In this chapter, the writer will analysis the personality of Jekyll as Jekyll and Hyde by using Freud’s theory to analyze Id, Ego and Super-Ego of their personality.
Here are the analyses:
4.1 Dr. Jekyll’s Id Personality
Id is individual urge or instinct that is needed to be fulfilled. In this novel, Mr. Hyde can be considering as the person that always follow his id as primary
instinct. Mr. Hyde represents the other side of Dr. Jekyll as a dark side where he keeps making a violent. Hyde as the second personality of Jekyll is described with
his evil attitude and tends to doing cruel actions. Hyde is more following his id as the basic attitude of human to pleasure himself. This is proven by many cruel actions he
has done written in this novel. The first cruel action he makes is by trampling a child. Here, Mr. Enfield is described as narrator telling Hyde’s cruel action, describe his
action:
“Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man
trampled calmly over the childs body and left her screaming on the ground. It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasnt
like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 5
Normally, a child is to be loved and people always have mercy to the child. But Hyde tramples the child and left het screaming on the ground are look sadist for
human nature action. He trod the child down and passes on regardless of her scream. Mr. Enfield even describes Hyde is really like Satan with his hateful faces and black
sneering coolness. It’s also described that his action is a juggernaut. Literally, juggernaut can be translated as large and powerful force and institution that cannot
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be controlled. Juggernaut is also need the other ‘victim’. In this story, the juggernaut is also supported by Hyde’s next action to the second victim which he breaks out all
of his victim bound and such a cruel action. In this accident, a maid is described as narrator that sees Hyde’s action by her window.
The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all
bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And next moment, with ape- like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot and hailing down
a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway. At the horror of these
sights and sounds, the maid fainted. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 23
The victim of this accident is Sir Danvers Carew. The maid, as the witness of the Sir Danvers Carew’s murder, describes the accident. The maid watches the man
and observes and being losing all sensibility and faints when seeing Hyde begins to pummel the Carew. What the Hyde does to Mr. Carew is a sadist action for general
person especially because the victim’s bones are audibly shattered. Mostly, human with his consciousness cannot do that due to afraid of feeling guilty and humanism
value but Mr. Hyde can do that. After doing the cruelty with the child, Hyde is doing the other cruel action with Carew support that the character of Mr. Hyde represents
Id his action is a means to satisfy Jekyll own desire which he can’t fulfill by himself as his first character.
“The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in
the hands of Edward Hyde, they soon began to turn toward the monstrous.” Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 66
From the quote above, implicitly it is saying that Hyde enjoys committing the violence and feels a rush of excitement and satisfaction. Through this imagery of
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senseless violence against innocent victims, it expresses the depravity and pure evil of Hyde. The word ‘monstrous’ is also written because after that accident, Jekyll fail
to control his ambition as Hyde and make a new violent again. He says it because he is tempting to do the cruel action again to satisfy his thirst of doing cruel thing. He
says that “I felt younger, lighter, happier in body;” Page 63 when he is doing cruel action like a self pleasure and self interest to do it again and again. Jekyll cannot
make any scandal because if he does that, he will make his name stink from one end of London. Jekyll also admit the pleasure he get by doing such a cruel action he do
when he is being Hyde.
“It was on this side that my new power tempted me until I fell in slavery. I had but to drink the cup, to doff at once the body of the
noted professor, and to assume, like a thick cloak, that of Edward Hyde.” Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 65
Jekyll makes his second character can be considered as the creator who should control his second self as the creature, ironically, Jekyll says he falls in
‘slavery’. This is because when he totally follows his id, he forgets the horror and sadistic action he made juts for getting pleasure. This is also controlled by the
ambition. Timothy Judge, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business says that despite their many accomplishments,
ambitious people are only slightly happier than their less-ambitious counterparts, and they actually live somewhat shorter lives. Here is Jekyll describe his other self:
“At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing
that was projected was Edward Hyde.” Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 65
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From the quote above, Jekyll mentions about the ambition. Ambition can be good if the owner of the ambition can manage it well. But, here the one that live the
ambition is an evil so it makes the ambition is totally bad. If an evil has ambition, he will always do the evil way, too for getting the pleasure especially because the virtue
slumbered. Ambition can monopolize the self and let the evil take all control. He even knows that his second self is evil and worse but he can’t dwell on his first
character and Hyde is able to monopolize his body. Terry Eagleton points out in On Evil about id: “The less sense it makes, the more evil it is. Evil has no relations to
anything beyond itself, such as a cause. If [they] did what they did because of boredom or bad housing or parental neglect, then … what they did was forced upon
them by their circumstances”3. Moreover, Jekyll also admits the sensation he gets by being Hyde:
“There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. I
felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running
like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul. Strange Case
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 63
His sensation by being Hyde is the sensation he says as something indescribable and incredibly sweet. By saying that the sensation is as a solution of
the bonds of obligation show that when he is under control of his ego, there is no rule can control him anymore, no more obligations. This shows that obligation is
perfectly needed to control the id though too much obligations make people feel tie up to do something as himself and need ‘someone’ else to do what he truly want to
do based on his libido and at that time, Id is taking part to seek pleasure for fulfill the libido.
