Psychological criticism used towards the story The Strange Case of Dr Term Paper

Psychological criticism used towards the story The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde - Term Paper Example In her book Routledge Critical Thinkers: Sigmund Freud, Pamela Thurschwell dwells more deeply on the conception of the human psyche, that is, Freud’s iceberg metaphor. She explains the struggle between the Id, Ego and Superego in the following manner: a. Id: Basic needs - it is all about me. Not reality based. b. Ego: Reality based or alters reality to justify his actions. c. Superego: Social programming - what is acceptable for the character - morality and conscience. (81-83) This particular piece of fiction by Stevenson is most commonly associated with the rare mental condition often referred to as â€Å"split personality† disorder, where there exist two distinct personalities within the same person. This notion is also connected to the so called â€Å"doppelganger† motif, which represents a tangible double of a living person that typically represents evil, a notion which predates Freud’s concept of the repressed, unconscious alter ego. The doppelganger represents the narrator’s attempt to project an inner evil into the outside world, which is exactly the case with Jekyll. This idea has been widely used in literature, ranging from authors and works like Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"William Wilson,† Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s â€Å"The Double† and many others, whose protagonists find their identical nemesis in a psychological self-splitting process. This notion centers on the conception of humanity as dual in nature, even though the readers become fully aware of this in the last chapter, when the true story of Jekyll and Hyde emerges before them. Until the very end of the novella, these two characters seem nothing alike, and one can by no means make the connection between the well liked, respectable doctor Jekyll and the indescribably hideous and disfigured appearance of Hyde: â€Å"He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with  his appearance; s omething displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point. He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir; I can make no hand of it; I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.† (Stevenson 12) When Enfield relates to Utterson how he watched Hyde trample a little girl underfoot. Utterson asks his friend to describe Hyde’s appearance, but Enfield, as the quote indicates, proves unable to formulate a clear portrait.  This lack of eloquence does not mean that he did not see him clearly. Quite the contrary, the image of Hyde is branded into his mind as he speaks, yet he fails to articulate Hyde’s ugliness and deformity. This creates the impression of Hyde as being almost intangible, m ysterious, beyond words, just as he is beyond morality and conscience. Viewed as an almost supernatural creation, he is not of this world, and correspondingly, he manages to evade the comprehensive faculties of human beings. He represents the evil