Freud defined instincts variously but most cogently as “a concept that is on the frontier between the mental and somatic, as the psychical representative of the stimuli originating from and reaching the mind, as a measure of the demands made upon the mind for work in the consequence with its connections with the body.” Freud developed the theory of instincts in relation to the concept of libido and the consequent foundation of the psychosexual phases of development. However, aggression as a component of the libidinal drives became increasingly important and could not be ignored. It was therefore elevated to the status of a separate instinct. It was further realized that humans were neither exclusively nor essentially good. Freud introduced his final theory of life and death instincts in 1920. Freud postulated that the death instinct is a dominant tendency of all organisms and their cells to return to a state of inanimateness. The death instinct represented the aggressive instincts and Freud later separated the libidinal and aggressive instincts from the ego and located them in a vital stratum of the mind which is independent of the ego. This line of thought led to the further differentiation of the psyche as per the “Structural Theory” into the id, ego, and superego.
The characters in the novel manifest characteristics of the structural theory of the mind. Mr. Hyde would seem easily recognizable as the id, seeking instant gratification, having an aggressive instinct, and having no moral or social mores that need be followed. He takes pleasure in violence and similar to the death instinct ultimately leads to his own destruction. Dr. Jekyll is then the ego; he is conscious and rational, and is dominated by social principles. He has a difficult time juggling between the demands of the id, represented by Mr. Hyde, and the superego as represented by the proclaimed and implicit morals of Victorian society which prided itself on refinement and goodness, and is shocked by the seeming nonchalance with which Edward Hyde indulges in his debaucheries. In the novel, Dr. Jekyll gives in to his impulses and after initial pleasure soon cannot control their power. Rather than let Mr. Hyde go free and realizing that Hyde needs Jekyll to exist, he decides to end his own life.
Further, by labeling Mr. Hyde as a “troglodyte”, Stevenson seems to make a comment on the theories of evolution and that he considered Hyde that is savage, uncivilized, and given to passion: poorly evolved. Edward Hyde represents a regression to an earlier, less civilized, and more violent phase of human development.
A WORK AHEAD OF ITS TIME
The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be seen at various levels. As a story, it talks about the concept of good and evil that exists in all of us. At another level, it is a critique on the hypocrisy and double standards of the society. It is also an interesting study into the mind of the author and into the theories of dualism. Finally, it can be seen as a remarkable study into human psychology that presaged the structural personality theories as detailed by Freud.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Themes
Keeping Up Appearances
Much of the dramatic action in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde consists of damage control. In other words, Utterson tirelessly works to prevent his good friend Dr. Jekyll from being dragged into the horrid affairs of Mr. Hyde, and Dr. Jekyll goes to the greatest of lengths to prevent his Hyde identity from being discovered, in order to avoid anyone knowing of his somewhat questionable scientific work and morally despicable behavior. The novel takes place in Victorian England and the main characters are all male members of the British upper class. Enfield, Utterson, Lanyon and Jekyll are all acutely aware of social expectations and the importance of appearance. Even in the first chapter, Enfield is wary of sharing his story of the mysterious door because he abhors gossip, as it destroys reputations. In kind, Utterson refrains from informing the police that Jekyll is a close friend of Hyde's following the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. Rather, to maintain his friend's reputation and protect his public image, Utterson goes to Jekyll directly to discuss the matter.
This issue also arises in the matter of physical appearances, particularly architecture. In the first chapter, we learn that Hyde's mysterious dwelling is run down, neglected, and shabby. In contrast, Jekyll's home is extremely well kept, majestic, rich, and beautiful.
Ironically, we eventually learn that the mysterious door is in fact connected to Jekyll's home, albeit a back entrance rarely used. Thus, it becomes clear that although idyllic to the public, even Jekyll's home, parallel to his personality, has a neglected, shabby, and perhaps dangerous portion hidden from view.
The Duality of Human Nature
Clearly, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an examination of the duality of human nature, as most clearly expressed in the revelation that Mr. Hyde is in fact Dr. Jekyll, only transformed into a personification of Jekyll's evil characteristics. Utterson's discovery of Jekyll's astounding work occurs in the final chapter of the novel, after Stevenson has laid the groundwork of evidence for the extreme duality inherent in human nature. We have already witnessed Hyde's powerfully vicious violence and have seen the contrasting kind, gentle, and honorable Dr. Jekyll. In approaching the novel's mystery, Utterson never imagines that Hyde and Jekyll are the same man, as he finds it impossible to reconcile their strikingly different behavior.
