In early January of 1886, Scottish writer and poet Robert Louis Stevenson published The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. While it was an immediate success, it's hard to say whether Stevenson foresaw just how influential his work would become over the following century. It has been reproduced in films, plays, and other interpretations; it has effectively become a literary innuendo referring to someone's Id as Hyde and superego as Jekyll. Thanks to the many layers of this novella, it has been analyzed from practically every angle: including literary, historical, social, philosophical, and psychological perspectives. Some of the more common themes that are explored are split-personality disorder, homosexuality, and a combination of the Id, ego, and superego with Darwin’s emerging theories of evolution. While Dr. Jekyll is marked by his profound duplicity, the lack of prominent female characters does lend to homoerotic inclinations, and Hyde’s ape-like description can lend itself to the later Freudian theories of man's animalistic tendencies being titled “id,” I think that these interpretations are missing a crucial piece of the puzzle that is Dr. Jekyll. He is a man of destructive attachments, someone who the fangs of chemical dependence have bitten. Through understanding this we will finally begin to see who Henry Jekyll truly is– a man whose pre-existing, maladaptive behaviors, mixed with the consumption of the undisclosed substance in the high moralist Victorian society, have forced him to falsely assess his illness as something separate from who he believes he really is.
Let it be said that Henry Jekyll is an addict and a very severe case at that. It is a flawed estimation of man to claim he has a darker side that is separate from what he truly is. It is frequent for the addict to make these estimations of himself because he is unable to face his addiction– to admit would be to prove the addict is dependent and not independent, which was expected of each other in Victorian society. And Henry Jekyll, a man of such class and prestige, does not allow himself to believe this other person, an addict, is truly him. He believes that when he wants, he can rid himself of his addiction, it is his choice he claims to Utterson, “[T]o put your good heart at rest, I will tell you one thing: the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde” (Stevenson, 22). Even in his own personal confessions he genuinely believes, “I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two…It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness…It was the curse of mankind that these incongruous faggots were thus bound together” (Stevenson, 62). However, as we know, Jekyll is unable to rid himself of his addiction, he succumbs to the fullest extent and loses himself entirely. Even in those dying moments, we see he cannot recognize and take responsibility for Hyde, indicating the enormity of his dependence. One could even say, that Jekyll’s irresponsibility of Hyde, shows that despite all claims of the contrary, Jekyll loves being Hyde. The continued, whether delusional or intended, claims of the two being separate beings, allow Jekyll’s super ego to remain unharmed from this addiction since it’s not a psychological problem, but a moral one.
More often than not, we see literary criticism of this novella about the duality of man or the split personality in Jekyll and Hyde. However, the true duality being portrayed here is of Utterson and Jekyll. Utterson, a man of refined moderation, and Jekyll, a man dependent on chemicals that alter his mind, body, and spirit, are the antithesis of one another. Certain details of Utterson that are told go so far as describing the man as one with no true desire, “He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify his taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theater, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove” (Stevenson, 5) Observing Jekyll from the abstained perspective that is Utterson, helps us to put Jekyll’s addicted state in context. Let’s not forget that this is Victorian-era literature, and at this time there are huge social standards to live up to; when relating to substance use, extreme moderation is the rule of thumb. The way Utterson attempts to understand who Hyde is, and why Jekyll associates so closely with him– the man has a key to his house for goodness sake– symbolizes Victorian society attempting to understand the prevalence of addiction. At the time, seriously addictive substances like opium, alcohol, and even marijuana were becoming much more prevalent– even used by the author of this novella– which led to Stevenson making this societal commentary.
Addiction's most common form is cyclical: An emotional trigger or preoccupation, the ritual, the compulsive behavior, and despair in sobriety– a perfect summation of Jykell’s addicted state. In the later half of the novella, Jekyll goes through a full addiction cycle that ends in his death. Jekyll is perpetually preoccupied with the effects that a narcotic produces, leading him to be in the mindset of preparation constantly. When stowed away in his room, sending Lanyon and Poole out in the markets in search of an illicit substance, Jekyll divorces himself from all responsibilities aside from those that play a role in obtaining the chemical compound. One can tell Jekyll’s fascination for his ritual, which amplifies the psychological effects of the drug– the most addictive part, is, whether he can admit it or not, is the pride he feels when reminiscing on his revolutionary scientific concoction. We see this becomes much more severe in the depths of his addiction when professing his scientific superiority to Lanyon; the magnitude of Jekyll’s chemical compound’s effects would “stagger the unbelief of Satan” (Stevenson, 59). Jekyll loves being the fearful and fascinating mystery that is Hyde. These reflections are the ritual that gives Jekyll his psychological satisfaction. While all four steps of the cyclical addiction process are crucial to understanding Jekyll and his dependency, it’s the compulsive behavior that defines the cycle as addictive. Through the previous two steps of preparation and ritualization, Jekyll can act out his compulsive behavior to the fullest extent: "He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table, and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arms raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror” (Stevenson, 60). Whether it be a sick sense of pride or superiority in his forbidden science, simply being relieved from the societal pressures of being a prestigious character in the Victorian era, or both, Jekyll is addicted and loves it. However, despite the physical changes, Jekyll seems to derive most of his chemical compound effects psychologically and not physically, which leads to his enhanced mental state being so momentary, allowing the dark and depressing effects of reality to hit quickly, and hard. Sobriety becomes increasingly difficult for Jekyll to come to terms with the more he does in Hyde’s shoes– he can’t seem to stop succumbing to the inherent sensations that transformation enables for him. However, this is quite ironic because, in the sober state that completes Jekyll’s addiction cycle, he feels shame in the highest sense of the word– he is exhausted from the tiresome cycle that his addiction has become. It is common for the addict to feel immense remorse and self-hatred as a response to the severity of his misdeeds- the lapse in his moral code. For Jekyll, when this reality emerges after the intense high, that he will be caught, his secret life will be found out, suicidal thoughts are the first that come to his mind. We see in his confession, that he is overwhelmed with the despair that sobriety brings, “It is useless, and the time awfully fails me…no one has ever suffered such torments…a certain acquiescence of despair…for the last calamity which has now fallen, and which has finally severed me from my own face and nature…I shall sit shuddering and weeping in my chair… I am careless; this is my true hour of death…I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.” (Stevenson,77 & 78) and the emotions of losing control of Hyde drive him to suicide– the ultimate action of one in complete and utter despair.
Doubtless, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde "will strike contemporary readers as a characteristically Victorian moral parable" as described by Joyce Carol Oates. This conclusion was initially suggested by reviewers soon after Stevenson's novel was published. However, identifying broad, morally ambiguous qualities that define good and evil, and presuming they are distinct in the characters of Jekyll and Hyde, oversimplifies complex value categories by basing them on specific behaviors. Regardless, to assume that Jekyll represents "good" while Hyde embodies "evil" is to forget that Hyde is but the consequence of Jekyll's experiments in forbidden science; he is Jekyll.