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00:00Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel.
00:03In this video, we will be analysing the character of Dr. Henry Jekyll in Robert Louis Stevenson's
00:08novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
00:11If you haven't already, check out my 7-minute animated summary linked in the description
00:15below for a quick recap of the plot of the story.
00:19Henry Jekyll is the central character in this novella, and through him, Stevenson portrays
00:23the duality of human nature, the conflict between personal desires and societal norms,
00:29and the potential dangers of intellectual hubris.
00:32This complex mix of characteristics is revealed through Jekyll's actions in the story, and
00:37in his reflections in the letter to Mr. Utterson.
00:40Jekyll is a firm believer that humans have a dual nature inside of them, or a good side
00:45and a bad side.
00:47As a respected physician and gentleman in Victorian society, he is very much aware of the importance
00:52of reputation and social standing.
00:54In fact, at this time in history, reputation was pretty much everything, and there is huge
00:59pressure from society to conform to their expectations, but because he is expected to behave a certain
01:05way in public, he says that,
01:07I concealed my pleasures, and that when I reached years of reflection, I stood already committed
01:12to a profound duplicity of life.
01:15This duplicity comes from his desire to do things which were deemed unacceptable by society
01:19at that time, without tainting his perfect reputation.
01:24There are many ways to interpret what exactly it is that Jekyll is trying to hide from society,
01:28as he never explicitly tells us what his pleasures are, but instead uses cryptic words and phrases,
01:35such as, a certain impatient gaiety of disposition, and undignified irregularities.
01:41When he first transforms into Hyde, Jekyll says that he had a current of disordered sensual
01:46images running like a millrace in my fancy, which seems to suggest that the acts of which
01:52he was ashamed were of a sexual nature.
01:55One reading of this text is that Stevenson wrote Jekyll's character to be homosexual,
01:59which at that time was illegal in the UK, and would have been considered indecent, especially
02:04for an upper-class gentleman.
02:06Therefore he would have been forced to repress his sexuality and hide it from society, or
02:11risk losing everything.
02:13In this novella, all of Jekyll's social circles seem to be unmarried men, and initially when
02:18Mr. Utterson is investigating his relationship with Mr. Hyde, he assumes that Jekyll is being
02:22blackmailed by him, for the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace.
02:29So it is possible that he believes Jekyll is trying to cover up a homosexual relationship
02:33from his youth.
02:35On the other hand, Jekyll also says in his letter that many a man would have even blazoned
02:39such irregularities as I was guilty of, blazoned meaning to display prominently or vividly,
02:46and it is unlikely that many gay men in Victorian society would have felt comfortable displaying
02:50their sexuality openly, as it was still seen as a crime and something to be ashamed of.
02:55But whatever his pleasures were, Jekyll feels forced to repress them and project the persona
03:00of a perfect respectable gentleman, and it is this pressure from society which leads to
03:05his experiments to separate the two parts of his character, eventually creating Mr. Hyde,
03:11who is a physical embodiment of his so-called darker impulses.
03:15Therefore the transformation of Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde can really be seen as a metaphor
03:20for the conflict between societal expectations and personal desires.
03:25Jekyll sums up this internal battle by saying,
03:27Man is not truly one, but truly two.
03:30As Hyde represents the suppressed side of Jekyll's personality, the parts of him that are not considered
03:35acceptable by society, but are parts of him all the same.
03:40Stevenson observed this same duality of nature in the world around him, as it is widely believed
03:45that Jekyll's character was inspired by John Hunter, a well-respected doctor in 18th century London,
03:51who was known for hosting lavish parties at his house for his upper-class social circle.
03:56However, there was another side to Hunter's house, which opened up onto a small alleyway,
04:01and through this back entrance he would deal with grave robbers who brought him corpses to experiment on.
04:07The layout of this house is a visual representation of the doctor's duality,
04:11and definitely has similarities to Jekyll's house, with a respectable fashionable side to present to the
04:16world, but a hidden laboratory in the back to conduct his ethically questionable experiments.
04:22Although Jekyll is successful in creating a physical alter-ego in the form of Mr. Hyde,
04:28he eventually loses control over him, which perhaps is Stevenson's way of warning readers about the
04:33dangers of giving in to their darker impulses. Initially, he is able to decide when and where
04:38he transforms into Hyde by drinking the potion he concocted, and uses it as a way to escape from
04:45his respectable persona and free his hidden desires. However, as time goes by, he admits to noticing a
04:51shift in control. I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly
04:58incorporated with my second and worse. This gradual loss of control over his transformations symbolises
05:05the takeover of his animalistic instincts, which he believed he could contain. There is a clear link
05:11here to the Freudian theory of the id and ego, with Jekyll representing the ego and Hyde the id.
