Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Psychological Analysis Essay

Improved Essays
It is no secret that everyone is not who they say they are, whether that be with hobbies, likes or dislikes or what they want to do when they grow up. All people have another side, some are less interesting then the one they show to the world while others have a deep, dark, hidden side that when released can be damaging. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a an example of how having another side, is life changing. This story is about the tragic happenings of a human who needs to keep his emotional needs and desires hidden. The story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have started many conversations since it first came out in 1866. The names Jekyll and Hyde have become synonymous with multiple personality disorder and the way people with this disorder act. The dual nature of the human mind shown by the evil …show more content…
Jekyll tells Mr. Utterson that he has been fascinated by the duality of his own nature and he believes that this is something that affects all men. The obsession with his darker side gives the novel its plot but also a large impact on psychological implications. Before learning that Jekyll and Hyde are one in the same, their duality in personalities create tensions between the good, Jekyll, and evil Hyde. Mr. Hyde and his appearance provoke disgust and anger. In the novel, he is described as “ape-like”, “troglodytic” and “hardly human” (Stevenson). Having the conscious split into two- the decent side that works hard and succeeds, this is the side that can hide it’s desires that go against what is acceptable in society; and the immoral side that wants to satisfy his desires. Stevenson explores the frights that every one of us have. As Dr. Jekyll observes ‘I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both’ (Stevenson). Dr. Jekyll is let free from his desires through Mr. Hyde, ‘my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring’

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the ingenious author, Robert Louis Stevenson, makes usage of shifts in the subject of the chapters and his differing methods of storytelling to draw parallels between the chapters “Dr. Jekyll Was Quite at Ease” and “The Carew Murder Case.” Within the contents of chapter three,“ Dr. Jekyll Was Quite at Ease”, Stevenson maintains a heavy focus on the friendship between Jekyll and Utterson as is clearly exhibited through Utterson heaving “[A]n irreversible sigh.” It is through this simple action that Stevenson show how far Utterson is willing to go for his friend, as it is through this that Utterson resolves to end his campaign against Hyde for the amenity of his colleague. On the contrary, chapter four,“The Carew Murder…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He wrote that both sides of a person 's reasoning function separately, and that both are at all times completely in earnest (77). In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he attempts to convey an idea of what these dual natures would look like if they could be separated. Naturally, such polar opposite regimes cannot cohabit the same body without a great deal of conflict. After presuming human dichotomy, Dr. Jekyll 's mission was to separate these two natures.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Overall, we saw that throughout the story, Hyde’s steadily increasing power resulted in the downfall of Henry Jekyll’s both physical and mental state as well as his ability to be self fulfilled through his evil self. Robert Louis Stevenson taught us, with “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” that although it is crucial to listen to our conscience, we mustn’t let it overcome our moral instincts, no matter how fulfilling it may…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dual Nature- the main idea of the novel is the dual personality of people and how we can be “evil” and malicious one moment and kind and generous the next. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- title Good vs. Evil- this is the main theme and conflict in the novel. Throughout the novel the personalities of Jekyll and Hyde fight within his body for power and control.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde uses the coexistence of light and dark to highlight the significance of a proper balance between Jekyll’s polar personalities. Throughout the novel, Jekyll constantly struggles to control his conflicting sides, preventing him from living a stable life. Despite Jekyll’s attempt to overcome his struggle by separating his opposing identities, he ultimately loses control over his separate sides. Humans naturally seek easy ways to overcome life’s challenges; therefore, they ignore the more difficult, yet far more effective ways to solve their problems. This desire to solve their problems in a simpler way makes their issues more difficult, interfering with their path to success.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jekyll recognizes he is struggling in his fight between what he knows is right, and his immoral desires. To relieve his stress, Jekyll creates a concoction that isolates what he is supposed to do his desires by transforming him into an individual known as Mr. Hyde. To justify this choice, his case statement claims “… all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil” (Stevenson, 1711). Initially, Jekyll has total control over his new form, Mr. Hyde, transforming at his own will. As the frequency of becoming Hyde increases, so does Jekyll’s sinister nature until he is taking on the ugly form regularly.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were mentally ill by Victorian standards, an exploration into the Victorian mindset on mental health issues can begin. Although modern society still holds a stigma against mental health, as well, professionals in the field have determined that many mental illnesses are out of an individual’s control, caused by chemical imbalances, trauma, genetics, etc. During the Victorian Era, this understanding had not yet been reached. Instead, Victorians thought that individuals had a strong degree of control over their mental states, as “each individual can perfect and utilize his natural gifts; by rigorously training them in the first instance, and then by exercising them only in the manner most cited to expand and elevate, while restraining them from all that would limit or debase” (Carpenter 540). This makes a great deal of sense, given how much importance Victorian society placed in self-reliance.…

