Analysis Of The Illicit Desires In Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Through Literary Theories

Discuss about the Illicit Desires of Jeckyll and Hyde System.

About the Article and Author

The given source is a part of ‘The Sigma Tau Delta Review’ which is platform working under International English Honor Society. It publishes annual journals containing critical essays bordering on the discipline of English Literature, and takes into consideration critical pedagogical issues. The concerned article is a part of the 12^th volume of the Review, published in 2015. The author Christine Johns was a student pursing M.A. in Critical and Cultural Theory at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, during this publication. She was one of the foremost scholars associated with the ‘Sigma Tau Delta’.

In this article she attempts to analyse the illicit desires of Dr Jeckyll in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, through literary approach on ‘Queerness’ and ‘Sado-Masochism’, bordering largely upon the literary perspectives of the renowned critic Gilles Deleuze. She also takes into consideration the deconstructionist approach of Post-Structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida and the literary critic Julia Kristeva. The article offers a fresh modern perspective on Stevenson’s novel, and channelized through the right platform, it hold immense potential for garnering appraisal of reputed critics.

Through the propositions of Gilles Deleuze, especially in Coldness and Cruelty, the article portrays Dr. Jeckyll’s attempts to channelize the hidden masochistic violence within his own self in a queer format, through the sadistic pleasures of Mr. Hyde (p. 82-84). The perverse desires are thus attempted to be separated by dissociating the non-normative ‘Other’ from the normative ‘One’.  This attempt to separate the dual identity of the single entity, while on one hand aims to give a masochistic pleasure of successfully operating this, change, on the other hand it also offers the individual with a sadistic pleasure of giving vent to the perverse desires of the individual. However, pleasure obtained from masochism is constantly being deferred, which further enhances the violence of sadism. Thus, the article integrated Derrida’s idea of ‘Differance’. Jeckyll’s attempts to create an identity of his own by dissociating the queer desires of the ‘One’ into a non-normative ‘Other’ only adds to his horror and discomfiture of Jeckyll, and this phenomena adheres to Kristeva’s idea of ‘Abjection’. Mr. Hyde becomes the abject entity through whom the queer desires take on the dimensions of violent activities, which Jeckyll tries desperately to defend (p. 84-85). By citing Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs, the author tries to highlight the double displacement that occurs through the letters of Jeckyll (p. 87).

Queerness, Sado-Masochism, and Identity in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The writer has beautifully integrated the primary text with the secondary texts of literary theory. This integration serves to highlight how the duality of the self is a universal, ageless phenomena, and gives and explanation for the psychological consequences that leads to human attempts of identity formation through deferral into what we are not, and how it leads to antithetical results. Thus, the brief article opens up scope for further in-depth research in this area.

The author of this article Melissa J. Ganz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Marquette University, located at U.S. Hence, the article is a part of the Research and Publication Series of the English Faculty of this University. However, it was first published in the journal titled ‘Nineteenth Century Literature’, whose rights belong to ‘University of California Press’.  

In this article, she outlines the Jeckyll’s attempts to escape the responsibility of the insanity and criminality perpetrated by his self-created alter-ego, Mr Hyde, who was created solely to dissociate a single individual on moral terms, and was supposed to enact upon Jeckyll’s own illicit desires. In this context, the author repeatedly takes recourse to the propositions of psychiatrists like James Cowles Prichard and Henry Maudsley, and a number of scholars (p.364-394). Taking real-life examples like M’Naghten case of 1843, the paper presents debates between jurists and alienists, regarding the justification of mental diseases and it consequent actions (p. 364-384).

Moral and legal judgement takes on psychological dimensions of mental stability. The difference between deviance of moral lines and the mental state dwindling between the normative and the abnormal which results in this deviance are reaffirmed. Crime, in this regard can be looked upon in a nuanced format, depending on the perspective, that of the jurist and the psychiatrists or alienists. While the jurists’ linear perspective deem the actions of Jeckyll irresponsible and impulsive enactment of the illicit desires, which are allowed to have a full play without any hindrance through Hyde, the psychiatrists address the problem is a more complicated format, where there is a thin line between criminality and madness, thereby problematizing the issue of responsibility of the deeds committed. Jeckyll defends Hyde by giving the blame on insanity, by which he disregards responsibility of his own dark desires. The balanced between reason and transgressive passion is breached time and again through voluntary actions, gradually giving way to involuntary transformation which was uncontrollable. Responsibility can be attached with the voluntary actions, thereby giving the individual, the tag of a criminal. Jeckyll’s reaction to the murder of Carew bears testimony to this fact. However, once uncontrollable, the whole idea of responsibility falls flat. Physiologists like William B. Carpenter’s arguments, as mentioned in the paper, show that Jeckyll had the ability to control his egoistic desires, which he did not (p. 374). Therefore, it may be argued that although Jeckyll created Hyde, Hyde represented the real, uninhibited true self of the individual.

