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The monster we all want to be

jekyll and Mr. hyde

El mounstro que todos queremos ser

ad the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson been acquainted with Sigmund Freud and his theories of repressed desires, he could hardly have written a more Freudian novel than the world famous Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Through sheer intuition, he composed a tale that was decidedly ahead of its time, anticipating with almost textbook accuracy the psychoanalytical theory of the three divisions of the psyche into id, ego, and superego. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the story of a man with a split personality, compulsively driven to indulge in sordid pleasures and alternately grieving and penitent for his sins. All things considered, Mr Hyde, who prowls about at night in quest of sexual adventure, free from any feelings of uneasiness about points of conscience, honour, or propriety, is the monster that we all secretly want to be. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde originated in a nightmare that Stevenson had in 1888, when he was ill with tuberculosis. He woke up stricken with fright at the very moment that Dr Jekyll first changed into his unsavoury second self. Following this, it took Stevenson just a few days to draft a final version. The sad story of the mature and respectable Dr Henry Jekyll is read by his solicitor in a hand-written diary kept by the

doctor during his terrible personal adventure. Through the agency of a drug that he himself has concocted, the doctor not only undergoes alterations in his behaviour but is also physically transformed. He feels younger, happier, more carefree. The Victorian doctor breaks free of his boring existence and pursues an exciting life of nightly revelry, frequenting Londons most exclusive brothels, drowning himself in champagne, giving free rein to the wildest sexual fantasies and transgressions of which a human being is capable. The good doctor comes to the conclusion that we all carry around at least two distinct individuals inside ourselves and that many times social convention requires us to repress our innermost desires. The readers sympathies are doubtless with Mr Hyde, despite Stevensons noticeable efforts to make him unattractive. His physical hideousness and his short stature actually make him seem more forgivable, especially in comparison with the starchy and pompous doctor, and kindle the readers compassion. Moreover, Hyde at least is authentic and sincere, whereas Dr Jekyll is a liar and tries to cast blame for any wrongdoing on others.
To acquaint:
ser arrastrado a.

y To be drivena r to: To indulge in: os Gl Sin: Prowl about: r y Nightmare: sa Unsavoury: lo ToG draft: Solicitor:
conocer, poner al corriente. Sheer: puro. entregarse a (un vicio, un placer). pecado. merodear, rondar. pesadilla. repugnante, indeseable. redactar. abogado.

Carefree: Revelry:

libre, despreocupado.

To concoct:
unque hubiera conocido a Sigmund Freud y sus teoras de los deseos reprimidos, Robert Louis Stevenson difcilmente podra haber escrito una novela ms freudiana que El doctor Jekyll y el seor Hyde, famosa en todo el mundo. Por pura intuicin, compuso un relato que, sin duda, se adelant a su tiempo, anticipando, casi con precisin de manual, la teora psicoanaltica de las tres divisiones de la psique en id, ego y superego (ello, yo y superyo). El doctor Jekyll y el seor Hyde es la historia de un hombre con una personalidad dividida, arrastrado compulsivamente a satisfacer unos placeres srdidos y alternativamente pesaroso y arrepentido de sus pecados. Tomando en consideracin todo esto, el seor Hyde, que merodea durante la noche en busca de aventuras sexuales, libre de cualquier sensacin de desasosiego por cuestiones de conciencia, honor o decoro, es el monstruo que, secretamente, todos queremos ser. El doctor Jekyll y el seor Hyde se origin en una pesadilla que Stevenson tuvo en 1888, cuando estaba enfermo de tuberculosis. Se despert sacudido por un sobresalto en el momento en que el doctor Jekyll se transforma por primera vez en su indeseable otra mitad. Despus de esto, a Stevenson slo le llev algunos das redactar la versin final. La triste historia del maduro y respetable doctor Henry Jekyll es leda por su abogado en
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s ofree rein: To give Gl Hideousness: y r Forgivable: a s Starchy: lo Kindle: G Liar:

juerga, diversin. Brothel: burdel. To drown: ahogar. dar rienda suelta. fealdad, monstruosidad. perdonable. estirado. encender, provocar. mentiroso. echar la culpa.

ry a

confeccionar.