In pursuing his scientific experiments and validating his work, Jekyll claims, "man is not truly one, but truly two." Thus, in Jekyll's view, every soul contains elements of both good and evil, but one is always dominant. In Jekyll's case, his good side is dominant, but he knows there is evil inside of him. However, as a respectable member of society and an honorable Victorian gentleman, Jekyll cannot fulfill his evil desires. Thus, he works to develop a way to separate the two parts of his soul and free his evil characteristics. However, as Vladimir Nabokov explains in an introduction to the Signet Classic version of the book, "[Jekyll] is a composite being, a mixture of good and bad...[and] Jekyll is not really transformed into Hyde but projects a concentrate of pure evil that becomes Hyde." Unfortunately, rather than separating and equalizing these forces of good and evil, Jekyll's potion only allows his purely evil side to gain strength.
Jekyll is in fact a combination of good and evil, but Hyde is only pure evil. Thus, there is never a way to strengthen or separate Jekyll's pure goodness. Without counterbalancing his evil identity, Jekyll allows Hyde to grow increasingly strong, and eventually take over entirely, perhaps entirely destroying all the pure goodness Jekyll ever had.
Other theorists have argued that perhaps Stevenson concludes that man is not in fact a purely dual being, but is at his heart a primitive being, tamed and civilized by the laws of society. Stevenson does portray Hyde in highly animalistic terms - short, hairy, and like a troglodyte with gnarled hands and a horrific face. In contrast, Jekyll is described in the most gentlemanly terms - tall, refined, polite and honorable, with long elegant fingers and a handsome appearance. Thus, perhaps Jekyll's experiment reduces his being to its most basic form, in which evil runs freely without considering the constraints of society and civilization.
Jekyll and Hyde are not the only examples of duality in the novel. The city of London is also portrayed in contrasting terms, as both a foggy, dreary, nightmarish place, and a well kept, bustling center of commerce. Indeed, just as men have both positive and negative qualities, so does society.
Violence
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde contains powerfully violent scenes. In each instance, the culprit is Mr. Hyde, and the victim is an innocent. For example, in the first chapter we learn how Mr. Hyde literally trampled a young girl in the street at three in the morning, and later on we learn that Hyde, unprovoked, mercilessly beat Sir Danvers Carew to death.
Even worse, we find at the conclusion of the novel that Hyde thoroughly enjoyed committing this violence, and afterwards felt a rush of excitement and satisfaction.
Through this imagery of senseless violence against innocent victims, Stevenson expresses the true depravity and pure evil of Hyde.
Interestingly, Hyde's final victims, when he commits suicide just before Utterson and Poole break into his cabinet, are both himself and Jekyll. In this final act, neither victim is innocent. Clearly, Hyde is guilty of a great many crimes, and Jekyll is guilty by proxy as he created Hyde, let him run free, and inhabits the same body as the man. Perhaps in this conclusion, Stevenson is suggesting that to those who promote and commit senseless violence, punishment will come.
The Female
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde contains very few references to women. In fact, those that are even mentioned are portrayed as weak and unassuming. Even in the descriptions of Hyde's morally depraved behavior, there is no mention of sexual encounters or illicit relationships. In rationalizing this omission, Nabokov reasons, "It has been suggested that Stevenson, 'working as he did under Victorian restrictions,' and not wishing to bring colours into the story alien to its monkish patterns, consciously refrained from placing a painted feminine mask upon the secret pleasure in which Jekyll indulged." Interestingly, none of the major characters are described to have any female relationships. Rather, Lanyon, Enfield, Utterson and Jekyll all appear to be bachelors who through each other's company seek intellectual stimulation and friendship. Some have reasoned that this lack of the female sex suggests, "Jekyll's secret adventures were homosexual practices so common in London behind the Victorian veil."
The first woman we hear about is the young girl running through a London street at three in the morning on her way to fetch a doctor. Hyde the Juggernaut tramples her without a second thought. The girl is immediately victimized and is portrayed as a helpless, passive creature who requires a great many people, Enfield included, to rescue her and avenge the crime.
