ap_lit_creative_project_jekyll_hyde.mp3 |
Yellow = Jekyll
Red = Hyde
Blue = Narrator
Orange = Both Jekyll and Hyde
Green = Both Jekyll and Narrator
Black = All Three
HYDE: “A day longer” That’s what you always say Waiting for something to change “For our honour” Throwing that in the ashtray With the suppression you thought you’d arrange JEKYLL: Hyde, oh, something’s got into your head What about the promise we’ve made HYDE: Hah! Put it off the table This act’s just a fable Jekyll, your legacy’s about to see doomsday No more Mister Nice Guy Mister Nice Guy’s nowhere to be found The freedom in evil Will cause an upheaval If you lock it up underground | No more Mister Nice Guy No more two-faced misery play Face it, you’re wicked! Being good’s too insipid, I can’t be omitted, I’ll find a way JEKYLL: Hyde! A day longer! Why don’t you trust me? Now all my work’s gone to waste! You’re a first-degree murderer, they all want you dead And if you act rash we’ll regret it for days HYDE: Jekyll, there’s no use. Your advice is in vain- JEKYLL: There’s no choice in this matter, you must abstain! HYDE: NO! You better stay silent Before things get violent |
JEKYLL + HYDE: Unless you want to dig your very own grave There’s no more Mister Nice guy (He’s going too far) Mister Nice guy is burning in flames (I must not give in now) There’s no way to keep him / me away But if I / he stay(s) awake He will sleep, I’ll be free (I might seize victory) No more mister Nice guy Mister Nice Guy is leaving today (I can’t leave) Abandons his legacy, goodbye sweet misery Farewell to the mess we’ve made! | NARRATOR: Jekyll or Hyde, which one do I really align with (Please let me out / You’re one of us / Don’t let him go) Jekyll and Hyde, their voices I’m so intertwined with (Let me out / I’m in control / Don’t let him escape) And all I know Is that he / i deserve(s) nothing but suffering for this mess I’ve / he’s made Today JEKYLL+ HYDE +NARRATOR No more Mister Nice Guy Mister Nice Guy’s got plans he must finish This is our last argument No business with you again I’ll be taking my leave |
Jekyll’s / Hyde’s / I’m evil at the core!
We’re much too inseparable, lost, irreparable
Who’s at the door?
*door breaks, cuing death*
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, edited by Deborah Lutz, 2nd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.
Analysis:
“Mr. Nice Guy” serves as a creative interpretation of Peter K. Garrett’s “Instabilities of Meaning, Morality, and Narration”, in which the narrative voices and messages in Jekyll and Hyde morph into one inseparable tangle. Garrett presents a reading where there is persisting instability in the content and form of the novel. This song serves as an illustration of the reader’s attempt to uncover those instabilities, and ultimately results in the violent death of the narrative voices.
Instability of narration is a crucial element in the song – Jekyll’s voice, Hyde’s voice, and the voice of a morally ambiguous narrator interrupt each other and each try and ‘take over’ the song. Much like how "if [Jekyll] slept, or even dozed for a moment in my chair, it was always as Hyde that [he] awakened" (Stevenson, 57), the song itself always seems to return to Hyde (the final chorus of the song, and the repeated motif of “No more Mister Nice Guy” is all attributed as Hyde’s melodic content). This is a crucial part of Garrett’s argument, too – that the confounding narrative voices in Jekyll’s statement present a “tension between the splitting and joining of persons” (Garrett, 190) that is emblematic of what happens in the storyline. Similarly, I wanted the form of the lyrics to reflect the content, so there are several interruptions and fragmented phrases that display violent attempts to take over.
Instability of identity also exists in the lyrics – there are often times when the “voices” themselves do not know how they identify. Garrett says that “the narrative voice [of the Statement] often refuses identification with Hyde…[but] can also merge completely with Hyde.” By creating a voice that is both Jekyll and Hyde, essentially there is also a voice that is neither. This is the “narrator” in the lyrics, who – although rejecting identification with Jekyll and Hyde – is really similar to both of them. Both Jekyll and Hyde repeat “You’re one of us”, reminding the narrative voice that there is nothing that makes it an inherently special – or separated – identity.
Finally, there exists a crucial instability of meaning, where phrases can be dually interpreted to be both Jekyll and Hyde speaking. Specifically, three voices conjoin for the phrase “He/i deserve(s) nothing but suffering for this mess I’ve/he’s made”. Here, Jekyll could say "I deserve nothing but suffering for this mess he's made" or "I deserve nothing but suffering for this mess I've made". Both of these interpretations put an emphasis on the appropriateness of his own suffering, which Garrett argues is a double of "Hyde's pleasure for the torture of another" (Garrett, 195). Hyde argues that "He deserves nothing but suffering for this mess I've made", reflecting that pleasure. Finally, the narrator says "He deserves nothing but suffering for this mess he's made". Who “he” is – Jekyll or Hyde – is left purposefully ambiguous to reflect the narrator’s alliance and separation with both entities.
The song finally ends in a violent crash and a mysterious door knock, supposedly from the audience. This reflects our attempts to uncover/make sense of these instabilities, which seems to be a violent act that mirrors Utterson’s violence in trying to uncover the instability of Jekyll and Hyde (“Down with the door, Poole.” (Stevenson, 36). Perhaps – the song argues – it is better we treat the instabilities as enigmas and not separate them, the same way that Jekyll should have left the duality of good and evil as a human enigma and not two separate entities.