To cast blame:

un diario manuscrito redactado por el doctor durante su terrible aventura personal. Mediante la administracin de una droga que l mismo elabor, el doctor no slo sufre alteraciones en su comportamiento, sino que tambin se ve transformado fsicamente. Se siente ms joven, ms feliz, ms libre. El victoriano doctor se libera de su aburrida existencia y persigue una excitante vida de diversiones nocturnas, frecuentando los burdeles ms exclusivos de Londres, ahogndose en champn, dando rienda suelta a las ms salvajes fantasas sexuales y todo tipo de transgresiones de que un ser humano sea capaz. El buen doctor llega a la conclusin de que todos tenemos, al menos, dos personalidades distintas en nuestro interior y que, muchas veces, las convenciones sociales nos exigen reprimir nuestros deseos ms secretos. Las simpatas del lector estn sin duda con el seor Hyde, a pesar de los evidentes esfuerzos de Stevenson por hacerlo poco atractivo. En realidad, su fealdad y su corta estatura hacen que parezca ms fcil de perdonar, sobre todo en comparacin con el estirado y pomposo doctor, y despierta la compasin del lector. Adems, Hyde, por lo menos, es sincero y autntico, mientras que el doctor Jekyll es un mentiroso y trata de echar a otros la culpa de cualquier crimen.
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jekyll and Mr. hyde

One cant help wondering where Stevensons own sympathies really lay, as that author was himself eternally torn between two worlds and two ways of life. His nightmare opens up all sorts of possibilities. In 1892, the writer, pipe in hand, told fantastic tales seated on the terrace of his bungalow on the island of Upolu in the South Seas. Round about him was a deferential audience comprised of his wife, her children, and a group of Samoan notables. To the latter, Stevenson was known as Tusitala, the story-teller. At the time, he was forty-two and only had a few more years to live. He had always been a restless man. The seas of his native Scotland had attracted him ever since he was a boy, and his life was, in effect, one unending physical and spiritual journey: canoe trips along the waterways of France and Belgium, or the long trek to California across the vast prairies of North America by train and on the back of a mule; imaginary wanderings from a modest port-town inn and from there to a treasure island in the Caribbean, through the shadowy alleyways of London with Mr Hyde or across the Atlantic Ocean with David Balfour.

Unfortunately, he suffered from ill-health. A diagnosis of tuberculosis brought an end to his life of adventure: a last voyage in 1888, aboard his yacht The Helmet, took him to the archipelago of Samoa. There, on one of the islands, he bought a small house, which he named in native fashion, Vailima (five rivers) and where he spent what time was left him enjoying the balmy climate and writing beautiful descriptions of the luxuriant plants and of native life. During his last few years, Stevenson, like the painter Gauguin, fell profoundly in love with the South Sea islands and led a quiet, pleasant life, though perhaps one that was a bit self-centred, not unlike Hemingway in Cuba or Ian Fleming in Jamaica. In 1894, he had gone down to the cellar to get a bottle of Burgundy and come back up and was helping his daughter to lay the table when he suddenly suffered a stroke and fell unconscious to the floor. Two hours later he was dead. Surprisingly, he had died not from tuberculosis but from a cerebral haemorrhage. A present-day visitor to Scotland cannot help but be continually reminded of that nations three greatest literary figures: the poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott, the poet Robert

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ry Alleyway: sa Ill-health: o ry l Aboard: a G a r y Helmet:o s Balmy: Trek: s y Luxuriant: Wanderings: o Gl Self-centred: a r Shadowy: Gl Cellar: o s Stroke: Gl
To lie (lay, lain): yacer, mentir. To tear (torn, torn): desgarrar. Restless: inquieto. Waterway:
andanzas. va de agua, va fluvial. viaje largo y difcil. sombro. callejn. mala salud. a bordo de. casco. balsmico. exuberante. egocntrico. bodega, stano. apopleja, ataque fulminante.
Uno no puede dejar de preguntarse de qu lado estaban las propias simpatas de Stevenson, ya que el propio autor estuvo eternamente desgarrado entre dos mundos y dos maneras de vivir. Su pesadilla da pie a todo tipo de posibilidades. En 1892, el escritor, pipa en mano, contaba relatos fantsticos sentado en la terraza de su bungal en la isla de Upolu, en los Mares del Sur. A su alrededor haba un pblico respetuoso, compuesto por su esposa, sus hijos y un grupo de notables de Samoa. Para estos ltimos, Stevenson era conocido como Tusitala, el contador de cuentos. En aquella poca, tena cuarenta y dos aos y slo le quedaban algunos aos de vida. Siempre haba sido un hombre incansable. Los mares de su Escocia natal lo atrajeron desde que era un muchacho, y su vida fue, en efecto, un interminable viaje, real y espiritual: viajes en canoa a lo largo de las vas fluviales de Francia y Blgica, o el largo y difcil viaje hasta California, en tren y a lomos de una mula, a travs de las vastas praderas de Norteamrica; andanzas imaginarias desde la modesta posada de un puerto y de all a una isla del tesoro en el Caribe, por los sombros callejones de Londres con el seor Hyde o a travs del ocano Atlntico con David Balfour.
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Desgraciadamente, sufra una mala salud. Un diagnstico de tuberculosis puso fin a su vida de aventuras: en 1888, un largo viaje a bordo de su yate The Helmet (El casco), lo llev al archipilago de Samoa. All, en una de sus islas, compr una pequea casa, que nombr al modo nativo, Vailina (cinco ros), donde pas el tiempo que le quedaba disfrutando de su clima benfico y escribiendo hermosas descripciones de la exuberante vegetacin y de la vida de los nativos. Durante sus ltimos aos, Stevenson, como el pintor Gauguin, se enamor profundamente del las islas de los Mares del Sur y llev una vida tranquila y placentera, aunque quizs un poco egocntrica, no muy distinta a la de Hemingway en Cuba o Ian Fleming en Jamaica. En 1894, haba bajado a la bodega a buscar una botella de borgoa y haba vuelto a subir. Estaba ayudando a su hija a poner la mesa cuando, de repente, sufri un ataque fulminante y cay al suelo inconsciente. Dos horas ms tarde estaba muerto. Sorprendentemente, no haba muerto de tuberculosis, sino de una hemorragia cerebral. Hoy en da, un visitante de Escocia no puede evitar que le recuerden continuamente a las tres mayores figuras literarias de la nacin: el poeta y novelista sir Walter Scott, el poeta
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jekyll and Mr. hyde

