Outcomes (Things demanded at college) Beyond Literature: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde allied to Cinema

The truth behind the personalities: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a comparison between Literature and Cinema.

Thiago dos Santos Almeida¹

Analyzing the personality of one person, even one character, is difficult in a various ways. It is necessary a huge dose of attention in order to identify the hidden character’s personality meanings. In Stevenson’s work, the human duality is shown through the repressed conventions of Mr. Hyde in face of society, which turns him in a very violent persona. 

            The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  by Robert Louis Stevenson deals with this situation and, on one hand, there is a man who accepts the rules of society and in the other hand, there is a total rebellion

against these very same rules. We can also think these ideas may seem confusing; however there is a narrow connection between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde since these personalities belong directly to one person. Even in their names, there are hidden references about their characteristics, Jekyll which means I kill and Hyde referring to something hidden inside of us.

            Although these two characters may have different features, they share the same person and this point needs to be explained. It is known that people, along their lives, develop characteristic traces which will be basis for their formation but this does not mean that they cannot have lack in personality, in other words, they may act differently face to extreme situations. Apparently, in the plot, we have a person that changes his behavior, points of view and beliefs and instead becomes a violent cruel person.

            Jekyll is considered to be a kind man:

(…) To this rule, Dr. Jekyll was no exception; and as he now sat on the opposite side of the fire – a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness – you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection.(…) page 12.

            Nevertheless, it seems that Dr. Jekyll is not so confident about himself and there is the need of being someone else, Mr. Hyde, which occurs by drinking a certain potion created by Dr. Jekyll himself:

(…) I compounded the elements, watched them boil and smoke together in the glass, (…) with a strong glow of the courage, drank off the potion.(…) (…) I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a ready recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a mill race in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul(…) page 44.

            This other half is result of the repressed beliefs and the feeling of guilt that surround Dr. Jekyll. In a certain way, this other person was nothing but all his hidden wills and wishes that Dr. Jekyll could not expose - which were disguised in order to avoid other’s judgment. In the midst of this confusion, Dr. Jekyll -who was constantly pressed by society-, needed to prove that he was capable of, not only doing things for his own, breaking those chains that were attaching him to conventions that did not belong to him, using Mr. Hyde as a scapegoat for his behaviors.

            However, Dr. Jekyll was not concerned about his other half until he knows that Hyde was not alike him. It is important to say that these differences were not only psychological, there was a physical difference giving this other half a particular characteristic:

(…) Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression of deformity without any namable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice (…) (…) The last, I think, for, O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend. (…) pg 10.

            When Mr. Hyde murders Danvers Carew, Dr. Jekyll starts a fight not to direct his thoughts to this other half, but the more he tried, the more Hyde was becoming part of him. Mr. Hyde was so in control that Dr. Jekyll was not able to deal with him: at that point, Mr. Hyde was in command and consuming Dr. Jekyll’s mind. This situation leads Dr. Jekyll to take extreme steps and the only way of stopping Mr. Hyde’s uncontrolled behavior was to finish the only thing that allows Mr. Hyde to appear: destroying the same body they shared, so Dr. Jekyll decides to kill himself.           

As far as it can tell, the changes of humor, even behaviors, are typical of people and the person must be able to balance them. As in a roller coaster, personalities can change suddenly, being high or low, and it is necessary control in order to avoid bad consequences.

            Bringing the plot to a modern point of view, The Urban Chillers Film released, in 2005, a film based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s work named Jekyll + Hyde. The story follows the same route as the literature work and deals with Jekyll’s experiences with a new drug created by himself. In the movie, Jekyll (played by Bryan Fisher) relates on a videotape all the side effects and changes in behavior the drug causes him and as a result, his cruel side arises showing a different side of him, Hyde.           

            In the first scene of the movie, Jekyll wakes up and finds a bloodstained girl in his bathtub and, at the very moment, the girl wakes up and Jekyll kills her by suffocating.

           

Picture 1: Scene 1, when Jekyll finds out about the girl in his bathroom.

