Random Thoughts after Casual Reading and Movie Watching
(Fight Club and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
Devolution
In
Stevenson’s novel, The Strange Case of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the constant references to primitive and ape-like
behavior possesses a much deeper meaning than the literal message. Primal nature and violence, in essence,
elevates to a scientific and symbolic stature. The novel presents characters
that exist in a state of undeniable polarity. Characters which seemingly exist
as individual entities force us to question the inner conflict of humanity’s
thoughts of the concept of good and evil, the notion that good cannot exist
without evil, and the secret thoughts that lay beneath people’s polite veneer
of everyday life. The novel allows us to view humanity as a species that
encompass the ability to love, the ability for compassion and beauty, while
also possessing the capacity for hatred, evil, and violence. Edward Hyde is
everything that Henry Jekyll is not but whishes to be. Dr. Jekyll is handsome,
civilized, and pleasant, while Mr. Hyde is portrayed as a primitive murdering
fiend; a man with a scared exterior as we as a poisoned interior. Enfield , for example,
insists that there is “something wrong with his appearance; something
displeasing, something down-right detestable.” Hyde is to a large degree a
primitive character; a character that seems to act on the roots of human nature
and impulse rather than with any sense of reason. Early in the novel a scene is
described in which Hyde tramples a young girl, and “left her screaming in the
ground.” He is described as a “juggernaut” and viewed as an animal for, according
to Enfield , he
“wasn’t like a man.” Edward Hyde evidently has no sense of self control. He is
an example of nature vs. the civilized, rational, and cultured Jekyll. Hyde
represents just how primitive human nature remains even at such a high juncture
of human evolution.
Evidence
exists throughout the novel in which society’s social order is threatened, and
in some cases broken by Edward Hyde. He represents the possible devolution of
humanity. Dr. Jekyll is the larger, more evolved being, who has progressed
beyond the primitive state, while Mr. Hyde is physically smaller for “evil has
left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay.” He represents a
regression to an earlier stage of human development. Hyde is more vital and
primal in his appetites because he has, in a sense, cast off the civilizing
evolution that restrains Jekyll. According to Martin A. Danahay, Stevenson
includes “both evolution and degeneration in his descriptions of Hyde as a kind
of monkey, a less developed, more primitive version of Dr. Jekyll.” Darwin ’s theory of
evolution also suggests that only the strong survive. A deduction can be made
that Hyde is a model of the strong yet evil individual who would survive in the
event of Jekyll’s downfall. Hyde is the natural man, free of the civilizing
influences of society. A Mr. Hyde exists within every human being, yet society
has taught us that we must conceal these instincts that are such a large part
of human nature. As a result, humanity is forced to live life with a façade,
concealing some of our most basic instincts and emotions. It is because of this
natural situation that Dr. Jekyll continues to intake the potion. He views it
as a means to freedom from the constraints and restrictions of civilization and
society, for as he suggests, he “sprung headlong into the sea of liberty.” Hyde
acts as a vessel that Jekyll utilizes in order to do what he yearns to do but
cannot due to society’s restrictions. Edward Hyde’s actions would “pass away
like the stain of breath upon a mirror.” The duality of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
is a representation of the fact that every human being contains opposite forces
within them, an alter ego that hides real existing emotions held deep behind
one’s polite, society driven façade.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
is a testament to not only personal devolution and atavism, but also to that of
society’s. Hyde is the epitome of human devolution, and it becomes exceedingly
evident that not only does he have a nonexistent regard for social order, but
he seemingly yearns for society to return to its primitive origins. Hyde
commits the gruesome and grotesque murder of Sir Danvers Carew, a highly
respected Member of Parliament. Carew, in essence, is a metaphorical
representation of social order. Parliament is in charge of passing laws and it
alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring it ultimate power over all
other political bodies in the UK
and its territories. It, in a sense, is the power that places limitations and
restrictions upon the people of England ;
therefore, killing him is like destroying all existing social order in an
attempt to return to a more primitive based society. Hyde, it is stated, did
not simply kill Carew, he slaughtered him. “Mr. Hyde broke out all bounds and
clubbed [Carew] to earth. And the next moment, with ape-like fury, he was
trampling his victim under his foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under
which the bones were audibly shattered.” Interestingly, the word “ape” appears
in the same sentence in which Hyde is breaking and stomping on the social order
of society. After the murder of Carew, Hyde becomes a fugitive and “disappeared
out of the ken of police.” This is another example of how Hyde has no regard
for social law along with a nonexistent sense of reason. Running from the law
can be seen as an allegorical representation of how he is distancing himself
from civilization and culture for he flees to a village know as the
entertainment district which had a reputation for its sex shops as well as its
night life. In essence, a place of sin and poverty where less social order is
evident.
