At the end of last class, we talked briefly about the ways that The Island of Lost Souls confronts its hero with alternatives to heterosexual monogamy. Parker plans to get married to a “decent” woman, but is kept apart from his fiancé for almost all of the movie, in a horror-island realm of alternative sexual possibilities—the implied sadism of Moreau and the animalistic attractions and desires of Lota, for example. Explain in a paragraph or two how one scene from Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde emphasizes, or at least hints at, the potential “horrors” of sexuality that Henry has to navigate in London.
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Passion and lust seem to emerge when Ivy Pearson attempts to seduce Dr. Jekyl. It’s only after she sees the gentleman that a sudden behavior change occurs, transitioning from the suffering caused by her physical pain to a series of attempts to seduce Henry. Given his social status and reputation, a gentleman like Dr. Jekyl shouldn’t have any hardship to get women’s attention, compared to Mr. Hyde who is unfortunately represented as repulsive and misbehaving in every aspect. It’s later when Mr. Hyde compels Ivy Pearson to express her feelings after an intense interrogation that a clear distinction is established in romantic interest between the social depiction of repellent and delightful men, which appears to annoy the uncanny creature. Is it mere jalousie that Mr. Hyde embodies or a sort of procedural justice to challenge social norms? This binary speculation is justified by the subsequent compliance of Ivy Pearson to Mr. Hyde, which resulted in a tragedy causing death for both parties.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde demonstrates the impact of Victorian norms on the human psyche throughout. The most obvious representation of constraining Victorian norms in the film is sexuality, sexual urges, and extramarital sex. The horrors of sexuality and sexual deviance are best expressed in the last scenes of the film where Jekyll turns into Hyde after telling Muriel he must let her go. Up until this point, Hyde only sought to sexually assault (the website would not let me use the R word?) and abuse Ivy, who is portrayed as more sexually deviant. While this in itself is a horror of sexuality, Ivy’s promiscuity serves to partially justify Jekyll’s “primitive urges” (Hyde) in these instances. However, as Hyde begins to gain more control over Jekyll, the more Jekyll attempts to suppress his “primitive” urges (Hyde), the more salient they become and the more they permeate his personal life (rather than just remaining on the fringe and harming less important people). The scene of Muriel’s attempted sexual assault (R word) and the murder of her father demonstrate the greatest evils imaginable by and facilitated through Victorian society as Muriel is the embodiment of Victorian womanhood and sexuality. Jekyll’s greatest desire was to marry Muriel, and presumably have sex with her. His inability to have sex with his fiance also represents, in his world or mind, the most salient constraints of Victorian society. So naturally, his greatest evil was indulging in this desire outside of marriage and through violence.
(Sorry this is an hour after the 11:30 deadline, I had class all morning and just got a moment to sit down and type out my reflection)
In the film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we see the protagonist/antagonist grapple with both love and lust and the balance between the two. His interactions as Dr. Jekyll with his fiancee Muriel depict a classic, genuine bond of love whereas his actions as Mr. Hyde with Ivy Pearson are purely lust. However, potentially due to societal norms and linguistic differences (to what we are used to), the line is sometimes unclear. Mr. Hyde pressures Ivy by repeating, “You hate me? Tell me you hate me,” (degradation kink, perhaps?), to which she fearfully replies no, causing Hyde to declare that she must love him. For Hyde, the goal never was love, yet he celebrates his “deduction” as though he has succeeded at a great task. Despite being completely immoral, he understands the social norm/association at the time that sex must be preceded by love (ideally) and mariage. This isn’t a horror in the classic sense, but we do see in Jekyll’s desperation to marry Muriel as soon as possible the sexual desire he has, which could arguably be “a nightmare” or “torture” for him.
In terms of his more twisted sexual desires that he shows only as Hyde, he is fairly obviously a sadist as well. The pleasure he derives in invoking fear and mental torture in Ivy as well as his ultimate murder of her showcase it pretty well. Of course this can only come out when he is Hyde, as he is betrothed and in a not very sexually liberated environment. Although the way in which he goes about these desires is terrifying and disgusting, it brings up the point of what it is to live in a society/time period where sexual desires are seen as taboo and to be repressed.