Next, we meet the maid who witnesses Sir Danvers Carew's murder. She is described quite passively, as she sits gazing out at the moonlight with a care in the world. Upon noticing Sir Danvers Carew (whom she does not recognize from so far off), she watches the man and observes as he meets Hyde on the path. When Hyde begins to pummel the man, the maid loses all sensibility and faints away. Only hours later, at which point there is little hope of catching Hyde, the maid awakens and reports the crime. Quite similar to the little girl, this murder witness proves feeble and passive, and her emotional reaction to Hyde's violence causes a delay in the investigation.
The last woman we meet is one of Jekyll's servants. When Utterson and Poole make their final efforts to save Jekyll from Hyde, who they believe has invaded the house and at the least is holding Jekyll hostage, a female maid is one of the group of servants huddled together in one portion of the house. All are quite afraid, but it is a female servant who bursts into loud sobs, which endanger the entire mission, as Hyde might hear and either flee or prepare to meet his visitors, who were hoping to catch him off guard. Once again, this woman is portrayed as weak and helpless in the face of danger.
In an introductory essay to the novel, Nabokov writes, "Excluding two or three vague servant maids, a conventional hag and a faceless little girl running for a doctor, the gentle sex has no part in the action."
Lack of Communication
Throughout the novel, the characters demonstrate an inability to fully express themselves, or choose to withhold highly important information. For example, in the very first chapter, Enfield claims he does not want to share the name of the man who trampled the young girl in order to avoid gossip. However, after finally naming Hyde, he and Utterson end the conversation abruptly, as they feel discussing the topic any further would be inappropriate for all parties involved. Similarly, Utterson withholds relevant information from the police following Sir Danvers Carew's murder by choosing to keep Hyde and Jekyll's relationship secret. These silences reflect the confines of the moral nature of the Victorian era. As earlier noted, the Victorian era placed a great deal of importance on outward appearances. In order to protect themselves and each other against the destruction of respectability, Enfield, Lanyon, Utterson and Jekyll worked to hide or keep secret any piece of information that might mar a reputation.
In another manifestation of silence in the novel, no one who meets Hyde can describe exactly what it is about his appearance or face that makes him seem evil, but all agree that upon meeting or seeing him, they felt a sense of horror. Finally, much of the important details regarding the nature of Jekyll and Hyde are passed on in written form rather than in speech. In a letter written just before his death, Lanyon instructs Utterson not to read the contents until the death or disappearance of Jekyll. Similarly, Jekyll writes his final confession in a letter to Utterson, rather than sharing his secrets in person. Interestingly, none of these letters provide details into the unseen aspects of Hyde's life. The reader never learns what other evil actions Hyde took, and is only left to wonder at the degree of his violence, brutality, and moral depravity. In Utterson's world, where all details of life and law are placed in official documents, language is regaled as a stronghold of rationality and logic. Therefore, perhaps the lack of language or communication between characters and related to Hyde demonstrates that the supernatural occurrences in the novel push the world beyond the logical, and therefore beyond speech.
The Rational vs. The Irrational
In composing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson walked a fine line between reality and the supernatural. Utterson, through whom the reader perceives the action, is a highly rational, logical man who considers himself to be an upright and honorable citizen of Victorian England. In contrast, the novel's conclusion is highly supernatural, and does not mesh with the grounded nature of the world in which the main characters live. In fact, by developing the very reasoned and rational characters, the effect of the final conclusion and the discovery of Jekyll's horrific work is even more powerful, in that the contrast is so great. Undoubtedly, Stevenson met a great challenge in balancing these two worlds while successfully allowing the supernatural fantastical portion of the novel to be believable. Amazingly, in the short three days during which he wrote the novel, he met this challenge.
In his introduction to the novel, Nabokov analyzes Stevenson's method in balancing the rational and the irrational, and thereby achieving a great artistic achievement. In his view, to make the fantastic details of Jekyll's work believable, Stevenson presents the otherwise unbelievable details of Jekyll's experiments through the highly rational minds of Utterson and Enfield. These two logical men "convey something to the reader of the horror of Hyde, but at the same time they, being neither artists nor scientists...cannot be allowed...to notice details," such as the specific features of Hyde's horrific face.
Furthermore, by describing daily life in great detail, Stevenson contrasts the everyday life of London gentlemen with, "unspecified, vague, but ominous allusions to pleasures and dreadful vices somewhere behind the scenes. On the one side there is 'reality'; on the other, 'a nightmare world'."