05:17According to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, the human personality is made
05:22up of different elements, the id, ego, and superego. The id is essentially our instinctive
05:28and primitive behaviours, basic desires such as needing to eat, drink, or have sex, and is driven
05:34by what is called the pleasure principle, the drive to fulfil those desires as soon as possible.
05:39However, the ego allows us to balance these instincts by using rational thought and logic.
05:44For instance, the id part of our personality would tell us that we are hungry and need to eat,
05:49but the ego part is what stops us from doing it right away if we are not in an appropriate situation,
05:54like in a work meeting or in class. The superego goes a step further, however,
05:59and incorporates the morals and social behaviours we learn from our parents and our peers.
06:04It operates on the morality principle, being good for the sake of being good, and accepted by society.
06:11This is all extremely relevant in the case of Jekyll and Hyde, as Jekyll is clearly motivated
06:15by his ego and superego to adhere to the standards of perfection set out for him by society,
06:21and restrain his baser id instincts. Once he gives in to his id, however, it quickly spirals out of hand,
06:28and he eventually loses the ego and superego parts of his personality altogether,
06:33and with them, all sense of morality. The theme of morality and responsibility plays a huge role
06:40in Jekyll's narrative, as his experiment, which at first seems like a breakthrough in understanding
06:44human nature, becomes more and more of a moral dilemma, as Hyde's actions grow increasingly violent
06:50and nasty. Jekyll acknowledges this, saying that Hyde is a being inherently malign and villainous,
06:57his every act and thought centred on self. However, although he recognises the possible dangers of
07:03transforming into Hyde, he still returns to that form again and again, which suggests that his sense
07:09of morality is slowly being worn away. Because he can go back to being Jekyll whenever he chooses,
07:15he fails to take responsibility for the actions of his alter ego,
07:18as he assumes that he will never have to be held accountable for them.
07:23Jekyll's intellectual curiosity and hubris blind him to the potential moral consequences
07:28of his experimentation. In Victorian society, people were predominantly Christian,
07:33and would have seen his pursuit of scientific knowledge and unethical experiments as an attempt
07:38to play God. In fact, he and his old friend Dr. Lanyon have a falling out over this very subject,
07:44as he disapproves of the moral and ethical boundaries that Jekyll is crossing.
07:49Stevenson deliberately uses words that are associated with witchcraft when describing
07:53the creation of Hyde, as he wants to relate to the reader that what he is doing goes against
07:58Christian beliefs and principles. He calls Hyde a familiar, which is a supernatural creature,
08:04usually in the form of an animal, that assists a witch and does her bidding. Additionally, he says,
08:10Late one accursed night, I compounded the elements and watched them boil and smoke,
08:15a phrase which definitely brings to mind a boiling witch's cauldron. Because he underestimates the
08:21consequences of his actions, he initially fails to grasp the severity of the situation he has created,
08:27and turns a blind eye to what Hyde gets up to. But once Sir Danvers is murdered, the reality of the
08:33monster he has let loose sinks in, and he has a sense of horror when he realises what he has done.
08:38Henry Jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse, had fallen upon his knees and lifted
08:44his clasped hands to God. In an attempt to make up for the sins of Hyde, he throws himself into charity
08:51and religion, trying to amplify the good parts of his character with these acts, but he soon discovers
08:57how naive he was to believe that he could cast off Hyde so easily. Despite his disregard for moral
09:03consequences, however, it is hard to see Jekyll as anything but a tragic figure, as his downfall is
09:09the direct result of his own choices and actions. Regardless of what he initially intended when he
09:15created Hyde, Jekyll's inability to control his alter ego leads to murder and tragedy. He
09:21acknowledges this sad end when he signs off his letter to Utterson, saying,
09:25Here then, as I lay down this pen and proceed to seal up my confession,
09:28I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.
09:33His decision to end his own life is a culmination of his failure to reconcile the good and evil parts
09:38of himself, and this whole narrative can be seen as a cautionary tale by Stevenson about the consequences
09:44of not recognising and controlling the so-called bad side of our personalities.
09:48However, we could also interpret this story as the result of an overly harsh and restrictive society
09:54that puts so much pressure on people to be perfect and maintain their social image that they are
09:59forced to repress their true natures and potentially lead to darker and more explosive consequences.
10:05So, what do you think? Does all the blame lie with Jekyll for not staying in control of his vices?
10:11Or is it the fault of society? Or a mixture of both? Let me know what you think in the comments.
10:16So, what do you think in the comments?
10:17Thanks for watching, guys. Stay tuned for follow-up analysis videos soon to come. See you next time!
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