As Dr. Jekyll explains in a lecture, there are two selves within a person: a moral, decent, pure self, and an animalistic one who acts upon all impulses and temptations. He claims that the good self works to counter the bad, resisting negative impulses and striving to do what is right; however, the bad self is still present. In the scene where Dr. Jekyll first meets Ivy, we can see the struggle between his two selves. He is, of course, deeply in love with Muriel, and he recognizes that it is wrong for him to do anything sexual with Ivy. However, we can see that his gentlemanly side falters as he fails to resist temptation and kisses Ivy. This seems out of character for someone who acts and appears as such a gentleman, but it serves to emphasize the point that there is a bad self in each individual. Hyde is the personification of this evil self which succumbs to lust, crossing the border into the horrors of sexuality to which all men are tempted.
After watching both films, I am realizing the similarities between the two (especially in the sense of a handsome man being in love with one woman but lured by another). One scene that really stuck out to me was when Dr. Jekyll first met Ivy and was in her bedroom. The prolonged and continual swinging of her leg intensifies the sexual aspect to the scene and to the movie. Although he has proclaimed his love for Muriel before he met Ivy, he still seems lured by her. He even kisses her while she is totally naked in bed. Again, the swinging of her leg, and its prolonged time on camera, makes me think that the sexual aspects of Ivy are not so easy for him to say no to. Then, Ivy and Dr. Jekyll meet again when she comes to see him to tell him about Hyde. They share heart felt feelings as well as a tender hug. She also repeatedly calls him an angel. This immediately follows Dr. Jekyll’s celebration of engagement to Muriel. Yet again, even though he has proclaimed his love for Muriel, the allures of navigating sex with Ivy keep coming back. Personally, I felt shocked that he was embracing Ivy the way he was because he just did the same with Muriel minutes before. In this instance, his love and purity for Muriel is severely contrasted by the naughty and horrific sexual thoughts of Ivy.
In “Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” the potential horrors of sexuality are illustrated through the transformation and dual identity of Doctor Henry Jekyll. The scene that particularly emphasizes this is when Henry undergoes his first transformation into Mr. Hyde. When first watching the scene, it seems that Doctor Jekyll would be horrified by his transformation. Rather, he celebrates his newfound freedom as Mr. Hyde, which symbolizes the unleashing of repressed desires and impulses. As Hyde, Jekyll indulges in hedonistic and destructive behavior, including violence and debauchery. As Doctor Jekyll explained, the transformation highlights the duality of human nature, where one side represents the socially acceptable aspects of the individual, while the other, embodied by Hyde, represents the darker, more primal, and potentially horrific aspects of sexuality. The scene serves as a metaphor for the inner struggle individuals may face when navigating the complexities and temptations of their own desires and the societal expectations of morality. Doctor Jekyll’s transformation matches the theme of confronting alternative sexual possibilities in “The Island of Lost Souls.” In “The Island of Lost Souls”, Lota is a mirror to Mr. Parker’s suppressed desires; however, “Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” takes the theme further by fully embodying the repressed animalist nature of man.
Both films have protagonists who repeatedly cross important thresholds. These thresholds take the form of doors, gates, or even windows, and they represent the barriers that prevent the wealthy men from digressing into sexual deviation and intermingling with characters of lower status. In The Island of Lost Souls, this crossing can be seen when Mr. Parker opens the door to Dr. Moreau’s office, stopping for a moment to gaze at Lotta and ponder the implication of him entering a room to speak with her. Much in the same way, Mr. Hyde’s entrance into Muriel’s piano room represents the mixing of sexual deviance (as represented by Mr. Hyde) with the chastity of Muriel. There is a pause to symbolize to the viewer that the mixing of these two characters is uncanny.
Expanding on this analysis of thresholds, I noticed that the telling part of these scenes is their duration. Nearly every scene in ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is started or ended by the Doctor or another character entering or leaving doorways. Most of these cuts are fast. For instance, there is no focus on the Dr. exiting the massive door to his mansion and getting in the horse and buggy at the beginning. The door is opened for him and It happens naturally. It is ONLY the scenes in which characters of lower AND higher (societal or sexual) status meet at thresholds that the film pauses to emphasize the digression of the supposedly morally sound protagonists.
