Intro
While Dracula and Frankenstein explore in their own unique ways the threats posed by extraordinary bodies to the community and the nation as a whole, another Gothic classic, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, turns the focus inward, to the threat that bodies face from the inside.
We've all heard the expression "S/he was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," to describe a rapid, unexpected, and often scary change in personality. But when the novel first appeared, it spoke to growing fears about the nature and stability of identity, of one's sense of self, and of the terror of what might be lurking inside the bodies and minds of people, only to burst out and destroy their worlds.
This was such a fear in the late-19th and early-20th centuries that newspapers like The London Times were filled with true-life stories of what came to be known as "double consciousness," where seemingly average people would experience a sudden shock, fright, or injury that would, basically, flip some kind of a switch inside them, making them become entirely different people.
They would assume new names and careers; they would, for sometimes weeks, months, and years at a time, begin to live completely different lives, only to snap back to the reality of their "original" personalities just as quickly and unexpectedly as they snapped out of them.
Part of this was due, of course, to the discoveries of early psychiatry. Freud was just beginning at this time to develop his theories of the three-part consciousness, which says that the human mind consists of the id, the ego, and the superego. Of these three, the person is typically only consciously aware of the ego. This is the sense of self that the person consciously cultivates and tries to understand.
But most of our drives, our desires, and our fears are subconscious. We have no idea what they are, or that they're even there, and yet, according to these emerging theories of psychology, they profoundly shape who we are, what we do, and how we see the world.
The superego is our moral police. It's where we absorb and internalize our ideas of what's right and wrong. It constrains our actions so that we don't suffer shame, guilt, or punishment for wrongdoings.
The id is the storehouse of all that's primitive. It's the seat of our aggression, our lust, and our impulses. If the superego is the ultra-civilized, tea-sipping, opera-going, Voltaire-reading part of our brain, the id is all fried chicken wings, MMA, and Fifty Shades of Grey.
Quote
He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point. He's an extraordinary looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir, I can make hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.
Analysis
This passage is pretty much a slam-dunk in terms of what we've been saying so far about the fear of the hidden threat within the body and mind of a person. The description is of Mr. Hyde, the evil alter-ego of the supposedly upstanding Dr. Jekyll. When Dr. Jekyll drinks the potion he has concocted, it is this "extraordinary looking man" who emerges.
So, within the tall, stalwart, prestigious body of the respected doctor there lurks this evil, dwarfish, ape-like little creature, a being that more than one character describes as "deformed."
But, as we can see from this passage, the deformity can't be identified or described. It's beyond the powers and the knowledge of ordinary people to understand what is wrong with Hyde. This is important, folks, because it hints at what we've spent so much time talking about already: that in our modern medical culture, it is only the doctor who has the capacity to understand what is wrong inside a person's body or mind.
And here's an even scarier prospect: just as the cases of double-consciousness show us, even the person involved will often have no idea what is going on inside him. Dr. Jekyll awakens from his transformation into Hyde with little memory of what went on when he was in the form of his evil twin. Likewise, those real-life individuals who purportedly experienced double-consciousness more often than not reported having no recollection at all of what happened during those weeks and months spent in their second personalities.
So, the victim is as powerless to understand and control what is happening to his/her body or mind as the ordinary folks on the outside, endangered by these violent transformations. We won't spoil the book for you, Shmoopers, but suffice it to say that the only thing that can end the terror imposed by this second self—this monster within—is the superior knowledge of Dr. Jekyll and the steps he takes because of his understanding of the "disease" of Mr. Hyde.
Sounds eerily like the "diagnosis-prognosis-treatment" paradigm that's become our mantra, right?