Introduction
We live in a time when the majority of citizens in Western countries think of the concept of cultural and scientific progress as something that is being objectively predetermined, in the historical context of this word, due to humans’ metaphysical superiority over the animals. In its turn, this allows countless moralists, which represent various religious denominations, to continue generating rather a substantial income by exploiting people’s naïve belief in their own “god-likeness”.
However, given the fact that it only takes a few seconds for otherwise culturally refined individuals to begin acting as savage beasts, while being put under the set of specific circumstances (as it happened on sinking “Titanic”, for example), there can be very little doubt as to layer of people’s civilizational refinement being only a skin-deep.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the motif of people’s inborn bestiality is being prominently featured throughout the entirety of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” – at the time when the author worked on this novel, the pace of scientific progress in the field of biology has not been slowed down by considerations of political correctness, as it is often the case nowadays. In its turn, this allows us to think of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” as a literary work that continues to provide us with insight into the real nature of the human psyche, even though this novel has been written in the 19th century. In our paper, we will aim at exploring this thesis even to a further length.
Main part
In her article “Wild Humans: The Culture/Nature Duality in Marie Darrieussecq’s Pig Tales and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, Patricia Ferrer-Medina had come up with an observation that sheds light on the actual subtleties of Dr. Jekyll’s tragedy: “Dr. Jekyll was already a dual character before drinking the potion” (Ferrer-Medina) – it is named after he had taken the potion, that Dr. Jekyll was able to separate his essentially dual psyche onto its two integral components: human and bestial. And, as we are all well aware of when primeval urges take over an individual’s existential mode, it becomes quite impossible for him to act in a socially responsible manner. This is exactly the reason why media refer to particularly gruesome crimes as “inhuman”, “savage” and “bestial”.
Therefore, Mr. Hyde’s physical appearance simply reflected his murderous state of mind: “He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance, something displeasing” (Stevenson). The sheer “unpleasantness” of Hyde’s appearance can be explained by the fact that, as we know from cinematographic interpretations of Stevenson’s novel, he bore clearly defined marks of anthropological atavism (bestiality): sloping forehead, protruding jaw, and overdeveloped cheekbones, darkened skin, etc.
Thus, we can only agree with Ferrer-Medina, who in the same article had suggested: “Although duality is often internal (psychological), there are often recognizable physical traits that correspond to each personality” (Ferrer-Medina). Apparently, Hyde’s very appearance signified the actual extent of this character’s evilness, which points out the fact that Stevenson was well aware of the works of a founder of Positive Criminology Cesare Lombroso. And, as recent breakthroughs in the field of genetics show, the scientific methodology of Positive Criminology is being absolutely valid – it is quite possible to tell what’s on an individual’s mind by examining his or her anthropological constitution.
Thus, the foremost idea of Stevenson’s novel is being clearly concerned with the duality of human nature, which according to the author, affects the lives of people, throughout these lives’ entirety. In its turn, this allows us to think of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” as a literary work that contains many scientific insights, the validity of which has only been recognized during the course of the 20th century.
For example, nowadays, psychologists are well aware of the fact that the religious notion of one’s soul is nothing but a myth, simply because one’s consciousness can be easily altered by the mean of a surgical intrusion – all it takes to turn professor into a saliva-spewing imbecile is cutting off a small part of his brain. This means – once there is no physical medium for the containment of one’s “soul”, there can be no “soul”. Therefore, it was not by a pure accident that, after having been released out of Dr.Jekyll’s body, his “evilness” had assumed a physical form of Mr. Hyde – it appears that, as a true European intellectual, Stevenson understood so much more then he could have possibly known.
Apparently, the author was fully aware of a simple fact that, as Joyce Carol Oates had put it in her Foreword to Stevenson’s novel: “There is a split in man’s psyche between ego and instinct, between civilization and nature and the split can never be healed” (Oates).
Yet, it is quite possible to illustrate the existence of this split by dissecting one’s consciousness onto its integral components. And, this is exactly what Dr. Jekyll had done – after having liberated himself of perceptional artificialness, he realized the full extent of its own bestiality, as the essential part of his individuality. Moreover, after having drunk a potion, he also realized that he would never be able to return to his normal self. As Kevin Mills had rightly pointed out in his article “Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”: “Jekyll views his alter ego as enjoying an unprecedented freedom in his separation from the unified being” (Mills).