He does not know what to do² and then takes the drug (Scene 5) because the other half of him was capable of deal with this situation³ and gets rid of the girl.

           

Picture 2: Scene 5, when Jekyll takes the drug.

           

            Here there is an important contrast between work and film, once after taking the drug these bad characters are able to control and mold situations, and this feature is not seen in the good ones.

            As the drugs experiments go by, there is a total dependency of Jekyll in becoming Hyde, the self-esteem is now involved because, in a certain time of his life, he wanted to be accepted[5]. Again, the rules of society imposing certain orders end up containing what it is inside of a human being, causing the perfection opposition between these two personalities. These experiments, little by little, change his character turning him into a sadist killer.

            As the same way in the literature, the only way of finish the problem is through Jekyll’s suicide. In the movie there is also the fact that he is love with Martha (Bree Turner) and Hyde wants to kill her. In order to avoid this, Jekyll recorded his suicide and begging pardon for everything.[6]

            Picture 3: Scene 13, Jekyll’s suicide.

            At last, it is necessary to remind the importance of Stevenson’s work for Literature and through the psychological path, there is the connection that, combined with the analysis of the characters – which, in this essay, was based on the comparison between Literature and Cinema-, allowed us to go deeper into the human psyche in a way that affected society and the perception of the people as well.

References

           

STEVENSON, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 1^st edition. New York: Dover Thrift Editions, 1991.

JEKYLL + HYDE. Nick Stillwell. Canada, Urban Chillers Films Ltd. 2005. DVD (97 minutes).

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[1]  Undergratuate at Universidade Federal do Ceará taking the fourth semester of Letras degree.

[2] “So here I am, afraid to move. Have no idea who she was or how she got there.”

[3] “But I know what I have to do. When I bring back Hyde, when I take the drug… everything’s ok.”

[4] “Disposing of a human body is never easy, unless you can tell where to start.”

[5] “They dream in school that how you play the game is all that matters but that’s not true. Who cares who comes is second? Winning is why you play the game and it’s all that is: beating the other guy. Without that, you’re nothing. I’m not gonna come in second anymore.”

[6] “I can hear you outside the tunnel. Please, Martha, don’t judge me too harshly. All I ever wanted to be was somebody else. When an experiment fails, you terminate it. If I don’t… If I did not kill myself now, I would kill you Martha! And God knows I love you more than life itself, I’m so sorry Martha.”

Outcomes (Things demanded at college) LiTeRaTuRe - Power in women's character

This essay was demanded as part of the English Literature III discipline, in which two short stories are analysed: The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, and Sultana’s Dream by Begum Rokeya. I tried to connect both short stories throughout the influence women have in society and how strong they are in order to achieve their goals.

Women who chase and fight for their ideals are always represented in Literature. In fact, these women display power, courage, and a massive will of being part of the world; most of them sacrifice what society considers a “comfortable life” in order to achieve their goals. In The Gift of The Magi (1905 by O. Henry) it is noticeable how strong a woman can be; the female character Della is willing to give away her most precious belonging in order to buy her husband a nice Christmas gift.

O. Henry

            Della is a beautiful woman with such a pretty long hair, it is so precious that “had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts.” Some women consider the fact of having long hair as a way to demonstrate femininity in society and, based on that, Della goes to a store and sells locks of her beautiful hair to a wig shop.

            By doing so, Della not only shows her sacrifice but how far she can go for love. Her act is sincere and honest and, because of that, she is a strong woman who is capable of anything to get what she wants, even though sacrifice is involved.

            On the contrary, in Sultana’s dream (Begum Rokeya, 1905) a certain society is ruled by women tired of being mistreated and neglected. The strength that bonds these women together is the key to create a society in which women have their opinions and questions heard. Based on education and science, these women were capable of demonstrating their power by creating modern ways of defending their place.

 According to the short story, “women’s brains are somewhat quicker than men’s” and they were capable of living in harmony, sharing knowledge, science and power among women. Men would just laugh at what they considered “a sentimental nightmare”, however, women were engaged in scientific research and that was the way women demonstrated their power.

