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Superego In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Decent Essays

Sigmund Freud’s theory containing the id, ego, and superego play a big role in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Sigmund Freud’s theory clarifies the personality traits that were expressed through the main characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The id stands for a character who has no control on his or her impulses. The ego stands for a reconcile personality within a character. Last, the superego is a character who is rational with his or her situations. The id would be Mr. Hyde because Mr. Hyde is publicized as an irrational character within this novella. The superego would symbolize Dr. Jekyll, since Dr. Jekyll is sane, compared to Mr. Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson, using Sigmund Freud’s theory, published The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to develop the two …show more content…

Since he commits crimes throughout the novella, his character defines him as a heartless being. In an attempt in describing the reader the appearance of Mr. Hyde, Saposnik says, “Hyde crouches menacingly-hairy, grimacing, unkempt,” (88). Another character in the book, Mr. Enfield, also describes Mr. Hyde as a person who you’d hate just by looking at his appearance. However, his appearance isn’t as bad as his actions. Stevenson wrote in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, “And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing with his cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman” (60) to give a clear image of how Mr. Hyde reacts randomly. The audience witnessed Mr. Hyde break out into an angry madman, which definitely gives the readers a hint that Mr. Hyde’s personality—along with his actions—is as deadly as a bomb. Since Mr. Hyde is known as the id, it is only fair that he is mentioned as a sinful person because he shows his id by committing crimes. This proves that Dr. Jekyll’s character differs from the character of Mr.

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