As it appears from the novel’s context, Dr. Jekyll’s continuous metamorphosis was also affecting his ability to operate with abstract categories, even in times when Mr. Hyde was nowhere near: “Jekyll tries to produce more serum so that he can control his spontaneous metamorphosis, but he is unable to do so, and he finally locks himself up in Hyde’s quarters” (Ferrer-Medina) – beastly individuals, affected by anthropological atavism, can indulge in a variety of different activities: they can “celebrate diversity”, they can explore their “spirituality”, they can practice “alternative sex style”, etc. One thing they cannot though is acting as facilitators of cultural and scientific progress, due to the fact that bestiality implies the absence of a rationally-based intellect.
Therefore, it would be wrong to think of ideas, contained in Stevenson’s novel, as being “retrograde” or “unscientific”, as many of today’s “progressive” literary critics imply. Anne Stiles’ article “Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde and the Double Brain” substantiates the validity of earlier suggestion, simply because, in it, the author had proven herself utterly ignorant as to what she was writing about: “Brain theory circulating during the nineteenth century posited that the left and right hemispheres of the brain could function independently” (Stiles).
Had the author bothered to read some contemporary literature on the subject of psychiatry, she would know that there is nothing “unscientific” about the idea that the brain’s hemispheres can function independently of each other. It is namely the fact that people’s irrational anxieties (originating in their brains’ left hemisphere) take over their sense of rationale, which accounts for mental inadequateness, on these people’s part.
Therefore, as we have stated earlier – there is nothing “unscientific” in how Stevenson went about describing the actual roots of mental pathologies. The realities of “multicultural” living invariably suggest that there are a lot of people out there who can only be formally referred to as humans, simply because despite their human-like appearance, these people’s mode of existence is being solely defined by their animalistic urges.
For example, it is utterly naïve to expect individuals, caught perpetrating gang-rape, to end up feeling sorry for what they had done. What differentiates Dr.Jekkyl/Mr. Hyde from natural-born criminals is that he had consciously chosen in favor of becoming an animal: “I had voluntarily stripped myself of all those balancing instincts by which even the worst of us continues” (Stevenson). Thus, the foremost message that Stevenson strived to convey by his work, can be articulated as follows: given the fact that the line that separates people’s animalistic-self from their human-self is being particularly thin, it represents a sin against the laws of evolution to consciously strive to embrace savageness.
As Ferrer-Medina had rightly noticed: “Human character is that both tendencies (animalistic and humane) are paired not in complement but in opposition to each other and held in fragile check” (Ferrer-Medina). Apparently, science can be used to serve two mutually exclusive purposes – to facilitate the process of people being rid of their savage instincts, while slowly attaining a status of semi-gods, or to allow otherwise civilized individuals to “explore their uniqueness”, at the expense of being deprived of their humanity.
Conclusion
In its turn, this explains Stevenson’s novel popularity – by being exposed to Dr.Jekyll’s metamorphosis, readers experience cognitive dissonance, due to the fact that the novel’s motifs correlate with their own deep-seated psychological fears, in regards to the issue of behavioral bestiality. As Kevin Mills had put it: “Culturally, the story of Jekyll and Hyde is divided by being simultaneously both familiar and unfamiliar” (Mills). According to Sigmund Freud’s theory of “uncanniness”, people become mentally disturbed when the validity of their otherwise forgotten irrational beliefs is being confirmed to them again.
Therefore, there can be very little doubt as to the fact that by reading “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, people get to realize what constitutes their own bestial urges, which allow them to relate to the novel’s motifs on a personal level, while never ceasing to remain disturbed by these motifs – they get to realize their own psychological duality, which fascinates and horrifies them at the same time. Such our suggestion corresponds to this paper’s initial thesis perfectly well – Stevenson’s novel should not be solely discussed as a work of particularly high literary, but also a scientific value.
Bibliography:
Ferrer-Medina, Patricia “Wild Humans: The Culture/Nature Duality in Marie Darrieussecq’s Pig Tales and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. The Comparatist, 31 (2007): 67-87. Print.
Mills, Kevin “Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Christianity and Literature. 53.3 (2004): 337-348. Print.
Oates, Joyce. Foreword. in “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde” by Stevenson, Robert Louis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Print.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. London: Dover Publications, 1991. Print.
Stiles, Anne “Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde and the Double Brain”. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 46.4 (2006): 879-900. Print.