Psychoanalyzing the Novel Through the Lenses of Psychiatry and Jurisprudence

Although prior researches offer a fine psychoanalytical study of the novella, this paper offers a different perspective of the dichotomy between free will and reason on one hand and insanity on the other, and shows how one may lead to another, thereby problematizing responsibility. In this regard, the author has maintained a fine balance in the use of the primary text and secondary references. Since the paper talks heavily about insanity, the author could have also taken into account the propositions of the renowned French philosopher Michel Foucault, especially his paper Madness and Civilization, and his idea of the ‘Panopticon’ gaze.

The article belongs to the journal of literary cultures under Nottingham Trent University. Information could not be found about the author Michael Corlett, hence it may be deduced that the person concerned is a student or a teaching or other staff associated with this university.

This article builds upon previous psychoanalytical readings of the sexual orientation and identity, which is directly related to the anxieties of late 19^th century British society. Through the medium of R.L. Stevenson’s novel, the author addresses those anxieties which had sexual desires which were considered taboo in the Victorial, bearing on the internal struggles of socially oppressed homosexual. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic propositions are taken into account alongside those of Krafft-Ebing in Psychopathia Sexualis (p. 1-2). Therefore, the paper may also be considered as belonging to the discipline of Gender Studies.

The climate of strict morality that prevailed in the Victorian England gave way to the duality represented by Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Suppression led to the channelizing of the dark desires in a different and viscous manner that was detrimental to the physical and mental health of both the individual as well as the entire society. The self-repressed desires of a homosexual in the strictly Puritan Victorian society assumes illicit dimensions in their enactment through different self of the same individual. Excessive emphasis on temperance gave way to immorality which split an individual into two clearly distinct entities, one civilized, the other barbaric. The homosexual tendencies can be studied as biologically pre-natal developments (p. 2). In spite of this biological conformation, an individual struggles with this identity both on the personal as well as social front. Victorian evolutionary theories promoted self-control, an excess of which has severe implications on the behavioural patterns and consequent actions, whereby transgressive behaviour and action becomes addictive to the point of uncontrollable abnormality. Mr. Hyde may be seen as an amalgamation of the internal struggles and external difficulties of Jeckyll in establishing his social identity in an environment that was hostile to his true self (p. 2). Hence, sexual repressions led to social transgressions, and the abnormality of Hyde is the socially perceived abnormality of a homosexual person, whose blurred nature is highlighted through the non-normative and unclear description of Hyde. This abnormality was often associated with criminality, and the society disregarded the fact that real criminality and violence can only arise through fear of social unacceptance, as happens in this novel. Although modern society has successfully eradicated the stereotypes to a considerable extent, still the internal anxieties of non-conformity with heteronormativity continues to exist. Jeckyll, torn between social expectations and stereotypic cultural restraints on one hand, and protruding personal desires on the other, symbolizes a Victorian man, torn between denial and indulgence in the establishment of identity.

Within the brief corpus of this article, the use primary and secondary sources adequate adheres to the concerned theme of illicit desires curtained by apparent congeniality and decorum, which was characteristic of Victorian England, and its consequent outburst in a socially harmful manner. Nevertheless, the paper holds value even for a modern society. Its strength lies in the fact that it did not hover about the stagnant and already discussed issues pertaining to this text, rather, used them to construct a fresh outlook with a proper theoretical approach. The domain of sexual identity explored in the paper is enormous, where the author could have brought the discourses other philosophers like Michel Foucault or Jacques Lacan, to name a few, but in the end he gives convincing justifications for its brevity.

References:

Hyde, Mr. "“The Horror of My Other Self”: Transformative Masochism and the Queerness of Sadism in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Sigma Tau Delta (2015): 81. 

Ganz, Melissa J. "Carrying On Like a Madman: Insanity and Responsibility in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." NINETEEN CENT LIT 70, no. 3 (2015): 363-397.

Corlett, Michael. "Sexual Orientation and Identity in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." Literary Cultures 1, no. 1 (2018).