This further complicates the issues with Dr. Jekyll as he craves many things that are not socially acceptable. In this lesson, you will learn about the themes of repression and morality in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Dr. We have an idea today of Victorian society as defined by repression. Jekyll is outwardly a respectable doctor, but he is ravaged inside by a monster. Hyde, having an aggressive instinct, no moral or social standards, takes pleasure in violence ultimately leading to his own destruction (Singh). 2023 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. The lexical choices- tortured throes struggling shows the pain of repression. He is curious and nosy at times but repress this because he thinks that showing that side of himself is unsafe. Reputation, Secrecy and Repression Theme in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevensons novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, tells of Henry Jekyll, a scientist, living during the rigid-mannered Victorian Era in London. This way we don't think about it, but it still has the power to affect the way we act and view things. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove. (1.1). Mr. Hyde would then be the psychical consequence. Sigmund Freud was said to believe that people repress their shameful or immoral thoughts and that they become unconscious. 1, pp. our extensive database of written samples to find the inspiration or research youre looking This repression resulted in an unsustainable accumulation of impulse, leading him to find release in his alter ego Mr. Hyde. You'll also receive an email with the link. Ace your assignments with our guide to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! Also, Stevenson purposefully uses insensate which has connotations with savagery and psychopathy. Utterson is loyal to the last, and also, perhaps, more interested in protecting Jekylls reputation rather than allowing the truth to come out. Did you know you can highlight text to take a note? Hospitals, madhouses, and psychiatric rooms, among others, were developed during the nineteenth century to be spaces to discuss, analyze, dissect, and treat sexuality. Even though there were physical differences it was clear the Hyde did not want to be seen by many people, Will you let me see your face? asked the lawyer. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 34, 24442-24454. He started turning into Mr. Hyde in random places, the transformations got worse and worse. In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the predominant archetypal theme is good and evil exist in all humans, and we live our lives struggling with these two forces. This theme describes the duality of good and evil in Dr. Jekyllthe good being Jekyll and bad being Hyde and the struggle he has with both sides fighting for dominance within himself. I cannot tell you. for. (Delusion and Dream, An Interpretation in the Light of Psychoanalysis of Gradiva, Author: Wilhelm Jensen & Sigmund Freud, February 15, 2014). These traumas do not stay hidden, however. `Name your figure (Stevenson 7). TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. Jekyll says that you can deaden your curiosity by mortifying it, but it takes a stronger character with a stronger will to state that curiosity no matter what.