Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Repression Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

And indeed the worst of my faults was a certain impatient gaiety of disposition, such as has made the happiness of many, but such as I found it hard to reconcile with my imperious desire to carry my head high, and wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public. Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of me. Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame. (10.1)

Dr. Jekyll kept the pleasurable, sinful side of his personality well hidden—i.e., repressed—in favor of appearing to be a somber man who frowns on exuberant behavior.

Quote #8

For two good reasons, I will not enter deeply into this scientific branch of my confession. First, because I have been made to learn that the doom and burthen of our life is bound for ever on man's shoulders, and when the attempt is made to cast it off, it but returns upon us with more unfamiliar and more awful pressure. (10.2)

Dr. Jekyll believes that repression yields consequences worse than Hyde’s actions.

Quote #9

At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing that was projected was Edward Hyde. (10.8)

For Jekyll, repressing his evil side simply renders it more ambitious and alert.