Victorian Psychology

In the Victorian ages, psychology and understanding human behavior became a new trend in itself. Thomas Carlyle, Henry Maudsley and James Sully through different views explain the dual personality of Jekyll and Hyde. Each explains a different part of the story and the author. The authors examine the fact that each person already has a dual personality however; most of them are subconscious while for some people that duality becomes reality. And each relate to the other to convey the idea behind dual personality.

Thomas Carlyle explained that the “Age of Romance never ceased” (The Age of Romance, pg 192). The romance here is a metaphor for passion and adventure. The author through this conveyed that the passion and adventure is a person never dies. “Why there are enough passions still great enough to replenish Bedlam” (The Age of Romance, pg 192), the author argues that there are many passion that are raving mad enough to fill an insane asylum. Through this statement the author portrays the intensity of the passions. The author then goes on to explain that “A passion that explosively shivers under the Life it took rise in ought to be regarded as considerable; more no passion, in the highest heyday of Romance yet did”, this personification of passion conveys that even the passion that a person wants to indulged in but cannot should also be considered and thus keeps the Romance alive. (The Age of Romance, pg 192).

The Double Brain by Henry Maudsley explains the way our brain functions and a theory as to why a person would have a dual personality. “To wit, how comes it to pass that the hemispheres of the brain, when dictating different movements, yet an understanding in common and work together to a common end. They are organs of one body- two like structures molded on one stem- in the organic life of which their basic unity lies” (The Double Brain, pg 194), he explains that the brain works as one unit even though it has two hemispheres. The functions of both the brains help the whole body to work. The metaphor of the stem is the spinal cord, which helps in connecting the nerve impulses of both the parts of the brain to connect with the body. Through this explanation of the working of the brain the Maudsley explains the phenomenon of dual personality through a metaphor to help the reader understand the repercussions.

The author believed that there are two main types of mental disorders “mania and melancholia” (The Double Brain, pg 194). He believed that mania is something wherein the former “there is a great exaltation of self with answering lively display thereof in thought, feeling and conduct- phenomena witnessing to a generally brisk and easy reflex action” (The Double Brain, pg 194). And said that ‘The maniac never feels the least doubt in himself’, and this is the description of Hyde. While the later type of mental disorder is described as “great depression of self with answering sluggish expression of thought, feeling and conduct- phenomena witnessing to dull, slow and inert reflex function” (The Double Brain, pg 195). And “The melancholic feels and laments that he is not himself, that he and things around him are changed and unreal, that he and things around him are changed and unreal, that he is another self or in subjection to another self, when his main affliction is a loss of faith in self… mental ability to realize self and its correlative loss of hold on the not-self, as being due to the failure of the organic driving force” (The Double Brain, pg 195), through these descriptions the author shows the paradox between Jekyll and Hyde. Furthermore, the descriptions of the mental disorders also are the base of the explanation that the author gives for dual personality: “Let the supposition be of such a convulsive action of the limbs of one side only; what would be the revelation then? Of a self- bound to another self, which was hindering and opposing it- of a self-divided against itself, a distracted or double self. Both in movements and in mental function is the unity of a double organization” (The Double Brain, pg 196), here the author explains the duality of the brain and that one side overpowers the other however, both the hemispheres still oppose each other leading to ‘disintegration of self’ (The Double Brain, pg 196). The author explains that due to such integration one of the hemispheres sees the real object and the other sees the unreal object, however both seem ‘vivid’ enough. And thus due to this “judgment and will necessarily be equally lamed and deranged” (The Double Brain, pg 197), and this is because both the hemispheres do not work as a whole. After reading both the passages the reader could connect the fact that Maudsley descriptively explains the passion that Carlyle explained.

James Sully gave another explanation of Dual personality. However, he did this through explaining the dual nature of a person’s conscious. He argued that a person always had dual personality due to the nature of a person’s subconscious. Through “The Dream as Revelation”, he explains that dreaming awakens that subconscious, which when awake the subconscious is suppressed. “It recognizes and seeks to account for the irrational side of dream-life. At the same time it regards this life as an extension of human experience as a revelation of what would otherwise never have been known”(The Dream as Revelation, pg 204), the author indicates that modern science theory wants to be able to explore the subconscious mind, as it is something that was discovered recently in that time period. “It strips the ego of its artificial wrappings and exposes it in its rude native nudity” (The Dream as Revelation, pg 205), through this personification the author conveyed that the part that mediates between the conscious and subconscious is removed and all is merged into one. ‘Rude native nudity’, parallels with the explanation of ‘reversion to a more primitive type of experience”. The ‘rude native nudity’, also means that the revelation that the subconscious mind is without any boundaries and goes into your darkest and deepest thoughts. Through this the author explains that this experience is due to the fact that “sleeps in one means of stupefying the supreme controlling organs. Hence in sleep we have a reversion to a more primitive type of experience”. (The Dream as Revelation, pg 205) Thus, the author explains that humans have a conscious and subconscious mind. And while sleeping we are exposed to our second side of our personality.

Furthermore, James Sully also looks at the possibility of hypnosis triggering a person’s dual personality. He explains, “In the hypnotic trance it is possible to blot out from the subject’s mind all that has occurred in his experience” (The Dream as Revelation, pg 206). Hence, the author expresses that “the proposition that the soundest men undergo changes of personality may well strike the reader as paradoxical; yet the paradox is only on the surface” (The Dream as Revelation, pg 206). Through the phrase “yet the paradox is only on the surface”, the author explains that every person has a conscious and a subconscious. And that subconscious can either be awakened through your dreams or through hypnosis. And humans go through “re-transformation” and thus the “pattern of our consciousness is ever being re-formed” (The Dream as Revelation, pg 206).

These different causes of “dual personality”, give the reader an insight on not only the character Mr. Jekyll but also the author itself. As the author himself confessed that the story came to him in a dream. These revelations give the reader a broader aspect on the subject of dual personality. And thus would feel more comfortable about their dual personalities instead of shunning them. In Conclusion, ever author All the three views give a interesting view of the book which, help the reader to connect to the character of Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Citations:

1. Carlyle, Thomas. "The Age of Romance". In The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2005

2. Maudsley, Henry. "The Double Brain". In The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2005

3. Sully, James. "The Dream as Revelation". In The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2005