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Stevenson Notes (ENGL 221)
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Stevenson Notes (ENGL 221)
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Lecture: Continuing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeMarch 14th, 2022
The Gothic
Both Rossetti and Stevenson’s works are considered gothic, albeit very different
● The Gothic: a repository for the “unspeakable” things that don’t have a place in the
mainstream. Often a place for women’s writing and narratives of marginalized people
Unconscious versus Subconscious
Subconscious: putting something to the side, forgetting something “accidentally, on purpose”
Unconscious: not knowable to us, comes through slips of the tongue
● That which is repressed, that which we must hide, in order to become “civilized”
According to Freud, how could we become “civilized” if we went around answering our desires?
● According to Freud, the unconscious is what we must put aside to develop civilization
● The unconscious has explanatory power, but we can’t point to the unconscious
Others argue that the brain is instrumental and has no capacity for explaining the unexplainable
● Literature always seems to be able to anticipate what seems to be unconscious and what
seems to be frightening about the unconscious
● What is animal in us and easily provoked, whether it be sexual or animalistic, if we were
to act according to our desires, we’d be ruined, killing each other
● The unconscious informs who we are
The 19th Century and Dual Identities
The 19th century was obsessed with the idea of dual identities, or “double” selves.
● Jekyll: spoke to the fact that “I may be multiple,” that “I wasn’t singular”
● The interests of the literary gothic in doppelgangers explores the psychopathological
nature of man – Stevenson owes a lot to Frankenstein
This is something that is at the heart of gothic writers’ anxiety
● Fear of losing control, social anxiety in class and excellent standing (Dr. Jekyll); keeping
appearances (part of it is about what is hidden in class relationships; what is hidden in the
upper classes and what they conspire to keep hidden); moral anxiety because of the
desires that Dr. Jekyll expresses; fear of the ‘slippery slope’ or degeneration
Historical Context
This was written a few centuries after Darwin’s “Descent of Man,” which traced the history of
man to a few apes – questioned biblical authority, a lot of people feared evolution.
● The Church: read scientific ideas in context with the Bible, with the writings as symbolic
● Some resistance to the idea that we could share a common ancestry with apes
○ The idea of evolution brings the idea of devolution
● Figure of perverse violence: Hyde chooses to live in a seedy part of town, what was
represented by Hogarth (where the prostitutes lived, lots of drinking and drugs)
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