The photograph might serve as a metaphorical image for the striation on the human soul, with stains of light and dark, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ decisions, which may accumulate over a lifetime of human experience. Either light or darkness may eventually come to dominate the image, depending on the life. The image suggests Christian duality, an idea that we have a nature where ‘good and evil’ are locked in an eternal struggle for dominance over our eternal souls.
Evil besides (which I must still believe to be the lethal side of man) had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay. And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human. In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance I had been hitherto accustomed to call mine. **
What shocks Jekyll is the immediate recognition of himself even when he is Hyde, and how singularly alive and expressive he seems when unimpeded by the muddying influence of his ‘better’ moral half. The welcome is not just for a half of himself that he has known but never really seen, but also for the singular self, the natively free being that emerges from the depths of his previously divided being.
The internal struggle may take many forms. Freud’s ego, for example, seeks to balance the moral super-ego with the id, tempering that latter’s eternal search for immediate gratification. Jung’s persona presents a complex interweaving of various unconscious influences (the Apollonian reason sometimes in conflict with the Dionysian call for sensory experience) that may variously affect the psychological and spiritual search for individuation.
When externalised, these dualised influences or archetypes provide much of the basis of western art or entertainment. Here’s a clip that I’ve featured previously, illustrating how deeply the good – evil duality concept is imbedded in popular mythic consciousness:
In the current, popular television series above, good and evil unite against a common threat. Yet, the very idea of the duality of human nature dates to antiquity. The the werewolf in European folklore stretches back to the Roman Empire (mentioned by Petronius, c. 27-66, in the Satyricon) but is probably much older than that.*** In his Histories, Herdotous, c. 484-425 b.c.e., describes various peoples, among whom are the Neuroi and Androphagoi, both of whom present some lycanthropic characteristics:
105. The Neuroi practise the Scythian customs: and one generation before the expedition of Dareios it so befell them that they were forced to quit their land altogether by reason of serpents: for their land produced serpents in vast numbers, and they fell upon them in still larger numbers from the desert country above their borders; until at last being hard pressed they left their own land and settled among the Budinoi. These men it would seem are wizards; for it is said of them by the Scythians and by the Hellenes who are settled in the Scythian land that once in every year each of the Neuroi becomes a wolf for a few days and then returns again to his original form. For my part I do not believe them when they say this, but they say it nevertheless, and swear it moreover.
Herodotus. The History of Herodotus. [online] Gutenberg.org, 4.105-6.****
106. The Androphagoi have the most savage manners of all human beings, and they neither acknowledge any rule of right nor observe any customary law. They are nomads and wear clothing like that of the Scythians, but have a language of their own; and alone of all these nations they are man-eaters.
The trouble with werewolves is that the savage segment of the human animal emerges episodically with free rein over individual actions, with the release of base and beastly impulses uniformly resulting in the worst kinds of predatory, murderous actions.
Eventually, at least in stories, the superabundance of one aspect of human nature over another seems to result in spiritual exhaustion. Even the werewolves become weary of their endless hunting. Boredom overtakes existence, dominating everything.
After arranging to have his best friend, Banquo, murdered, Banquo’s accusatory ghost appears at his erstwhile friends’ banquet. The vision further unhinges Macbeth who says:
For mine own good,
Macbeth 3.4.167-70
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
The above lines mark the acceleration of a fading process. Like Ahab’s casting away his pipe, or navigational instruments in Moby Dick, Macbeth’s focus increasingly becomes the blood, a word he subsequently dwells on throughout the play. Along with his disappearance from himself, with his vision of his own Hyde in the mirror of his self, his exhaustion compounds as well. At the approach of his final battle, Macbeth almost seems to hope for some revitalisation, even as he realises that any hope remains unrealistic:
This push
Macbeth 5.3.24-33
Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
I have lived long enough. My way of life
Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have, but in their stead
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath
Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare
not.
Life’s colour, cadences, textures, richness, and variety, eludes Macbeth at this point. His entire life has withered, and his ‘leafy screen’ has faded to sickly yellow. No fullness of approaching posterity awaits him. Not only is his sceptre barren, but so is his spirit. At the news that Lady Macbeth has died, Macbeth utters another extraordinary soliloquy:
She should have died hereafter.
Macbeth 5.5.20-31
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
With his wife’s death, Macbeth’s last earthly foundation, his anchor, and his pillar have gone. Aside from its nihilistic perspective, this frequently cited passage is also famous for its metaphor of life as theatre, a comparison that Shakespeare makes pointedly in many other works as well.***** This echoes that Jungian idea of the persona, the mask that we consistently present to the world which can be constructed of so many elements.
Yet, Macbeth’s progressing dissipation is marked by a falling away of everything on which his being stands. Negation finally consumes him to the point where his greatest desire is to deny existence itself:
I ’gin to be aweary of the sun
Macbeth 5.5.55-7
And wish th’ estate o’ th’ world were now
undone.
Nothing is left to him except waiting oblivion. In gaining the crown, he has thrown away everything else, lost everything that once seemed to give meaning to his life. Yet, in terms of playacting, is that all life is? A brief gavotte over the stage on the way to whatever lies behind the curtain? Well, it certainly seems brief enough. It sometimes seems as though we come and go through Jaques’ “exits” and “entrances”, and sometimes we seem to do little else.******
Macbeth’s lines suggest a kind of dissolution of the soul, as it is ripped into tatters by an individual’s own choices and actions. The resultant ennui becomes so complete that it obliterates the individual. The anti human eventually erases itself. Curses replace any collective memory of Macbeth. Not only his reign, but his very existence realises only a negative of any former potential that it might have had. Hyde’s “livelier image of the spirit” has burned so hotly that it has finally burnt itself out, leaving only the cinder of curses as an aftermath.
Perhaps this result is inevitable. By giving in to baser instinct or desire, allowing evil unrestricted freedom does not tend to produce good results. Werewolf stories never end well.
This may often be true in real life as well, but not always. Too often Mr. Hyde remains hidden at the margins of our own society and its institutions. At the time of preparing this post, (following on the heels of my having directed a production of Macbeth), the particular resonance of the werewolf with certain figures in the public eye becomes inescapable. This past week, the death of a prominent academic has again raised the terrible issue, not only personal, but also of institutional abuse.
The horror of the real werewolves among us reminds us how vigilant we must all remain, and how ready we must be to fight, to denounce, to struggle against not only individual predators, but also the institutions and fields that may, whether intentionally or not, mask them and allow them to hide. To look aside, or to be otherwise complicit, poses a greater risk than the considerable damage it may perpetuate socially and institutionally. It jeapordises one’s own soul, however one might equivocate to try and justify it. Whether in the highest political or judicial offices, or in some other capacity, it remains our duty, as intellectuals, as citizens, as fellow human beings, to look monsters in the eye and slay them by whatever means.
*More of Karin Brown’s brilliant photographic work, her thought provoking tree, landscape, and light images may be found on her website: https://brownkcd.wixsite.com/imbolc
also (as previously stated) on Instagram @imbolcphotographic.
**Stevenson, Robert Louis. “The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43/43-h/43-h.htm.
***A translation of Petronius’ werewolf story may be read here: https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2015/10/26/five-days-until-halloween-a-roman-werewolf-from-petronius/
****May be read online at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2707/2707-h/2707-h.htm#link42H_4_0001
*****The Tempest, As You Like It, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream all have familiar examples.
******Jaques’ ‘seven ages of man’ speech may be found in As You Like It 2.7.145-173. The mention of ‘exits’ and ‘entrances’ is around line 148 depending on your edition.