furthermore, one could drink the same potion and be transformed back into the original self. In his full statement of the case, Henry Jekyll related his purpose of the scientific investigation. He was happy to separate the good and evil elements in his body. And let these two elements be independent. Let them run their own business in their own filed without interference by each other. Both the desires of doing good and doing demon things got released to the heart content.
“The energy for the operation of id comes from ?instincts?, which urge id to strive for the satisfaction of desire. Death and love are two basic forms of instincts.” The instinct love was call libido by Freud. He explained libido was an expression taken from the theory of the emotions: love, exactly sexual love. All the instinctual impulsions of human beings come from libido. However, this theory cannot be applied in Stevenson?s novel, because it is put forward later than the print of the novel. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the instinctual impulsions of Dr. Jekyll are violence. Mr. Hyde has no capability to control himself to be quiet and calm. He is easily to get angry, and takes violent act. He cannot help feeling happy when he has violent deeds.
However, some critics are aware that there are a few female characters in the novel. The reason is guessed that R. L. Stevenson obeys the Victorian morals, which restrain people?s many desires. Indeed, in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the main characters are all single. Dr. Jekyll has no wife, no child; the lean, long, and dusty lawyer Mr. Utterson and his relative, Mr. Enfield are both bachelors. The females in the novel are all supporting roles. Readers are attracted by the plot and story, the structure and the atmosphere. Seldom of them are aware of the gender arrangement.
Mr. Hyde came into readers? eye by an accident: he trampled over a child?s body at a street corner. He was caught by Mr. Richard Enfield and other passerby. Hyde made no resistance. Mr. Enfield and the child?s family threatened him to make it a scandal. “Name your figure” was Hyde?s reply. They screwed him up to a hundred pounds. Hyde left for a while, he came back with a check, on which there was another man?s signature. To eliminate others doubts, Hyde said, “Set your mind at rest, I will stay with you till the banks open and cash the cheque myself.”Stevenson R.L,1981
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As we mentioned above, Dr. Jekyll?s instinctual impulsion or the id is violent. His action of trampling the child can be interpreted as driving by his instinctual impulsions. When he was caught, he did not get into fury immediately. To some extent, he showed his patience to compensate for the child and her family. In this situation, the power of the ego can be seen. The ego, which represents reason controls and modifies the behavior of id. The ego forces the id to obey social moral and legal norms. The ego wins over the id in this battle.
After one dinner party, Mr. Utterson expressed his worries about the will, and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll confidently assured to him, “it is not as bad as that; and just to put your good heart at rest, I will tell you one thing: the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.” Dr. Jekyll declared that he can get rid of Mr. Hyde at any time as long as he wanted. So, the id is totally under the ego?s control and constraint. The id is not able to do anything he wants. The ego successfully suppresses the id.
However, the ego?s control does not last long. One night, Sir Carew, an old but kind gentleman met Hyde and inquired the way politely. Hyde?s response frightened everyone.
“but he answered never a word, and seemed to listen with an ill-contained impatience. And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman. 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.” Stevenson R.L,1981
This scene is horrible. In the narration, Hyde is too violent to be a human being. His violence bursts out suddenly and fiercely. There is little patience left in Hyde this time. He even did not speak a word before bludgeoning. The ego is entirely overwhelmed by the id. With no pressure, no control, no modification, the instinctual impulses of the id are set free. In this battle, the ego is defeated, while the id goes to win.
As the murder had done, Hyde?s reason or ego took the power back. He controlled the violent id, and made him to listen to the ego. The ego knows that the innocent id had
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violated the law. The action of escape must be caught out immediately. Then the id followed the ego?s order. So, Mr. Hyde ran to his house in Soho, destroyed his papers, and then set out through the streets to run away.
“?in the same divided ecstasy of mind, gloating on my crime, light-headedly devising others in the future, and yet still hastening and still hearkening in my wake for the steps of the avenger. Hyde had a song upon his lips as he compounded the draught, and as he drank it, pledged the dead man. The pangs of transformation had not done tearing him, before Henry Jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to God.” Stevenson
R.L,1981
These words are from Dr. Jekyll?s confession letter. The process of feeling changing is described in it. Though the left reason ask him to escape, he cannot restrain his excitement. He got into ecstasies and gloated, and even sang out a song. Though he made cruelty, Mr. Hyde forgot himself in the joyance of fulfilling his instinctive demands and desires. After drinking the compounded draught, he returned in the form of Dr. Jekyll, he was in the deep remorse for the crime. He fell upon his knees in front of God with tears in his eyes. There was no happy feeling any more, instead of regret and remorse, which are the punishments coming from the superego.
During these two months, Henry Jekyll tried his best to be Dr. Jekyll. He was often in the open air. He renewed his relations with his friends, and once more became the guest and entertainer in his friend?s dinner party. He was busy, and did a lot for charities. He always was well known for it. Mr. Utterson visited him almost every day. But Dr. Jekyll confined himself in laboratory again. Be refused, and be confused, Mr. Utterson wrote a letter to Jekyll. In the replied letter, Dr. Jekyll said, “You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.”Dr. Jekyll never stops the struggle to be Hyde or not. It conflicts fierily. As Jekyll?s penitence wore off, the lower side of him: Hyde, which is so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for license. Dr. Jekyll decides to dream of resuscitating Hyde. This bare idea startles him to frenzy. Moral weakness or desire stronger, the id defeats the ego once more. Departed with Hyde for two months, He is warmly welcomed.
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Dr. Jekyll tries his best to reconcile the contradictions among the id, the ego, and the superego. He tastes various feelings during the process of the reconcilement. However, things do not always go well. Gradually, the evil inside him destroys the balance of his soul, which made him in despair. The id is out of ego?s control; the ego receives the severe penalty from superego.
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Conclusion
Since the development of society and human self, the authors, readers and critics begin to realize that angle and demon are not only opposite to each other as separated individuals. On the contrary, they exist together in one character. Angle does not merely show on protagonist. The character of antagonist also includes the element of good. The angle and demon struggle hard in forcing the character to do good or to do the opposite, which makes the character more complicated. Besides R. L. Stevenson?s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, there are many other works with the similar theme, such as William Wilson, a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is considered as the best one about dual personality among the same kind of novels.
Henry Jekyll is made up of Jekyll, Hyde, and a third. Mr. Nabokov draws a big circle to represent Jekyll, a smaller one represents Hyde. Hyde departs from Jekyll, so he is a part inside Jekyll. The small circle is inside the big one. There are some elements of evil inside Jekyll. Jekyll drinks the potion, the evil elements concentrates, and then separates from Jekyll as a precipitate, namely, Edward Hyde. Because Hyde is smaller than Jekyll, there is a ring left when Hyde comes out from Jekyll. The ring is the third, which is mentioned by Nabokov.
There is a fact in the novel, which is worthy to be paid attention to. The fact is that the lives of the characters in the novel are all simple, boring, and lack of fun. The main characters, like Dr. Jekyll, and the lawyer Utterson, are bachelors. Sometimes, Dr. Jekyll holds a dinner party in turn, inviting his friends to have a drink. Except this, those characteres almost have no other entertainments. Mr. Utterson is austere with himself. He drinks gin when he is alone. He enjoys the theater, but did not enter the doors for twenty years. For him, the greatest pleasure in a week is the Sunday walk with his relative, Mr. Enfield. But “they said nothing, looked singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend.”
The conflicts and contradictions among the id, the ego, and the superego exist inside every living person. Some of them are in people?s conscious, some are in subconscious.
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