Fight Club, directed by David Fincher,
follows a similar approach to the notion of devolution and atavism as Stevenson
does with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde. Fight Club is a reflection of the suffering experienced by
the men who feel trapped in a world of grey-collar working-class, an existence
filled with materialism and distractions, and a world where there is no great
cause for the average man to fight for. The narrator is an anonymous character
who despises both his job and life. This dissatisfaction with life, coupled
with frequent flights covering various time zones causes him to develop
insomnia. The nameless narrator finds himself unable to match society’s requirements
for happiness and consequently embarks on a path to enlightenment which
involves metaphorically killing his parents, his God, and his teacher. At the
beginning of the film, the narrator has killed off his parents but still finds
himself trapped in a false world. The narrator in Fight Club is the Dr. Jekyll character of the film. He is
constrained by the towering walls of society which he cannot seem to overcome.
He lives in a world bound by restrictions and limitations which are utterly
destroying his physical body. He, like Jekyll, finds a means to gain social
freedom. While Jekyll comes to this by means of science and potions, the
narrator of Fight Club creates an
alter-ego within the troubled confines of his own mind. The narrator then
unconsciously unleashed Tyler Durden into the world. The constrains and
limitations of society repress his primal instincts to the breaking point.
While Jekyll was fully conscious of his duality with Hyde, the narrator of Fight Club is unconscious of his with Tyler . He believes that
they are two different people, yet the reality is that Tyler is the primal being within him and
within every human being. Both Jekyll and the narrator indulge and respect
their creations, after all, they represent all that they wish to be. It is not
until they lose control of their creations that they realize how much they do
not want the chaos they bring upon them. Both the narrator and Jekyll lose
complete control. Darwin’s theory suggests that eventually the stronger of the
two characters will stand alone. Jekyll progressively comes to the realization
that he no longer controls the transformation; Hyde does, while the narrator
has no initial control and it is until the conclusion of the film in which the
narrator looses the chain wrapped around the fragile body that is Tyler Durden.
Like
in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde, the narrator creates an alter ego named Tyler Durden, someone not
bound by the barometers of society and who could escape the problems of his
everyday life. Tyler ,
like Hyde, is everything that the narrator is not but years to be. Jekyll
wished to be like Hyde for Hyde is free, and the narrator wishes to be like Tyler
for as Tyler states, “all the ways you wish you could be, that’s me. I look
like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most
importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.” Again, it becomes
clear that both the narrator and Jekyll create alter egos as vessels to freedom
from the shackles of cultural civility. Tyler launches Project Mayhem, from
which the club embarks on various attacks on consumerism. He continually
describes his disagreement with mass society, materialism, property,
capitalism, and almost all technology and social order; indeed he intends to
annihilate civilization itself. He describes his ideal world as a
Neo-Paleolithic paradise, in post-apocalyptic urban ruins, in short, he wants a
dystopian society; a society without order. The narrator soon comes to realize
that Tyler is not a different person, but rather a separate personality. While
Tyler’s appearance is not a mirror to that of Hyde’s, Tyler seeks to bring
society into a primitive state. He believes that by destroying buildings owned
by credit card companies and upsetting the established order there will be
chaos, and chaos is the most primitive of any human state. With the
disappearance of social order comes violence and disorder, a clear sign of
primal humanity and a world of dystopian qualities. Tyler’s goal is to bring
devolution and atavism to an entire society.
Devolution
and atavism are prevalent themes throughout both The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Fight Club. Both alter egos are a means
to gain freedom from the restrictions and constraints placed upon humanity by
society, however do those primal instincts dissolve or do they simply remain
growing within us? Tyler and Hyde are a representation of just how primal
humanity remains even at such a high juncture of human evolution. Both
characters seemingly yearn to rewind the clock and take back humanity to a more
animalistic state. While Tyler does it on a much larger scale, Hyde’s symbolic
trampling of Parliament is undeniable. As Tyler believes, “only after disaster
can we be resurrected.”
