Duality

Question 1

What is the main theme explored in the concept of duality in the novella?

Answer 1

Binary themes and motifs that exist in conflict with one another

Question 2

What societal structure does duality replicate in the novella?

Answer 2

The dichotomous nature of the public and private spheres in Victorian society

Question 3

What forced some men to construct false public identities in the novella?

Answer 3

Societal expectations

Question 4

Which psychiatrist’s theories are used to interpret the theme of duality?

Answer 4

Sigmund Freud

Question 5

What are the three structural concepts of the unconscious mind according to Freud?

Answer 5

• Id
• Super-ego
• Ego

Question 6

What does the id represent in Freud’s theory?

Answer 6

The impulsive and hedonistic part of our psyche

Question 7

What does the super-ego represent in Freud’s theory?

Answer 7

The internalisation of social and cultural rules

Question 8

What is the role of the ego in Freud’s structural concept?

Answer 8

To mediate the struggle between id and super-ego

Question 9

Fill in the blank: The ego balances desire and pleasure against the pressures of _______.

Answer 9

[expectation]

Question 10

How does the theme of duality encapsulate the Victorian gentleman?

Answer 10

Through the façade he maintains

Question 11

Duality: Key quotations/references (chapter 10)

Answer 11

• I already stood committed to a profound duplicity of life.’ (Jekyll)
• I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.’ (Jekyll)
• ‘If each [side of his personality] could be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable.’ (Jekyll)
• It was the curse of mankind that these incongruous faggots were bound together - that in the agonised womb of consciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling! (Jekyll)
• ‘All human beings…are commingled out of good and evil.’ (Jekyll)
• ‘I was still cursed with my duality of purpose.’ (Jekyll)
• ‘Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures.’ (Jekyll)
• ‘Though so profound a double dealer, I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest.’ (Jekyll)
• ‘As the first edge of my penitence wore off, the lower side of me, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for license.’ (Jekyll)
• ‘Even as good shone upon the countenance of one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other. (Jekyll)