Queer Theories in Physics and Chemistry and The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde

The Unfixed Identities in Jacky Kay’s Physics and Chemistry and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Introduction

            The term “Queer Theory”first used by an Italian author and professor, Teresa de Lauretis refers to an approach of understanding sexuality in a manner different from the traditional views. Queer theory proposes the abandonment of assigning people specific identities based on their description because identities are not fixed (Butler 1990). The queer theory posits that homosexuality and heterosexuality are not fixed classifications, and individuals are often in a condition of doing straightness or queerness (Butler 1990). The short story Physics and Chemistry by Jacky Kay presents the life of two lesbian teachers who are staying in the same house as a couple and whose sexual identity is considered “unaccepted”by the school. The teachers, Physics and Chemistry have another lesbian couple friend that visits them, but due to the restraints placed by the society on sexual identity, neither of the couples speak openly about their sexual identity. Apart from that, other teachers in the school consider the females as spinsters who have taken too long to get married something that somehow bothers the ladies but which they cannot respond to because they fear the reaction of the others. Lesbianism, therefore, remains a condition that is not publicly discussed and towards the end of the story the teachers are dismissed from their jobs because parents cannot have their children taught by lesbians. Likewise, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Stevenson is a story about sexual identity. Stevenson’s novel tells of Dr Jekyll who transforms into Mr Hyde, and when he wears the Mr Hyde personality, he becomes an evil person who commits crimes in the town. Stevenson’s presentation of the Mr Hyde version of Dr Jekyll shows that the idea of suppressing an identity because it is not accepted in the society and branded evil. Since being a homosexual is considered a crime, Dr Jekyll struggles to retain the identity accepted by the community but cannot help slipping into his condition of queerness. The given paper, therefore, uses the queer theory to analyze the events, themes and characterization in the two stories to establish how sexual identity was perceived in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century.

Struggle for Sexual Identity in Physics and Chemistry

            The tenets of queer theory explain that gender and sexuality are on a continuum and therefore there is no specific gender or sexual orientation as the society would want it to appear. Judith Butler explains that gender is an unremitting activity that is performed in part without an individual’s knowledge or willingness (Butler 1990). The process of getting to identify oneself as a lesbian is not easy in an environment where minds are set on specific identities. That is what the protagonist in Kay’s story Physics goes through in the process identifying herself as a lesbian. At first, Physics is unhappy, and she appears alienated because of her own identity. Physics has explicitly trouble being considered a female as Kay puts it,“...When pupils referred to Physics and chemistry as the Science Spinsters, Physics always pretended not to hear”(Kay 2002: 214). Apart from that, the narrator indicates that Physics is uncomfortable with her physical features such as having more hair on her top lip as well as large hands and long bones in the face. At some point, a student mentions that Physics looks like a man because she has a moustache but the protagonist says nothing to that probably struggling from within to establish her identity (Kay 2002). Here Physics is presented as hiding from herself and other characters in the story because she is in denial of her sexual orientation. 

            The hidden identity is also exhibited by the pseudonym Kay gives Physics. Throughout the story, the author does not provide the protagonist’s full names. Kay makes Physics situation different in that at least the reader learns of Chemistry’s real name as Miss Iris Gibson and also refers to the lesbian couple from Lenzie High School by their real names Rosemary and Nancy as well as using their nicknames P.E and Music. Kay intentionally conceals Physics real identity to show the alienation of that character from her own identity. Probably Physics has female names which she would rather not use because she does not consider herself female and would instead remain in the shadows of “Physics”. Moreover, Physics refers to her partner using her pseudonym as it is during the heated exchange in Mr. Smart’s office that Physics spontaneously refers to her partner as “Chemistry”throwing Mr. Smart into confusion. All these references are used to mask the protagonist’s real identity from the world in response to an external oppressive force exhibited by other characters who judge her based on her appearance.

            Physics goes through the distinct phases of sexual identity. The first stage involves being unhappy and alienated from her personality, the second stage is the loss of the person to which she has anchored her identity, the third is crisis period of uncertainty and experimentation and the last step is where she begins to forge a new sense of herself. Some of the sentiments made by the other characters in Kay’s story tend to push Physics into the second stage of loss of identity. Butler conveys that the concept of gender is like a script which once rehearsed becomes a reality as human actions (Butler 1990). However, the pressures of society consider some realities of gender as normative and others as non-normative (Butler 1990). Individuals who at first think their actions fall under the normative description often lose the self-identity when they begin realizing that the society thinks otherwise of them just as it happens to Physics. While Physics is a female teacher, some students make observations about her physical appearance that links her to the males. Physics, therefore, has to lose that female identity first for her to regain her new identity which is not male either.

