This video compares Frankenstein’s relationship with his monster with Dr. Jekyll’s relationship with Mr. Hyde to conclude that our ultimate and strongest goal is to have a good image of ourselves in the questioning of who we are, and explores how this is revealed in both relationships.
The video starts with Frankenstein getting ready for the day (in the blue blazer; I gave him a name tag, but it isn’t visible), when he is suddenly confronted with the image of his daemon, speaking to him from the mirror. This would correspond to the scene at the top of the glacier on Montanvert where Frankenstein speaks with his monster who recounts his life, begging Frankenstein for love and help. We can see Frankenstein’s initial horror at seeing his monster and how he turns away from him, refusing to help him. The mirror effect explains Frankenstein’s reaction in the real story, where he fully rejects his monster because he sees that it is a reflection of himself, and he is not capable of being confronted to that.
The second scene portrays Dr. Jekyll in the brown blazer taking his potion to give existence to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde erupts from Dr. Jekyll and appears in the mirror, showing that he is fully part of Dr. Jekyll but with this potion he becomes external. We can see Dr. Jekyll’s satisfaction with his work, which contrasts with Frankenstein’s horror with regards to the monster he created. Mr. Hyde is all the bad of Dr. Jekyll, or at least that’s what Dr. Jekyll wants in order to avoid needing to feel guilty for his actions. If someone else does those bad actions, if his bad part is separate from his original self, it’s not his responsibility anymore. He doesn’t understand that Mr. Hyde is still a reflection of him and not an entirely separate being, especially because he chooses to release this evil into the world every time he takes the potion to turn into him. This is what the mirror attempts to show.
The next scene consists of flashes between Mr. Hyde and the daemon, superposing them in a way, saying that like Mr. Hyde, the daemon is all the bad of Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s monster was born good, it is only after that he becomes evil, out of Frankenstein’s treatment of him. The monster specifically explains this in his recounting of his life, saying that he desperately wanted to be good but Frankenstein’s hate as well as the hate he was constantly faced with from other people due to his horrific nature, which Frankenstein created, made him turn into an evil creature. Thus, his evil comes from Frankenstein, and because Frankenstein created him in this way, he is responsible for it.
Neither Frankenstein nor Dr. Jekyll take responsibility for their actions as the preservation of their image is more important than being good. We can see this clearly in the event of Justine’s death as Frankenstein chooses to let her be executed instead of coming clean about the monster he created. He says it’s because he was scared of being labeled crazy, but after years of work, he could’ve easily gathered evidence of his accomplishment. Dr. Jekyll exhibits this character when he denies any guilt for the actions he commits as Mr. Hyde.
When Dr. Jekyll and Frankenstein are ultimately confronted with their alter egos in the mirror, they have very different reactions. Frankenstein immediately begins to question himself and realizes that the monster he sees in front of him, he is actually seeing him and the monster is him. He is horrified of his monster, but because of the mirror, he brings this horror back to himself. He tries to justify himself, to explain that he is not that reflection, but even he does not believe what he is saying. Eventually, the daemon jumps out of the mirror to fully impersonate Frankenstein. At that moment, the reality is too unbearable for Frankenstein as his image of himself is destroyed, so in the last attempt for salvation by killing his monster, he ends up dying. In the real story he doesn’t kill his daemon, but he does kill the evil. When Frankenstein dies, all his cruelty dies with him, and the monster is free to be good again.
On his side, Dr. Jekyll’s initial reaction is to laugh as he does not believe that Mr. Hyde is a reflection of him and he rejects all responsibility. Dr. Jekyll is in contempt until Mr. Hyde gets reabsorbed into him, corresponding to the moment in the real story when even the potion is not enough to remain good. He then alternates between being shocked and afraid that his bad side has caught up with him as Dr. Jekyll, and being happy that he can finally be evil as Mr. Hyde. When he finally realizes that he is stuck in this body and he is not able to escape the guilt anymore, he decides in the video and in the real story, to end his life.
When they understand the mirror, both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll search for redemption, to try to correct their mistakes, which ultimately leads to their death. Frankenstein chases his monster to the ends of the earth until he dies, and Dr. Jekyll decides to commit suicide. They die for their monsters because as humans, we can escape our guilt. We can’t run from our responsibility; it will catch up with us. To further illustrate this, the video shows Frankenstein strangling himself at the end of the video, which echoes the daemon’s strangling of William, showing that he understands his guilt and he cannot bear to have this vision of himself so he drives himself to death.
Ultimately, the need to see ourselves as good drives them to death. Frankenstein’s storytelling of his miseries to Watson shows a last attempt to preserve his image, as does Dr. Jekyll’s letter to Mr. Utterson. Dr. Jekyll even lets Dr. Lanyon die just to preserve his image when he knew Mr. Hyde would overtake him but he didn’t want the world to know and he wanted to be able to control the narrative of how the story would be told.
The video ends with a picture of an artwork saying “who?” as is reflected by the many clothes on the floor in the background, showing that no matter how much we change externally, our core is still the same, and we cannot escape ourselves.