Jekyll and Hyde: A Psychoanalysis

As humans, we all tend to act differently in certain situations and around certain people. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll, suffers from an extreme switch in personality induced by medical experimentation that causes these different personalities to be more prominent and take over the mind. Concepts including Id, Ego, Superego and dualism help the audience understand the multiple personalities of Jekyll and Hyde. They give us insight on why the brain works the way it does, and why the characters acted the way they did.
A common dilemma the human race faces, is deciding on whether to indulge our desires or do what is right in the eyes of society and law. Sigmund Freud’s Id, Ego, and Superego theory scientifically examines why our brain’s struggle through these dilemmas, and why the characters in Jekyll and Hyde act the way they do. Id represents the part of our brain that is not focused on social …show more content…
In the novel, dualism is obviously apparent in the differing personalities of Jekyll and Hyde. “My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally shared between them” (p.74). as polar opposites Jekyll remains a well-respected man while Hyde is a feared murderer, Though both characters contain the same memories, there’s an internal disagreement on how to observe the world. In the Novel the contradicting personalities are a symbol for the different personalities we all take on. Often people act differently based on situations or people around them. For example, a teenager acts much differently around their friends than they act around their teachers or parents. They are probably louder and funnier with their friends and more ‘proper’ with their adult