Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a classic that everyone knows the basis of. There's a guy, Jekyll, who drinks a potion that turns him into this hideous, horrible beast of a man that runs rampant among the streets of London. However, many people do not normally see a different side to the story. The way I like to look at the story is that Hyde represents the psychological Id that Freud always discusses. While it may not be an exact representation of Freud's human Id, it tends to follow the same basis that Freud has talked out in human nature.

Mr. Hyde represents all things evil in the story. He is the beast that is violent and does whatever it wishes without thinking of morality. He is everything that society tells us we shouldn't be, and while he may come off as being evil in the story he can also be seen as a representation of true freedom. I'm not talking true 'Murica freedom, but rather literal freedom, having no one tell you what you can and can not do. Mr. Hyde is simply one way that Dr. Jekyll can escape from the societal pressures of the 19th Century Victorian era.

There were so many rules and standards back then on how people should act, and while some rules are crucial for a happy society, there was tremendous pressure on Jekyll to act like a gentleman and how society wanted him to act. He was succumb to what would be known today as Social Anxiety Disorder, which meant that he was afraid of societal reject or always aimed to please others. This disorder lead him to experiment and find the potion that turned him into Mr. Hyde. I feel as though the potion is a representation of drugs or alcohol. Many people use drugs and alcohol to escape from the world when they feel there is too much pressure on them to perform up to societies standards. This potion gave Dr. Jekyll the freedom from constantly having to live up to societies life styles. I also feel as though even though Jekyll said he was trying to control Hyde, there was a part of him that wanted Hyde to continue taking over.

Jekyll felt as though Hyde was his scapegoat into a world with no responsibility and strict guidelines. When Hyde took over, all morals were gone from his mind. This brings me back to my point about Freud's Id personality. A persons Id is the very basic, primal lifestyle that we as humans have. There is no moral to the Id, so there for it chooses to do what it pleases. When Hyde killed the elderly man and pushed the young girl, there was no sense of remorse, there was no morality in his decision making. Hyde only knew what he wanted to do and nothing was going to stop him. These are my feelings as to how The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has a much deeper meaning and why it is a good example of what we consider to be morally right or wrong.