One scene that popped out to me highlighting the “horrors” of sexuality that Henry has to navigate in London is his first interaction with Ivy. Once Ivy realizes that Dr. Jekyll is a handsome young doctor, she begins to try and lure him into romantic relations with her. Although he clearly loves Muriel, he is easily swayed by Ivy and even goes as far as to kiss her. As Jekyll leaves, Ivy begins to seductively swing her bare leg back and forth along the bed. This action is focused on and the shot continues to play overlapped with other footage long after Jekyll leaves her residence. This highlights the temptations of horrific sexuality that he has to navigate throughout London, as Ivy is not held up as the same pure figure that Muriel is. She is a temptress that is meant to sway Jekyll away from an honorable good nature.
When Dr. Jekyll first met Ivy and was seen kissing her in her bed, an audience of that time likely would have reacted as the other doctor had, with disgust and shock, yet Dr. Jekyll had an almost flippant nature about him. He smiled and laughed at the prudish response of the other doctor, claiming that his desires are not to be ignored, and that his short moment of infidelity means nothing when it comes to his love for Muriel. As someone who has never seen this film and knew little of the plot, this moment set the scene for me. Dr. Jekyll, just after leading a lecture on the two-faced nature of man, was tapping into the animalistic side that is driven by desire when he kissed Ivy, foreshadowing his future as Mr. Hyde. As Dr. Jekyll, he is bound by societal standards of respect and abstinence (which he does not always adhere to), but as Mr. Hyde, he has no such boundaries. His “inner desires” are set free, and immediately move towards a pattern of violence and sex. Violence and sex are tightly woven together in the scenes with Mr. Hyde, which is directly contrary to how sex would be viewed at the time. Sex is a matter of love, of marriage, of solidifying a lineage, but it raises questions as to what sex inherently is for humans. When did it change from pure reproduction to love? Was there ever a time when violent sex was the norm?
In addition to the distinction between man and his inner desires, there is the apparent division of classes. Dr. Jekyll, in his mansion, with his butler and rich fiance, is expected to always act with the utmost respect and social conscience, yet Ivy and those of a lower class are not bound by those expectations. When Mr. Hyde goes to the bar with the dancers, and Ivy is seen singing, there are men who are drunk and touchy, acting in crass and unmannerly ways, yet none came close to the manner in which Mr. Hyde conducted himself. Ivy, as a lower class woman, threw herself at Mr. Jekyll after she was beaten by a man (another thing that men in the higher class would not be seen doing in public), and the audience gets the sense that there is a tie between the animalistic half of man, and the lower class of man. The lower class is not bound by the same societal standards as the upper class is, just as Mr. Hyde is not bound by his better half.
Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde escalates the theme of sexuality that was present in The Island of Lost Souls. The continuous split screens in this movie highlights the underlying sexual urges that Dr. Jekyll has. This is especially prominent when we see the split screen of Ivy, the oversexualized woman, and Muriel, his fiance who is portrayed as a modest woman. Here, Dr. Jekyll’s “problem” is shown to the audience, quite literally, as we see him going back and forth between a modest woman or a woman who allows him to fulfill his sexual fantasies and animalistic tendencies. This movie concentrates on many themes, including class, sexuality, gender, and class, similar to The Island of Lost Souls. The woman who is portrayed as the catalyst of underlying sexual urges in both films are of a lower class. This is a common trope in many films where elitist men take advantage of woman in in a lower class, and their “true love” is a modest woman of higher class. Jekyll insists on removing himself from his “gentlemanly” honor when being with a lower class women and vice versa, ultimately showing that the lower class, especially women, are taken advantage of and only seen as an object to satisfy the sexual urges of men with power.
Upon reading Freud’s essay, I found it interesting that in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde we see the uncanny almost perfectly formed to Freud’s ideology. One point that I found especially compelling was that of involuntary repetition. Freud writes that the involuntary revisiting of a person/place/memory, often doubled with the manipulation of said subject, gives us a feeling of uncanny. In the film, we are constantly subjected to following Mr. Hyde on his rampages, which almost always end in a confused chase through the dark streets of London. All the streets that he runs down are shown multiple times as he runs between his luxurious home and the neighborhood of Ivy Pierson. The first time that we are shown these sets are in a positive yet foreboding light as Dr. Jekyll first encounters and helps Ivy. As the film develops, we become accustomed to seeing the same shops and bars in the background, yet the crazed moments in which we see them work to disorient us slightly. They become almost entirely corrupted and far removed from the “good-nature” of Dr. Jekyll. Furthermore, the entire film is shot in a perspective and tempo that makes the viewer feel as though they are trapped by Hyde; they are also the victim who must be set free when Dr. Jekyll tries to set Mirial free. Therefore, our presence in all of the scenes including these chase scenes is involuntary. I believe that these scenes create precisely the uncannyness that Freud is referring to.
