Resonance of Freudian Psychodynamic Concepts in R. L. Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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Abstract
This research work studies R.L. Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the psychoanalytical point of view. It explores the repressed psyche of the character which returns through the means of horror story. The fear about the future becomes repressed in the psyche of the main character Dr. Jekyll. He is a split personality; he embraces both good as well as evil qualities which are exposed in different conditions. People in a normal condition they seem good and gentle, and when they are intoxicated they snow their true identity i.e. full of cruelty and irrationality. The major character of the novel, Dr. Jekyll has two personalities: Dr. Jekyll (a good and professional physician) and Mr. Hyde (an evil and murderous character). Drug plays a major role to separate them from good to evil and vice versa. In the Freudian point of view these two distinct personalities of the same person representing two different aspects of human psyche i.e. conscious and unconscious. Stevenson by describing the split identity of the character portrays the tendency of repressing excessive desire in the contemporary society. They seem outwardly respectable, but inwardly are immoral and encompassed by dual characters like: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is the psychic state that the research focuses on.