PSYCHOANALYSIS FREUDIAN THEORY IN JEKYLL AND HYDE PSYCHOANALYTICAL

PSYCHOANALYSIS FREUDIAN THEORY IN JEKYLL AND HYDE

PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY • Freud’s (a psychologist) most famous theory was that of the tripartite personality of man. • Tripartite means split into 3 - it has three parts to it. • The ego, Superego and ID

“MAN IS NOT ONE BUT TRULY TWO”

The ego controls the impulsive nature of the id. The ego seeks pleasure and is concerned with thinking of realistic ways for us to gain the pleasure we seek. The superego considers the morals of society which are learned from one’s The ID is the primitive and instinctive part of our psyche. The ID is impulsive parents. The superego controls the id’s and is present in a newborn child. Only impulses- specifically those that society forbids (sex and aggression. ) later in life do we develop an ego and superego.

• It could be argued that Hyde is used by Stevenson to represent the ID part of your personality. Psychoanalytical theory states that the ID is the part of your mind that is controlled by impulse and is quite primitive just like Hyde.

DARWINISM IN JEKYLL AND HYDE

RELIGION AND SCIENCE • Victorian society was very religious and Christianity had a strong influence of many areas in everyday life. Once particularly influential branch was called Evangelicalism. • The Evangelicals taught that all people were naturally sinful and that it is up to individuals to seek forgiveness from God. They should do this by living according to strict moral and religious codes - the emphasis was on avoiding sin. • Jekyll is particularly critical of his own sinfulness, more so than any other character. He thinks of sin as “the doom and burden of our life”. He creates Hyde in an attempt to rid himself of this “extraneous evil”. extraneous – external or unrelated

DARWIN’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION • In the 1800 s, Christianity taught that God created every species to be perfectly adapted to its environment. The bible states that man is made in God’s image. • Darwin put forward his theory in ‘On the Origin of Species’ published in 1859. Darwin’s book claimed that humans were evolved from apes. He also discussed a theory called natural selection- survival of the fittest essentially!

WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH THE NOVEL? • Stevenson uses this idea in the novel! Hyde is described as the “animal within” Henry Jekyll. He “seems hardly human”, lets out a scream of “animal terror” and Poole says he is “like a monkey”. • Hyde is also shorter than Jekyll, which could suggest that he is a less evolved version of the doctor!

• Hyde is presented as a less-evolved version of Henry Jekyll. In the text Hyde is consistently referred to as having animalistic features “ape-like fury” which links to Darwin’s theory of Evolution.