Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Essay

Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud alters the first perception of one of civilization’s discontents, Jekyll in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Sigmund Freud proposes his model of self broken up into three subcategories: the superiority of human power in nature through competition, the weakness of the body breaking down to desire, and the relationship between human beings through aggression. His main claim encompasses how civilization forces the self to adapt to certain circumstances, and he further mentions how some are incapable of inhibiting some of those strong instinctual habits. Stevenson portrays a full discontent through the character Dr Jekyll when he invents something to defy nature,

He further folds under the desire to fit a different narrative of Hyde and commit heinous acts through a psychological excuse as well as shows his aggression through interactions of Hyde and murdering other characters behind this facade. Sigmund Freud’s model of self proves Dr Jekyll as one of civilization’s discontents, creating a second perception of understanding for Jekyll’s immoral decisions.

Freud claims that man has become the most powerful creature on earth, which proves Jekyll’s abilities as a scientist and genius character. For context, Dr. Jekyll produces a potion that turns him into a completely different man known as Hyde. As he explains, he “compounded the elements, watched them boil and smoke together in the glass, and when the ebullition had subsided, with a strong glow of courage, drank off the potion” (Stevenson 50). With this text, he evidently knows what he

Once he confesses that Hyde and Jekyll share one body, he proves Hyde’s actions are merely his own. Cowardly, he attempts to justify his hostile behavior by saying, “It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty. Jekyll was no worse; he woke again to his good qualities seemingly unimpaired; he would even make haste, where it was possible, to undo the evil done by Hyde” (Stevenson 53). Understood Hyde was the visual committing the unlawful acts such as murdering a man, but the same mind was agreeing to these actions. Even when Jekyll is portrayed as perfect with an impressive reputation and social circle, he still feels the desire to execute aggression. One could also argue his conscience did not make these judgements, however, Jekyll’s conscience still continued to drink the potion. Freud provides an example of the concept of belligerence, explaining a world of communism and aggression. He claims, no matter the circumstance, all men show aggression, and it does not matter “If we do away with personal rights over material wealth, there still remains prerogative in the field of sexual relationships, which is bound to become the source of the strongest dislike and the most violent hostility among men who in other respects are on an equal footing” (Freud 41). Even in the case of communism where everything is equal, men