The “horrors” of sexuality are shown most prominently when Jekyll can no longer control his transformations into Hyde, into chaotic, unabated sexuality. He can’t control his impulses, and this leads to Ivy’s death. After seeing a cat stalk and kill a bird, Hyde goes and murders Ivy. The subconscious is freed, and this is devastating. Last time he raped her, what horrors will he do now? After this point, it is almost Hyde that is the character, Jekyll his alter ego. Hyde then takes the potion to have a moment of sexual release, to relieve himself as Jekyll, for a few slipping instances before quickly returning to his new self, Hyde. It is a loss of control.
Jekyll and Hyde has a clear elitist social commentary regarding the impulsivity and carnal desires of the lower class, and the pious restraint which enables the upper class to have dignity and superiority. As Dr. Jekyll becomes his evil side, he crosses the social barrier separating the high class folk from the commoners. The class division provides an accessible avenue for a discussion of the sexual proclivities and behaviors of the lower class which make them societally inferior. To illustrate the difference, I cite two scenes. First, when Ivy comes to Jekyll and begs him for help, and says she’ll do anything for him, despite his present temptation, he refuses her and promises to help in a politically correct and virtuous way. Contrastingly, as Jekyll transforms into Hyde in the park, he is overcome with his lustful desire of Ivy, and immediately abandons the word he had kept to keep Hyde away from her. Hyde then brutally murders Ivy and escapes through the building. Importantly, it is not that the upper, respectable classes don’t have desires, but that they can keep their impulses restrained under the guise of propriety, whereas the lower class is at the behest of their animalistic nature. Thus, the nature of the horrors is different, while both rooted in desire, the upper class is full of hypocrisy and self denial, whereas the lower class is crass and self indulgent.
Both The Island of Lost Souls and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde features main characters that seem to be fighting the immoral temptations of sexuality. Dr.Jekyll has to repeatedly not succumb to the advances of alluring Ivy Pierson, clinging to his “gentlemanly” identity. We can see that Dr.Jekyll does want to give in, perhaps tired of waiting so long to get married to his fiance. Muriel and Ivy represent the two sides of the coin, much like Lotta and Ruth were in The Island of Lost Souls. The scene where I feel like this inner struggle of Dr.Jekylls is most apparent is when Ivy comes to beg him to save her from Hyde. He grips her neck, almost seized in a moment of passion to give in and perhaps kiss her. He overcomes himself, but his alternative immoral personality represented in Hyde clearly wants to indulge (and does repeatedly, either in fits of passion or in murderous rage).
In the context of this story, where the theme of lust is a recurring motif that ensnares Doctor Jekyll within the intricate web of London’s society, there’s a noteworthy instance of foreshadowing that emerges early on, which, admittedly, is quite conspicuous. It unfolds when Ivy Pierson, a character drenched in seduction, orchestrates an enticing rendezvous with Doctor Jekyll in her own bed, culminating in an intense and fervent kiss. This scene bears a striking resemblance to an earlier interaction between Lota and Mr. Parker, where she strategically positions herself next to him, leading him down a path of passionate embrace. In both of these situations, the women, although seemingly in subordinate positions, exude an unmistakable allure and coy temptation that captivates their male counterparts. The contextual similarities are equally striking, with both women assuming roles as temptresses, luring wealthy, white, and ostensibly virtuous men away from their upper-class betrothed partners. Moreover, much like the catastrophic chaos that unfolds following Mr. Parker’s moral transgression, Doctor Jekyll’s surrender to Ivy’s kiss marks the commencement of a descent into a nightmarish realm characterized by infidelity, insatiable animalistic desire, and moral decay. This sets the stage for Doctor Jekyll’s impending struggle, as he grapples with the turbulent waters of his own inner turmoil.