The movie Jekyll and Hyde is about a college students at the St. Joseph’s Medical school who embarks on an experiment to come up with a drug that can alter the personality of someone. Jekyll Particularly is obsessed with the idea because he says in the movie that: “ In school we are always taught that everything is about games but in actual sense everything is about winning; it is about beating the other guy.” (Jekyll and Hyde, 2008).
In the movie the character Jekyll presents the superego, because he is able to control himself and does things naturally and conventionally as stipulated by societal principles. Jekyll’s conscious mind is only aware of the things that he is currently doing and as a result he is living under the deception that his research undertakings are geared towards any rational results. In Jekyll’s subconscious mind is the real problem where Jekyll takes the drugs to bring out the more aggressive Hyde.
Hyde according to Freud, is the ‘id’which holds the true character. In this case it is Hyde. Hyde is more violent, fearless and aggressive. The drugs that the character is taking, renders the ‘ego’ domant therefore the ‘id’ takes control over the ‘superego.’ In normal circumstances, the character would have had more control over the ‘id’ and only the ‘superego’ would have been evident. However the thrills of experiencing the ‘id’ drives the character to think that perhaps Hyde is better than Jekyll. Eventually when ‘id’ takes complete control Hyde takes over completely and embarks on a killing spree. However regrets brought about by the presence of the ‘superego’ confuses the mind more and more and it is for this reason that the character commits suicide. The conflict becomes unbearable for Jekyll and Hyde who are housed in the same space after it becomes apparent that they cannot co-exist.