Burns, and the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. Edinburgh boasts majestic monuments to all three and there are a number of houses converted into museums dedicated to them scattered about the countryside. Their works occupy a place of honour in book shops. Each in his own way well represented the soul, the land, and the way of life of the Scottish people. But in all likelihood, it was Stevenson who best articulated the Scots yearning for adventure and love of the sea. He learnt that love of the sea from his father, whom he frequently accompanied on his voyages to the windswept islands of the North Sea. From his father he also learnt to shun the religious scruples that tormented men in the Victorian era. Perhaps this split between worlds one so free and open and the other so closed helps to explain how the same person could write such a thoroughly romantic work as The Black Arrow and another so Victorian in its combination of realism and fantasy as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The former is a look back into history, an exercise in literary nostalgia; the latter is a tale of terror on a par with the works of Edgar Allan Poe or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Stevensons other literary jewel is Treasure Island. An inn near the sea and an orphan. With this simple starting point Stevenson constructed the most fascinating tale of pirates and treasure ever told. Of it, Fernando Savater writes in his Childhood Recaptured: The purest narrative style that I know of, which with singular perfection unites elements of initiation with those of the epic, the shadows of violence and the macabre with the incomparable splendour of victorious audacity, the essence of maritime adventure which is always absolutely perfect adventure with the subtle complexity of the first and decisive moral choice; in short, Treasure Island is the most beautiful story that has ever been told. There are some who say that motion pictures owe more to Robert Louis Stevenson that they do to the Lumire Brothers. They are not so far off the mark. The man who penned such novels as The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae is the spiritual father of the swashbuckling genre. In the same way, Carlos Clarens, author of the work Horror Movies, refers to two of Stevensons tales, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Suicide Club, as pioneer works of the horror genre which have been filmed any number of times. And Treasure Island is doubtless the original pirate movie.

Scattered: esparcido, Yearning: To shun:

repartido. fuerte deseo, ansia.

Windswept:

azotado por el viento.

dar la espalda, rehuir.

Gl

sa o

ry

Thoroughly: On a par:
ser equivalente a. Inn: posada.

absolutamente, francamente.

os Swashbuckling genre: Gl
gnero de aventuras.

