Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

I will make a case for it

Whether it is a case for Freudian psychoanalysis or a “slight” critique to Darwin’s Origin of Speices

I will make it a case for a view i have obtained, from analyzing it through Freudian analytical Methods (which are used to analyze 1800s gothic novels, on the subliminal messages, and the uncanny nature of gothic literature, sexual undercurrents and stuff like that.

To me it feels like what is often ignored, and often overlooked, is the climate of 1800s and what books of science was released then not only Freud’s theory on psychoanalysis, but also Darwin’s Origins of Species. To me i can definitely see the connection of how the mind works and how it was thought to work might have influenced works of fiction, in the contemporary time as Stevenson wrote SCoDJaMH, as it is a very psychological book, very much scenery is about the uncanny, the unexpected, the surprises, the sublime nature, of psychology and its alien force. Contemporary (or earlier) to that time, Darwin delivered the power-slam, with hes Origin of Species, which created a debacle.

I believe Stevenson as a early student of law (or medicine ) (unsure about this) might have secretly (not publicly) shared Darwin’s view, also as an avid sailor and Explorer, he might even have a sympathy to how Darwin obtained his theories, ( I just imagine and thinking’s it influenced the personality of Henry Jekyll. he wants to create a potion that opens up that animal within him, he transforms into a more apelike appearance, something uncanny, something violent and almost supernatural. It is contemporary to the notion of time and critique of Darwin’s Exploration, is Jekyll the voice of society or the voice of Darwin, in the sense of the temperature surrounding the topic in 1850s and onwards.

I believe this is a overlooked side of the book. I might be way of in my assessment, but i felt this was a case when i read it, might be a tiny insignificant case, but to me it felt sound enough. Like a tiny chime of something to loom up with my invisible binoculars.

I find I theme I would call, The animal from within, as a theme to the story, and how we all has that animalistic nature, inside, us as something not of divine heritage, but of earthly and wild nature.

“This was the first time that an involuntary metamorphosis had happened in waking hours. Far from the chemicals in his laboratory and now hunted by the police as a murderer, Hyde needed help to avoid being caught. He wrote to Lanyon (in Jekyll's hand), asking his friend to retrieve the contents of a cabinet in his laboratory and to meet him at midnight at Lanyon's home in Cavendish Square. In Lanyon's presence, Hyde mixed the chemicals, drank the draught, and transformed back into Jekyll. The shock of the sight, for which Lanyon condemned Jekyll and declared the two former friends irredeemably estranged, instigated Lanyon's deterioration and death”.  (Quote from wiki)

This is the strongest scene in the book imo, the share moment of uncanny sensation of the transformation that takes place.