Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Analysis

Old Ways, New Encounters
Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is also known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is a mental condition that causes an individual to demonstrate multiple personalities, each distinct and different in the environment that they are in. Typically, each personality doesn’t remember what the others did while influencing their behavior. The symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorders are similar to other psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia. Symptoms of this disorder include sudden and uncaused anger. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, [The] Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the characterization of multiple personalities in the same individual, dissociative identity disorder (DID), is demonstrated through

It must have been this, I suppose, that stirred in my soul that tempest of impatience with which I listened to the civilities of my unhappy victim; I declare, at least, before God, no man morally sane could have been guilty of that crime upon so pitiful a provocation;” (56). It is evident that Jekyll feels guilt for the actions that are made when he is Hyde, but he also knows that he has no control over what he does because he is the impulsive side of his own self. Even though he may be conscious, there is nothing he can do to overpower the personality in control and this makes him doubtful of his own ego because he cannot control it whenever he desires and has to experience this insane behaviour first hand without any way of reciprocating. Ultimately, Dr. Jekyll recognizes the intensity of his situation and decides to try and counteract the effects of the potion by taking another dose. Jekyll has had no idea what he was dealing with from the very beginning of creating this potion and this leads to the overthrow of his alter ego and the complete overtaking of his conscious mind. “ It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both;”

Jekyll faces all of the emotional harm that Mr. Hyde causes and ultimately that leads Jekyll to involuntarily and permanently become Mr. Hyde, leading to a life-altering decision in order to rid evil from the world. By taking a double dose, the effects were devastating and lead to the complete depersonalization and deindividualization of Dr. Jekyll. Stevenson illustrates, “All things therefore seemed to point to this: that I was slowly losing hold of the original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse,” (55). Jekyll feels as though all of this is his fault and therefore, he needs to fix it. Since it has already gone out of what he can control, he knows that is important to take grand measures in order to get rid of this issue. The other characters in the novella contribute to this by validating Jekyll’s strangeness and making him feel responsible for the terror that has been created by Mr. Hyde. By being blamed and accused for not being himself, it’s easy for him to not feel accepted by others and this frustration is expressed through the personality of Mr. Hyde and his actions. Once Mr. Hyde overpowers Dr. Jekyll completely, it is completely overwhelming, and he cannot go back to his normal self. “This is my true hour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself. Here then, ... I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end,” Stevenson writes (62). Jekyll decides the only way to end this inhumaneness is by