Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

[Stewart P Evans]

S. G. Hulme Beaman

It may be recalled that a couple of years back there was a brief media flurry over the discovery of a Ripper manuscript written by S. G. Hulme Beaman (the creator of Larry the Lamb, Toytown and all that).

It was commented upon that Jack the Ripper was an odd subject for a children's author to be involved in. However, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published London, John Lane the Bodley Head, 1930, was illustrated by Beaman and, as may be seen, his illustrations were strikingly Ripperesque.

[Steven Russell]

Perhaps he was following Stevenson's lead; RLS was no stranger to children's fiction.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Ausgirl]

I throw my voice into the chorus of those who love this book.

Was Jack dissociative? Quite probably. But it ought to be understood that dissociation is generally very, very unlike the Sybill-esque portrayal of multiple personality disorder (MPD, more properly termed 'dissociative identity disorder', or DID now) which popular media has seized hold of and canonised in the public mind as something more common than it is, largely via fiction.

In short (because this really is a rabbit's warren of a topic), a dissociative state does not necessarily have anything to do with 'multiple personality', and nor does it mean that a person has no memory at all of what has transpired while they're in such a state. The state of dissociation (for the sake of the topic at hand, not counting those caused by chemical disorders) is a mechanism by which the mind seeks to protect itself by isolating traumatic memory, and people can do all sorts of 'uncharacteristic' things when old patterns of dissociation are triggered by, and applied inappropriately to, present situations. In the most severe cases the mind sort of fragments into portions that might exhibit as separate 'identities' but usually it's more akin to inexplicable compulsions or a mild state of fugue in response to particular 'triggering events' which bring buried trauma to the surface and thus elicit hard-wired behavioral responses. PTSD is a far more common diagnoses.

Consider Jekyll and Hyde in context to the development of psychology in that particular era, when the religious concept of the battle between 'good' soul and 'evil' soul were still thought of as factors. Reflected, possibly, in the book:

"If each, I told myself, could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil" (Chapter 10).

Wasn't that, mentally and emotionally, the struggle of the Victorian age - reconciliation of powerful and artificial moral imperatives imposed on the naturally impulsive human mind and its base animal instincts, in a time and place where vice and corruption were never more apparent, despite the refined state of purity and Godliness that all -ought- to aspire to? The entire nation was dissociative, it might be said, attempting to live with its own 'Jekyll vs. Hyde' nature, the wide schism between natural impulse (inner child) and moral ideal (morally refined Victorian adult).

I could waffle on forever on this.. but I won't. I think Jekyll and Hyde is quite analogous to the popular idea of JTR being a responsible citizen by day (a doctor, say) and a murderer by night.

Back to the issue of 'multiple personality' in Jack - no, I don't think so. I don't think he was more than one distinct personality (the absolute rarity of that condition alone makes me highly dubious, and no serial killer I know of has been clearly diagnosed as having it, demonstrating that it isn't at all necessary to the condition of being an insane multicide). I will not, however, at all discount the possibility that he was severely dissociative - as any person who can merrily butcher another human in that way is almost certain to be.

Idle thought: I wonder if Robert Schumann was an influence?

[Archaic]

Beaman Illustration

Hi Stewart, and thank you for that cool illustration.

It's a fine example of Expressionism. The figure of the Ripper is quite creepy and scary. The way the shadowy buildings haphazardly crowd in upon each other gives one an oppressive almost chaotic feeling, while the sharp angles and jagged brickwork suggest the threat of a knife.

Lets hope that book wasn't read to children at bedtime.

I'll have to take a look at more of Beaman's work.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Steven Russell]

Hello, Archaic.
I agree that this is a very cool illustration. But it's not the Ripper - it's Mr. Hyde.

Sorry to be so pedantic,
Steve.

[Archaic]

Hi Steven.

Thanks, you're quite right; of course it's an illustration of Hyde! Just goes to show how scary and evocative an artwork it is.

I do think it's safe to say the artist S.G. Beaman was influenced by the popular image of 'Jack the Ripper' as a spectral toff skulking under dim street lamps when he created this illustration, don't you?

Best regards,
Archaic

PS: Which reminds me- I wonder what the first illustrations of Mr. Hyde were? Did Stevenson ever authorize any illustrations?
Or was the public's first "view" of Hyde as he was portrayed in the stage play? Thanks, Archaic

[saml30]

Don't think JTR suffered dissociative identity disorder. It's more likely borderline personality disorder with another personality disorder underlying that too or quite simply psychopathy. A real interesting psychological insight into a serial killer is the interviews with Richard Kuklinski. I always thought after watching them JTR would be similar in mind.

[Wickerman]

There was a short detective story on tv this week concerning a serial killer who had a split personality.
This took place in 1988, in South Memphis, the perpetrator was one James Barnes, his other personality, the killer, was identified as "Al".

I think the story goes that this James Barnes was separated from his wife, when he got upset with whatever she may have said or done this other personality would emerge and go out to pick up a prostitute and murder her.
There were something in the order of four or five victims before he was caught.
I've tried to find some details on this over the net but to no avail.

Regards, Jon S.

[Scorpio]

I dont believe that JtR had to watch a performance of the play for it to be an influence on his behaviour. Reactions to the play and the buzz it caused within popular culture may have been enough to motivate a psychopath and think of the indignation and excitement that A clockwork orange or the Texas chainsaw masacre aroused when they appeared. I suggest that they made an impression on many who never actually saw th