            These women are strong once they have demonstrated their strength in different ways. It does not matter if it is throughout sacrifice or education and knowledge, the fact is these women imposed themselves and accomplished their goals.

Outcomes (Things demanded at college) Racism in Brazil

The following essay was a demand of the discipline I took last semester. In the discipline, students were supposed to analyse short stories and express their opinions. This essay was based on one short story in which the theme was racism, especifically racism in Brazil.

In a country with such a big extension in territory as Brazil, with different people and very diverse cultural aspects, it would be wise to think of plurality as a way of bringing people together. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening once, nowadays, there are cases of people being mistreated and oppressed because of their skin color, gender and sexuality. Some rights that were supposed to guarantee these people’s citizenship are not respected.

            Racism has been an issue of such controversy, not only in Brazil but around the world. In the case of Brazil, which population was originated by miscegenation of Black-Indian-Portuguese people, it is revolting to imagine how some groups create their racist discourse. Allied to this, there is a racism-culture that has been passed throughout generations which corroborates with many cases of people being killed, murdered, denied of their rights, oppressed and humiliated. The problems is that people try to ignore this, however, racism is so enclosed in society that, for some, it is considered “natural”.

            How can this be considered natural? In work, most of black people gain 36% less than the “non-black community” (according to Dieese – Departamento Intersindical de Estatística e Estudos Socioeconômicos); regarding violence, according to Brazil Government’s diagnosis presented at CONJUVE – Conselho Nacional de Juventude, in 2010, 70,6% of homicide victims are black. Surveys have demonstrated how, in this case, black community suffers with the government omission.

            All this considered, there is also the problem of identity in which many groups – women, black, gay and so on – are not accepted by most people of society. Thus, omission of governors has given the fact that they actually do not care about it, which makes people try to “hide” their personality. Some people from these minority groups are forced to deny what society, religion and morality consider “not standard” enclosing these groups to “pass” as something they are not.

           These are issues that must be discussed and given attention, it is necessary to take some steps to avoid and decrease racism in Brazil and around the globe. Education and appreciation of culture are the first measures to be taken in order to overcome this issue that ravage our country.

Outcomes (Things demanded at college) Book review: Triste fim de Policarpo Quaresma by Lima Barreto

 In Triste fim de Policarpo Quaresma, Major Policarpo Quaresma is a vainglorious person who tends to the exacerbated nationalism, with crazy ideas to rescue the Brazilian identity. He believes that Brazil should impose upon Nationalist Revolution and he seeks futilely memories with an old woman who could not remember even the lullabies of his childhood. Despite this, Quaresma goes on to suggest that the Tupi-Guarani should  be accepted as the official language of Brazil and, because of that, he ends up as a cause for mockery in his social environment. His nationalism is seen as utopia for people and this utopia led him to death.

The author, Lima Barreto strongly criticizes      society and costums, covering social differences and prejudices of the time. It is seen as a work of natural reaction of the man who came from suburb classes reacting as a simple suburban. The xenophobia Lima Barreto faced in his own life is transmited throughout the book in characters as such Ricardo das Almas, an acoustic guitar songwriter who helps Quaresma to play modinha - a type of sentimental love song.

By purchasing  his “quiet place” ( as a way of running away from the people who did not understand his wish to save and clean the homeland from external influence), Quaresma suffers with taxes and ants which attack his crops and, because of that, he ultimately engages in a battle alongside republican president Floriano Peixoto. This is a crucial part of the book in which many events lead to the climax.

The work is repetitive and tiresome, but it serves as a moral lesson to people who do not fight for their ideals. A Major Quaresma would not ever make the difference, but millions would; if every Brazilian who read the book granted a tenth of the same love Quaresma felt and fought for their rights, surely Brazil would be very different.

 Lima Barreto criticized everything that concerned the process of modernization in Brazil, being one of the innovators of Brazilian literature and, with his writing, and with the themes addressed in his work, he brought up the everyday prejudice and racial and social marginalization. He also saw literature saw literature as a way to denounce all the hypocrisy that prevailed in urban and rural classes of Rio de Janeiro.