The Double Motif in Literature Using the Example of Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Psychological Approaches to British Fiction, language: English, comment: des Dozenten: Wonderful. A very intelligent, clear discussion of Freudian psychoanalysis and Jekyll and Hyde. You make excellent use of Freud's ideas on the double, and manage not to get swamped by the overwhelming amount of material on the subject, or by Freud himself. You make good use of Hubbard, though at times you seem to rely a bit too heavily on him. Your discussion of Hyde as monkey and id was bang on, and very interesting. Your English is good to very good, though you do have problems with word choice. Is this from using a dictionary? [...], abstract: Since the early beginning of literature the double motif has served in its different models to trace the features of the ego, individuality and perception. The double plays an important role in literature: it portays confusion and transformation, reflects inner desires and spreads anxiety. But the phenomenon is not just an invention of literature. Again and again people claim to see oneself like some famous persons such as Catharine the Great and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This term paper will analyze the Double-motif in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with regard to psychoanalysis. While citing secondary literature it became obvious that a good portion of these examinations use psychological criteria which offer a wider range of insight into the oddly logic of Stevenson's text which he to no purpose named The Strange Case. Three texts from Freud lend themselves to work with the novel: "Die 'kulturelle' Sexualmoral und die moderne Nervositat" (1908), "Das Unheimliche" (1919) and "Das Unbehagen in der Kultur" (1930). In "Das Unheimliche" Freud deals with the background of the double motif. He interprets the phenomenon from its