Repressed Personality and Sexual Subtleties in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Tragedies of repression
In the reference book Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia Stevenson is noted for saying that "fiction should render the truths that make life significant" (760). We see this most closely in his Jekyll/Hyde experiment when Jekyll explains why he invented his infamous potion. Jekyll says: "I concealed my pleasures; and when I reached years of reflection...I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life" (Stevenson, 42). Because of this feeling of being one thing in the public's eye, well respected and controlled, and another on his own, Hyde invents an outlet. This outlet becomes, at least symbolically, a representation of male hysteria, a psychological disorder stereotypically associated with women. Jekyll says "my two natures had memory in common" (48). Thus, Hyde is free to express his base and immoral self without conscience while Jekyll is voyeuristically allowed to watch without regret since the actions are not his own, but a different entities altogether. Jekyll is described crying like a woman behind closed doors because Hyde has become the dominant personality (Showalter, 114).
Stevenson's narrative reflects some of the effects of socialization and their influence on the repression of certain forms of sexuality, specifically homosexuality, which we will explore a little later. Jekyll begins waking as Hyde, suggesting that when his social controls are weakest, Hyde is free to come out. The story dramatizes social norms, the search to deviate from them, and rid oneself of responsibility for one's actions that go against these norms. As Jekyll gets used to becoming Hyde, the socialized and repressed Je...
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...nd abnormal for their feelings. This is quite different than facing explicitly one's repressed feelings or sexualilty, which the public often reacts violently against.
Works Cited
Showalter, Elaine."Dr. Jekyll's Closet." Sexual Anarchy: New York: Penguin Books,1990. 105-126.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publishing, Inc., 1991.
Waters, Chris. "Robert Louis Stevenson". Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Sally Mitchell and Michael J. Herr. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1988. 760-761.
Swade. "Lesbian Tribal Chant History page". http://www.swade.net/swadepages/les_hist.htm Accessed 4/20/99.
Ennis, Jane. "VICTORIA Digest - 27 Mar 1998 to 28 Mar 1998 ". Accessed 4/20/99. http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/englit-victorian/1998-04/0003.html
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Kiely, Robert. Robert Louis Stevenson and the Fiction of Adventure. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964.
Langston Hughes was a large influence on the African-American population of America. Some of the ways he did this was how his poetry influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and the Harlem Renaissance. These caused the civil rights movement that resulted in African-Americans getting the rights that they deserved in the United States. Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young and his grandmother raised him. She got him into literature and education; she was one of the most important influences on him. He moved around a lot when he was young, due to his parents divorce, but remained a good student and graduated high school. After this he traveled the world and worked in different places, all the things he saw in his travels influenced him. In 1924 he settled down in Harlem where he became one of the important figures in the Harlem Renaissance. He enjoyed listening to blues and jazz in clubs while he wrote his poetry. The music that he enjoyed greatly influenced the style and rhythm of his poetry. The poem “Dream Variations” by Hughes is about an average African-American who dreams of a world where African-Americans are not looked at or treated differently and they can rest peacefully. Yet in real life this was not so, black people and white people were not equal. And the world was not as forgiving and nice as in their dream. This poem is a good example of Hughes writing because it is typical of three things. The first is the common theme of the average life of an African-American and their struggles. Secondly, the style of his writing which is based on the rhythm of jazz and blues- he uses a lot of imagery and similes. Lastly, his influences which are his lonely childhood and growing up as an Afric...
Benjamin Franklin once said, “It is much easier to suppress a first desire than it is to satisfy those that follow.” This is certainly true in the situation of Dr. Jekyll, as the temptation of becoming Mr. Hyde becomes stronger as he continually surrenders to the wickedness that is constantly misleading him. Mr. Hyde is never contented, even after murdering numerous innocents, but on the contrary, his depravity is further intensified. The significance of the repression of a desire is a prevalent theme throughout the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, as the inability to repress one’s curiosity can lead to a fatal end, whereas the repression of a desire that can no longer contain itself, or the repression of confronting a guilty conscience, will conclude in a tragic ending and in this case specifically,
To conclude the way that Stevenson has described Hyde and what Jekyll has done in most parts he has related it to the devil which in Victorian times was considered very dangerous, even though today he’s not considered that powerful it would still make a big impact. Stevenson has been successful in using many elements of a shocker/thriller to write a novella with a much deeper moral significance because every aspect of the story relates back to the Victorian morals of 1837 till 1901 and for a 21st century reader some parts of the novella will make them think what is really happening around them now and whether it is right or not!
Robert, Stevenson L. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publications, 2013. Print.
... man. Society in the Victorian era was consisted of two classes, trashy and wealthy. Jekyll was expected to be a gentleman, but he wanted to have fun. This was the reason he created Hyde, so he could both be respected and have fun. He was delighted at the freedom he now had. Lanyon was overly contolled, but Utterson knew all men had both good and bad within them and could control it. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, the dual nature of man is a main theme.