The ghostly tales of Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein are symbols of horrors in real life that haunt our daily hours. The interest of this research is the definition of the monster’s identity and how it is translated. The research introduces the authors’ symbolic concepts of strangeness which address alienation and desire and, which happen in the unconscious state of the creator’s Victor and Dr. Jekyll.
These texts present the perfect example of fiction which is the best type of writing that combines terror, romance, and horror with the character’s repressed thoughts, desires, and spilled personality. The authors Robert Stevenson Louis and Mary Shelly have adequately dealt with the concept of mad scientists, their split personalities, and destructive creations. First, the characters victor and Dr. Jekyll are scientists highly respected by their societies which leads them to create destructive creatures for themselves, to carry out unconventional passions. The other similarity lies in the fact that the mad scientists gave their creations a male gender like themselves.
Victor created Frankenstein from the desire to have a supreme being and to imitate God by exposing his creation. Victor therefore subconsciously puts his religion or spirituality in his creation, which is later reflected in Frankenstein’s spirituality. The creature’s spirituality is seen in his fascination with the sun and moon which corresponds with pagan adorations of the world and is depicted in expressions like ‘orb of the night’ and ‘gentle light’.
While Frankenstein was a separate entity only mirroring the personality of his creator, Mr. Hyde was the double of Dr. Jekyll. This important aspect is seen and is proven with Dr. Jekyll’s confession that he took the option of living a double life, ‘I made a choice possibly with unconscious reservation, since I never gave up my house in Soho, or destroyed Edward Hyde’s clothes’ (Stevenson 76). Therefore, Dr. Jekyll confesses that he is subconsciously aware that he was living a double life hence, Mr. Hyde can be said to be the alter-personality of this character. Whereas Jekyll represents a conscious state, Hyde is the representation of the unconscious state. This is a contrast to Frankenstein since both monster and creator appear at the same time.
This factor provides the basis for the research’s premise since if both monsters were reflections of their creators, then the scientists were evil. Therefore the creatures’ desires and intentions were the results of their creator’s personalities. For Victor this is depicted by his creation of his alter personality Frankenstein, to carry his unconscious desires and to encourage him to pursue suppressed desires. This desire is explained by victor as, ‘i thought, that by bestowing animation on lifeless matter, I would in time renew life which death had devoted to corruption’ (Shelley 43). In the process, the disconnection between appearance and inner senses made the creature evil like his creator. Victor’s corrupt desire gives Frankenstein its evil desires since the creature is the fruit of victor’s malice. On the other hand, Mr. Hyde reflects the doctor’s hypocrisy, in which he reflects unconscious impulses, as evident in Jekyll’s confessions ‘perennial war between my members’ (Stevenson 70) and ‘man is not one, other than truly two’ (Stevenson 71).
Both creatures are evil like their creators since they are the projections of the altered personality of the scientists. Mr. Hyde is the unconscious representation of Dr. Jekyll, an evil representation of his sub-consciousness as he explained, ‘more wicked, a tenfold wicked… a slave to original evil’ (Stevenson 72). On the other hand, Frankenstein’s evil arose from Victor’s rejection and the rejection of society as seen from the Lacys family. Whereas Jekyll was not repulsed by the sight of his reflection in the mirror, the victor was terrified of Frankenstein. This also shows that Jekyll accepted the alter evil in him, as ‘as I looked on the ugly image in the glass…. this too was me and it looked natural and human’ (Stevenson 73). Victor was the rejecting father, while Frankenstein was the rejected child, as depicted in ‘how do I describe my emotions of this catastrophe… my dream’s beauty has vanished… unable to bare the being I created, I rushed out’ (Shelley 45).
The altered personality of Dr. Jekyll also had his knowledge and skills, therefore, Mr. Hyde could commit acts of violence. However since these crimes were Dr. Jekyll’s desires put in place by the subconscious mind, the scientist, as well as his monster, ended up as evil scientists. Hyde was given knowledge and evil desires, which made him gain strength to free himself from Jekyll, by dominating the body which led to their destruction. Hyde’s evil urges arise from Jekyll’s desires of enjoying, ‘lower elements in his soul’ (Stevenson 72). Therefore, Jekyll was aware of his alter evil and was not put off by it. On the other hand, Victor’s rejected his creation since it was ugly and strange, this reaction coupled with the creature’s desire for knowledge and association made it evil. Frankenstein was created from stitched body parts, which created a difference with his creator. Unfortunately, there was a strange presence of human emotions like love and desire which pulled Frankenstein to desire association. Therefore, while Hyde sought freedom, Frankenstein sought association and acceptance. The evil side of Frankenstein is in his ugly physical appearance which shows an inhumane nature in victor. The knowledge Frankenstein gained from Victor was depicted in form of desires or sensations, which allowed him to seek association, love, develop hate and seek revenge, as he reminds Victor by saying, ‘remember, I am thine creature’ (Shelley 76) and ‘why did you create a monster so revolting that you too turn away in disgust. These sensations or desires for the world are described by the creature as, ‘strange multiplicity of sensations…’ (Shelley 79).
Whereas Hyde’s evil nature was from the subconscious evil in Dr. Jekyll, Frankenstein’s evil was from the rejection by society. Frankenstein decided to become angry and vengeful with his rejection by his creator and the world, as he explains, ‘from the instance I declared everlasting war in opposition to the species, and more so, him who created me… feelings of revenge and hate-filled me’ (Shelley 105-106). Therefore, while Hyde was pure evil from the beginning, Frankenstein’s violence was the product of the rejection of his desires and the failure of creating an identity. Hyde’s evil arose from inherent subconscious desires to do evil through scientific creations, based on the knowledge and skills of Dr. Hyde. However, for Frankenstein violence arose from his inability to receive acceptance from his creator and society.
Works cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London: Wordsworth Classics, 1993.
Stevenson, R. Louis. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. London: Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.