ry a
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Otra joya literaria de Stevenson es La isla del tesoro. Una posada cerca del mar y un hurfano. Con este sencillo punto de partida, Stevenson construy el relato de piratas y tesoros ms fascinante que se haya contado. De l escribe Fernando Savater en La infancia recuperada: La narracin ms pura que conozco, la que rene con perfeccin ms singular lo inicitico y lo pico, las sombras de la violencia y lo macabro con el fulgor incomparable de la audacia victoriosa, el perfume de la aventura marinera que siempre es la aventura ms perfecta, la aventura absoluta con la sutil complejidad de la primera y decisiva eleccin moral, en una palabra, la historia ms hermosa que jams me han contado es La isla del tesoro. (El texto entre comillas no es una traduccin, es el texto original de F. Savater.) Hay quien dice que el cine le debe ms a Robert Louis Stevenson que a los hermanos Lumire. No andan muy descaminados. El hombre que escribi novelas como La flecha negra y El seor de Ballantrae es el padre espiritual del gnero de aventuras. De igual manera, Carlos Clarens, autor de la obra Pelculas de terror, cita dos de los relatos de Stevenson, El doctor Jekyll y el seor Hyde y El club de los suicidas, como obras pioneras del gnero de terror que se han filmado muchas veces. Y La isla del tesoro es, sin duda, el origen de las pelculas de piratas.
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Robert Burns y el novelista Robert Louis Stevenson. Edimburgo luce con orgullo majestuosos monumentos de los tres y hay varias casas convertidas en museos dedicadas a ellos repartidas por las zonas rurales. Sus obras ocupan un lugar de honor en las libreras. Cada uno a su modo, representaron el alma, la tierra y el modo de vida del pueblo escocs, pero con toda probabilidad, fue Stevenson el que mejor articul el deseo de aventura y el amor al mar de los escoceses. Aprendi ese amor al mar de su padre, a quien acompaaba frecuentemente en sus viajes a las islas, azotadas por los vientos, del Mar del Norte. De su padre aprendi tambin a dar la espalda a los escrpulos religiosos que atormentaban a los hombres de la poca victoriana. Quiz esta divisin entre dos mundos uno tan libre y abierto y el otro muy cerrado ayude a explicar cmo la misma persona pudo escribir una obra tan romntica como La flecha negra y otra tan victoriana en su combinacin de realismo y fantasa como El doctor Jekyll y el seor Hyde. La primera es una mirada hacia la historia, un ejercicio de nostalgia literaria, la segunda es un relato de terror equivalente a las obras de Edgar Allan Poe o sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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jekyll and Mr. hyde

The first Hollywood Jekyll and Hyde was filmed in 1908. The Suicide Club was filmed for the first time in 1914, and in 1920 there was a Treasure Island with a young Shirley Manson playing the part of the cabin boy Jim Hawkins. It was directed by Maurice Tourneur. Some great actors have interpreted Stevensons characters. The best in the double role of Dr Jekyll and the repulsive Hyde was Fredric March in 1932, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, though there are those who prefer John Barrymore, who in 1921 enacted the famous transformation scene without resorting to any make-up whatsoever. The worst, or at least the most criticised, was Spencer Tracy, who attempted the part in 1941. It seems that Somerset Maugham once visited Metro Studios when they were shooting a scene with Tracy, and the British writer all innocence quipped: Who is he being now, Jekyll or Hyde? To this list must now be added the latest version of Jekyll and Hyde. The movie is Stephen Frearss Mary Riley and stars John Malkovich as the ill-fated doctor and Julia Roberts as his housekeeper. Almost a hundred motion pictures based on his stories over the course of cinematic history is a hard record to beat, though of course not all are what could be called truly memorable. The vitality of Stevensons stories has helped them to attain the status of popular classics. Again and again, the motion picture industry has returned to his books for inspiration in what can be regarded as an ongoing tribute to the Scottish author.

To resort: recurrir. To quip:

decir humorsticamente, sarcsticamente. Ill-fated: funesto.

To beat (a record): batir (un rcord). To attain: conseguir. Ongoing:

ininterrumpido.

lo G

ry a

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El primer Jekyll y Hyde hecho en Hollywood se film en 1908. El club de los suicidas se film por primera vez en 1914 y en 1920 se hizo una Isla del tesoro con una jovencita Shirley Manson interpretando el papel del grumete Jim Hawkins. Fue dirigida por Maurice Tourneur. Grandes actores han interpretado los personajes de Stevenson. El mejor en el doble papel del doctor Jekyll y el repulsivo Hyde fue Fredric March, en 1932, dirigido por Robert Mamoulian, aunque hay quienes prefieren a John Barrymore, que en 1921 interpret la famosa escena de la transformacin sin recurrir a ningn tipo de maquillaje. El peor, o por lo menos el ms criticado, fue Spencer Tracy, que abord el personaje en 1941. Parece ser que Somerset Maugham visit los estudios de la Metro en una ocasin en la que estaban rodando una escena con Tracy, y el escritor ingls todo candor dijo humorsticamente: Ahora quin es, Jekyll o Hyde ? A esta lista debe aadirse la ltima versin de Jekyll y Hyde. La pelcula es Mary Riley, de Stephen Frears, protagonizada por John Malkovich como el funesto doctor y Julia Roberts como su ama de llaves. Casi cien pelculas basadas en sus relatos, a lo largo de la historia del cine es un rcord difcil de batir, aunque, por supuesto, no todas son lo que podramos llamar memorables. La vitalidad de los relatos de Stevenson ha ayudado a stos a obtener la categora de clsicos populares. Una y otra vez, la industria del cine se ha fijado en sus obras buscando inspiracin en lo que puede ser considerado como un ininterrumpido tributo al autor escocs.
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