    • 2473 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The comparison of contents and forms 3.4.1 The content and form in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde For Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it’s the master work of Stevenson in the genre of suspense fiction, so all the typical form and contents are played at their mightiest. The good setting of suspense and the precise mastery of narrative rhythm are both vividly presented in the author’s pen. By analyzing these features, we can learn the unique skills of writing stories and have a better understanding of human’s good and evil side. The whole story can be easily divided into four parts: the secret beginning of well-plotted suspense, the finding of Hyde, the estranged relationship between Utterson and Jekyll, and the uncover of the double-faced person’s veil.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jekyll And Hyde Narcissism

    • 1569 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sparks a psychological revolution while exposing a remarkable illumination of Dissociative Identity Disorder-a mental aliment that stems from Dr. Jekyll’s years of repressing his dark desires. The more Dr. Jekyll tries…

    • 1569 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it revolves around the point that there are two sides to a person. There is the kind and rational side, which is represented as Dr. Jekyll, and the hateful and indulgent side, which is represented by Mr. Hyde. In the novel, the Dr.’s Hyde side made him do things that any person would regret doing. “Both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering”(Chapter ten, paragraph one). Everybody, at some point in their lives, have indulged in their Hyde side, and my life is no exception.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this essay I will be looking at the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson in January 1886. In this novella a well-respected Dr Jekyll struggles with his dual nature and the undesirable reputation of his pleasures in an upper-class Victorian society. I will explore the ways that the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, presents different types of power and its effect over man. I will compare this text to themes of power in poems such as Medusa, My Last Duchess and Hitcher. The first poem Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy shows the cause an outburst of range as anger has power over any sense of morality that that person may have.…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hyde’s appearance created a rotten identity, while Jekyll remained high in his society. In addition, as Jekyll balances his two identities, he struggles controlling his temptations. “For the building are so close together about the court, that it is hard to say where one ends and the other begins.” (Stevenson 11) Jekyll is in control of both Hyde and his own temptations but Hyde can fulfill them without feeling guilty. There is that desire to fulfill temptations that are against the…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1886. Robert Stevenson became very popular after the publishing of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde one of his finest books (“Robert”). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a story that tells about good and evil. Throughout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Good vs. Evil is experienced in life through split personality’s, strange actions, and the death of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It 's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.” The quote by Eric Burdon can be put into constant play in the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. With a strong sense of mystery and danger, the theme of good and evil fits perfectly into Dr. Henry Jekyll’s personality.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout the story Mr. Utterson works relentlessly to help keep Jekyll’s reputation from being tainted by Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll also works very hard to keep his identity of Hyde away from discovery from any of the other characters so that he can maintain his well established reputation. Jekyll explains in his letter that with his first transformation into Hyde he felt youthful and happier in his new body (54). In repressing any desire that would have appeared morally wrong to others, thus tainting his reputation Jekyll found himself feeling very unhappy. Due to the judgement and backlash that Jekyll would have faced in revealing his perverse ways to others Jekyll is forced to find a way to let these desires out.…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays