Queer Theory In Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Madness and Mollyhouses: Queer Theory in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

“...[T]he same offence be from henceforth ajudged Felony,” said the Buggery Act of 1533. The offence, of course, was gay sex. It has never been easy to be a man who desires other men. In England, the punishment for sodomy was being hanged. Because of this, English authors frequently resorted to using subtext and coded language to explore homosexual relations in their country. This was especially true in the 19th century, a time of rapidly changing social mores and ideas about gender and relationships. It was a time when sex (of any sort) was not discussed in public, and women were supposed to remain at home. It was also a time when rapid industrialization meant more young men in the cities than ever before: it was both easier to meet other gay men and easier to feel immense guilt about being one. In Dr Jekyll

and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, a queer theory viewing shows the hidden homosexual subtext used to comment on the harshness of being a closeted gay man in 19th century England.
Dr Henry Jekyll is outwardly the perfect face of gentlemanly respectability, but hides his true desires deep within himself. These desires only arise when he becomes Mr Edward Hyde by means of an elixir. While under the influence of this drug, he commits actions that Dr Jekyll finds reprehensible:
The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde, they soon began to turn towards monstrous. When I would come back from these excursions, I often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity (Stevenson 43).
Dr Jekyll finds his actions under the influence of the potion “undignified”. He feels himself depraved. Yet, they are pleasures: and since Mr Hyde is Dr Jekyll, those are pleasures that Dr Jekyll enjoys, whether he wants to admit it or not. Dr Jekyll is a man in the closet. He only allows himself his homosexuality when he can pretend to be someone other than himself. It is similar to today to the man who can accept himself as gay when he is inebriated (and will partake in gay sex when he is in such a state), but when he is sober says that the alcohol made him do it. His desires are “monstrous” because he must disconnect himself from what he truly wants in order to feel good about himself. There is a conflict between his outer identity and his inner identity, and in order to maintain confidence in his outer identity he must disparage the inner one.
Being gay often comes with great guilt about exposing one’s homosexuality to others. Society views gay men as predatory, and so many feel that indeed they are. Henry Jekyll feels this way: he needs to cut himself off from his friends because he thinks he cannot contain himself. He tells the narrator that
...but I share his view that we must never meet. I mean from henceforth to lead a
life of extreme seclusion; you must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also
He views his homosexuality as a punishment.

If he were truly a good man, he would have restrained himself in heterosexuality. This was what good Victorian men were supposed to be, after all. Even Oscar Wilde married and had children. (Robert Louis Stevenson too married and had children, despite several instances of his seeming uninterested in his wife and his delight at men finding him attractive.) Furthermore, Jekyll does not feel he deserves companionship, because he is gay and so unworthy of partaking in the normal heterosexual male homosocial relationships.

The other reason for him to stay inside is because he knows that his desires will make his friends uncomfortable, and that they will view him as predatory. Dr Lanyon says as much to the narrator: "I wish to see or hear no more of Dr. Jekyll," he said in a loud, unsteady voice. "I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead." Henry Jekyll has effectively “come out” to Dr Lanyon, and he cannot deal with it. It makes him deeply uncomfortable, and so their friendship must

end.
Those deeply in the closet often present a front of homophobia, because they hate themselves. This is likely the case with Dr Lanyon. He is unmarried, and while confirmed bachelordom was not quite the obvious mark of homosexuality in the 1880s as it would be seventy years later, it is nonetheless suspicious. He has a very good relationship with Mr Udderson: they are “old friends” and they were “mates at both school and college”. This by itself is not perhaps particularly notable, except that they were also “men who thoroughly enjoyed each other's company”. Dr Lanyon cannot accept himself, so he cannot accept Dr Jekyll.