The problems of Self and especially of Divided Self was the topic of special interest in the literature of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Late Victorian theories of naturalism and its concerns with the relationship between the individual and society, and also the evolving science of psychoanalysis with its focus on man’s inner self influenced the development of the Decadent Gothic, which found delight in degeneration, corruption and decline. Some writers of the period used the motif of doppelganger (Ger. ghost) creating heroes who were versions of Frankenstein’s monster (the usurpation of the power of the creator) and Byronic vampire (Sikorska 2002: 311).
The hero of Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890) is often called ‘Faustus like’ (Burgess 1996:207) because, as one of his former lovers and victims comments seeing him after eighteen years unchanged and still young and handsome, “he has sold himself to the devil for a pretty face”(Wilde 1994:221) . Dorian Gray is exquisitely handsome, and when he sees his portrait painted by Bazil Hallward and becomes aware of his beauty, he dreams of remaining young forever while his painted image grows old and, in a sudden moment, he offers his soul in return for perpetual youth. While his beauty remains unblemished, the portrait begins to reflect the wilderness and degradation of his soul as he surrenders to a worship of pleasure and infinite passion. Dorian is not bad by nature but the germs of evil that are present in every man’s soul, give growth to his vanity making a sinful monster of him. Dorian rightfully sees portrait as the cause of all his misfortunes, but this realization only makes him even more sinful as he kills the painter, Bazil Hallward , who comes to visit Dorian and who was the only person who learns the secret of the portrait:
“Having reached the door, he turned the key, and opened it. He did not even glance at the murdered man. He felt that the secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation. The friend who had painted 70
Oscar Wilde’s taste for the macabre and the Gothic, which are the properties of “Dorian Gray” (1890), finds parallels in a number of other works of the period, including R. L. Stevenson’s “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”(1886) and “The Master of Ballantrae” (1889),H.G.Wells’ “Island of Dr Moreau” (1896), Bram Stoker’s “Drakula” (1897), J.Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”(1902).
The most vividly shown opposition of Good Self and Bad Self as well as the underlying suggestion that evil is potentially more powerful than good, can be found in the novella “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” by R.L.Stevenson which is the disturbing tale of the dual personality of Dr Jekyll, a physician. A generous and philanthropic man, he is preoccupied with the problems of good and evil and with the possibility of separating them into distinct personalities. He develops a drug that transforms him into demonic Mr. Hyde, in whose person he exhausts all the latent evil in his nature. He also creates an antidote that will restore him to his respectable existence as Dr. Jekyll. Gradually, however, the unmitigated evil of his darker self predominates until finally he performs an atrocious murder. His saner self determines to curtail these alternations of personality, but he discovers that he is losing control over his transformations, that he slips with increasing frequency into the world of evil. Finally, unable to procure one of the ingredients for the mixture of redemption, and on the verge of being discovered, he commits suicide.
So the story is obviously a moral fable about a man with a split personality, of the evil spirit corrupting the good side of human personality ( doppelganger) The book is considered to be the most vivid late-nineteenth century work exposing the criminality of human nature and Stevenson himself invited such interpretations . It is a powerful allegorical study of moral dichotomy where evil is more fascinating than good. Hyde (who hides under the disguise of the night) shows tendencies towards sexual excess and deviance. He cannot impose on himself the same kind of limitations Jekyll does. Thus Hyde becomes a kind of a beast, whose bestiality is at once the product of and the greatest fear of Victorian society.
The metaphorical concept of Divided Self is developed through the novella, appearing on the first pages of it when Mr Utterson is introduced. Let us analyze the main components of the concept as it is shown by the author.
This analysis was written by Rok Mejak. For more information you can visit
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