For the highly rational and socially respected characters, such as Dr. Lanyon, the revelation of Jekyll's work is too much to bear. In fact, Dr. Lanyon dies from the shock he suffered when observing Hyde transform back in to Jekyll. In Lanyon's death, Stevenson seems to be suggesting that it is impossible to truly meld respectable life and morality with Jekyll's work. The two cannot coexist. In the novel's final moments, rationality proves greater, as Jekyll and Hyde die, and Utterson, the personification of logic and reason, is left to pick up the pieces.
The City of London
The novel begins on a London street that proves to act as central to much of the novel's action. The descriptions of the city vary, from idyllic and majestic to dangerous, mysterious and dark. In Victorian London, the modern city began to powerfully establish itself. In his afterword to the novel, Dan Chaon notes that Stevenson relied on the modern city in order to provide a realistic location in which Hyde could live. Chaon explains, "[Hyde] needs the anonymity of the masses, ad he needs the newly gaslit streets, the flickering nighttime landscape of pubs and brothels and beggards, the urban underworld that would later transform into the world of film noir." Thus, the growing and developing city of London gave Hyde a cloak in which to hide his despicable behavior, and gave him precious anonymous freedom. In this world, Hyde was able to walk through society unnoticed and disregarded by the many strangers who roamed the streets. Without this opportunity for absolute anonymity, Jekyll would never have been able to carry out his experiment. Thus, the bustling, growing and many layered city of London supported Jekyll's work and gave him the freedom to pursue his dual lives.
Good vs. Evil
Good vs. evil is basically the novel’s biggest theme. More specifically, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is easily viewed as an allegory about the good and evil that exist in all men, and about our struggle with these two sides of the human personality. In this book, then, the battle between good and evil rages within the individual. The question is which is superior. Since Hyde seems to be taking over, one could argue that evil is stronger than good. However, Hyde does end up dead at the end of the story, perhaps suggesting a weakness or failure of evil. The big question, of course, is whether or not good can be separated from evil, or whether the two are forever intertwined.
Repression
Repression is indisputably a cause of the troubles in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The repression here is that of Victorian England: no sexual appetites, no violence, and no great expressions of emotion, at least in the public sphere. Everything is sober and dignified, and you’re really not supposed to be happy. (That would somehow take away from your focus on morality). The more Dr. Jekyll’s forbidden appetites are repressed, the more he desires the life of Mr. Hyde, and the stronger Mr. Hyde becomes. This is clearly demonstrated after Dr. Jekyll’s two-month hiatus from donning the visage of Mr. Hyde; Dr. Jekyll finds that the pull to evil has been magnified after months of repression.
Friendship
Friendship in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde serves to drive the plot forward. Aside from basic curiosity, Mr. Utterson is compelled to uncover the mystery of the evil man because of his friendship with Dr. Jekyll. In trying to unravel the secret, his many friendships deliver crucial pieces of information. In this sense, friendship acts as both a motivator and an enabler. As for the friendship between Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll, it’s certainly not as unconditional as the loyalty Mr. Utterson bears for Dr. Jekyll. Instead, it’s fraught with competition, anger, and eventually an irreconcilable quarrel. We see that friendships can be ruined by differences of opinion.
Appearances
Appearances figure in the novel both figuratively and literally. Dr. Jekyll definitely wants to keep up a façade of respectability, even though he has a lot of unsavory tendencies.
In a literal sense, the appearances of buildings in the novel reflect the characters of the inhabitants. Dr. Jekyll has a comfortable and well-appointed house, but Mr. Hyde spends most of his time in the "dingy windowless structure" of the doctor’s laboratory.
Other disreputable quarters of London are described as well; this is the stomping ground of Mr. Hyde.
Science
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, science becomes a cover and justification for supernatural activities. Dr. Jekyll ostensibly derives his potion in some sort of scientific manner, as opposed to finding a magical amulet or something that releases evil as you might find in other stories. Dr. Jekyll’s brand of science, however, veers towards the "transcendental" (indeed, supernatural), while Dr. Lanyon adheres to a more traditional set of scientific notions. This disagreement causes an irreparable rift in their relationship, especially after Dr. Lanyon witnesses Dr. Jekyll’s transformation with his own eyes.
Curiosity
In Dr.