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“…something still kept insisting that I was not where I was, that I had not wakened where I seemed to be, but in the little room in
Soho where I was accustomed to sleep in the body of Edward Hyde. I smiled to myself, and in my psychological way, began
lazily to inquire into the elements of this illusion, occasionally, even as I did so, dropping back into a comfortable morning doze.”
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 67
Soho is the place where Hyde lives. Jekyll houses himself as Jekyll and Hyde in separate place. This is important for him to keep these two versions of himself in
different places for making his life would be relieves of all that’s unbearable. Soho is described like a distinct of some city in a nightmare under the changing glimpse with
its muddy ways. Furthermore, living in Soho has support the existence of Hyde as dark side. Yet, thought living in unpleasing place, as Hyde, Jekyll can enjoy it by
adding a comfortable morning doze and smiled to himself. Moreover, having succeeded to separate the identities being two persons,
there are exact differences of the expectation the balance between id and super ego. One is his old self as Jekyll and the second is someone he calls Hyde. His theory is
not totally true because the first self is still him with his own nature and the second one is described as full evil.
“Hence, although I had now two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old
Henry Jekyll, that incongruous compound of whose reformation and improvement I had already learned to despair. The movement
was thus wholly toward the worse.” Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 65
This is rather screwy because if one side is totally evil which means follow the id, the other side should be the angel which means follow the super ego. But, the
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one is successfully exist with his evil nature and the second not. It looks like people cannot be totally having the full goodness in his life. For actual they are one but
divided into two character. If one if exist, the other one should be ‘sleep’. But, one of one action he made to fulfill his libido as Hyde makes him become enjoy the Hyde
an d incorporate with it: “All things therefore seemed to point to this; that I was slowly
losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.” Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 69
Here is one of the proofs that his id is stronger. This also may because that
when he is able to fulfill his pleasure to complete his id, he become corporate with the id. Ironically, since the id and ego of Jekyll’s personality continuously taking
part time by time, it means that when Id keep taking part, the ego lose its part. At the time that’s happened, Jekyll become losing his original self as Jekyll and incorporate
being Hyde. The nice thing is that Jekyll admits that his second is worse. Yet, he doesn’t seem take full care of it. It may show that if someone get the pleasure to
fulfill his libido, he will not care full of what he has done, no matter it is a good one or a bad one as long as he get his pleasure.
Dr. Lanyon, who have seen the transformation of Jekyll being Hyde saying that he have seen devilish little of the man such unscientific balderdash would have
estranged Damon and Pithiest 12. Wikipedia states that in Greek mythology
, the legend of Damon and Pythias or Phintias symbolizes trust and loyalty in a true
friendship. The use of the Damon-and-Pythias idiom would seem to indicate that, whether the difference was on a point of science or something else, it was not only
some trivial difference. Here may Lanyon mention that what Jekyll has done with his
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research is not only a trivial because it’s kind of revolutionary of scientific, yet since it’s only a unscientific balderdash, it become totally useless. Here, we can see the
effect of the it by seeing that Jekyll is slowly losing his original and better self. By seeing the cruelty of the Hyde with the little child and Sir Carew, it can be
understood those are because of the Id. Here is the more description how is those can be happening and the reason:
“This familiar that I called out of my own soul, and sent forth alone to do his good pleasure, was a being inherently malign and
villainous; his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another;
relentless like a man of stone.” Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 66
From the above quotation, it can be concluded that the Id is centered on self. The author trough Jekyll saying that Hyde is his own soul may as message to people
that actually the basic personality of the people is the Id, yet because Id keep doing such a cruelty things, that’s why ego needed to balance it. Actually, there is nothing
wrong about focusing on self because people can get their truly identity but if someone keep centering his activity on self, may make him is not able to see the
others by only seeking pleasure for himself. Here, it makes Hyde is drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another. That’s why there are
accident of the little child and Sir Carew. And the cruelty of his action because he is relentless like a man of stone where stone has no feeling.
Jekyll is almost true about his theory by saying ‘…these polar twins should be continuously struggling’ although in the many scene of the story is showing that
Hyde is the one who monopolize of their -Hyde and Jekyll- original body. The drug
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is Jekyll use to transform himself being Hyde and vice versa is unstable and mostly Hyde ‘wins’ this unstableness.
“Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde. How was this to be explained? Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde: 68
Quotation above shows that when someone keeps following his id to get pleasure, the Id will take control of the body out of conscious of the self for getting
pleasure where unstableness of Id and Ego will be won by Id because whenever
Jekyll let down his self control, he finds his another nature reveal again as Mr. Hyde. Here may because when people sleep, they are under unconscious and the Id is being
able to take control of the body. Mr. Hyde is easily recognize as the id because he is seeking instant pleasure,
having an aggressive instinct, and having no moral or social mores that need be followed. He takes pleasure in violence and similar to the death instinct ultimately
leads to his own destruction. In ending of this novel, Jekyll decide to suicide and not let Hyde free but and before die he turn being Hyde until dead. This is like a simple
message that human, that consists of id, ego and super ego, as if addicted for always follow his id or as if saying that once people get pleasure and let the id control him,
the id will keep monopolize the self to always fulfill his willing to get pleasure of it. It is reflected of Jekyll story where he sleep as Jekyll and wake up as Hyde for saying
that in our unconscious of our action, human will automatically follow his id.
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4.2 Dr. Jekyll’s Ego Personality