            The language Kay uses and characterization also help to identify the stages that an individual goes through towards attaining sexual identity. While in the phase of crisis and experimentation, Physics and Chemistry both face legislation of their lives by other characters who wish to prescribe marriage life between man and a woman as the only livable one. Mrs. Fife, for instance, tells Chemistry that she is not embarrassed talking about marriage to her because she would have easily gotten married if she wanted to. Here Mrs. Fife brings out two ideas, one that Chemistry is late for marriage and that is queer because at her age she should be with a husband or a family. The second idea is that Mrs. Fife compares Chemistry to Physics and insinuates that Chemistry being more feminine should have been married. Physics, on the other hand, exhibits masculine features and therefore, it would be “embarrassing”for Mrs. Fife to discuss the subject of marriage because unlike Chemistry, Physics would not have easily gotten married even if she had wanted. What is more, when Chemistry tells Mrs. Fife to call her a “single woman”instead of a “spinster”, Physics fumes an indication that she is not pleased by the identification of Chemistry as either a spinster or a single woman because to her Chemistry is an intimate partner.

            Still, on the experimental stage, Physics demonstrates what Butler explains as the performance of the rehearsed gender script by being uncomfortable to express herself as a lesbian but becomes alive when ignited by Chemistry’s actions. Kay’s narrator tells the reader that Physics was deprived of affection as a child since “She had never been hugged in her life until she met Chemistry”(Kay 2002:216). Physics does not initiate sex in bed and leaves it to Chemistry but responds positively. The positive responses are an indication of her experimentation with the new self which she slowly learns to accept. Physics does not permit Chemistry to touch her anywhere else apart from the bed, and they do not talk about their nights of sexual intimacy an indication that the rehearsal to new self is not a one-time event.

            Since the queer theory is about taking a stand against the official standard, it becomes a complicated journey for many who discover that they do not conform to what is considered reasonable by the society. Sometimes it is the society’s condemnation of an individual as evil or immoral that helps a person get liberated and wholly accept their new status. The fourth stage of sexual identity which is forging a new sense of herself emerges when the school principal confronts Physics with her sexual identity. The narrator says that Physics and Chemistry’s life changed from that day they were sacked. Physics accepted her identity as a lesbian and no longer struggled to inhibit her feelings. She started kissing Chemistry in the kitchen, walked down the streets holding her hands and made love to her in any place within their house. Physics even stopped wearing skirts. (Kay 2002:222-223). Physics had finally identified herself as a lesbian and accepted that identity.

The Case of Identity Struggle in Dr Jekyll

            Stevenson presents the idea of mistaken identity in which Dr Jekyll transforms into Mr. Hyde, but their character traits are opposite of each other. In this story, Stevenson uses mistaken identity to describe the struggle individuals go through when they begin to experience and adopt queer characters that are not considered standard in their society. The author having written the story in the nineteenth century could not do anything else other than criminalize homosexuality to reflect how the community perceived sexual orientations that differed from straightness. The protagonist in Stevenson’s novel has difficulties coming to terms with his identity because he is overly exposed to a society that defines gender based on how a person looks and expects sexual orientation to conform to that gender.

            Just like Kay did with character naming, Stevenson uses the word “hide”to create Dr. Jekyll’s other name “Hyde”.  That name suggests that the person is concealing something from the public and that thing is his love for men in almost the same measure as women. It relates to the first stage of sexual identity where an individual becomes alienated from his or her identity. Dr Jekyll considers homosexual people as monsters and knowing that he identifies as one drives him to keep that secret from all the other characters in the story. Dr Jekyll is at first scared when he discovers that he is transforming into Mr Hyde and he questions his identity as in, “... It shook the very fortress of identity”(Stevenson 1990:54). Judith Butler’s statement that the efforts to identify the enemy as singular in form does not offer a different set of terms and only mimics the strategy of the oppressor best explains the disbelief that Dr Jekyll has in discovering that he can be Mr Hyde ( Butler 1990). Hence, Jekyll could not allow the Hyde personality to dominate because being gay during his time was only considered monstrous without any other optional terminologies that could separate that kind of sexual practice from immorality. Open identification as Mr. Hyde based on the story would turn Dr Jekyll in to pay for the crimes he had committed in London. In the same way, openly identifying himself as a homosexual would earn him a severe punishment. That even explains why the story ends with suicide as Dr Jekyll opts to die when Hyde starts to take over his body rather than live as an individual that does not conform to societal norms.

            Unlike Physics who after discovering her sexuality feels liberated and moves on with life as a proud lesbian, Dr Jekyll feels liberated as Hyde but his perception of the Hyde self as an enemy due to the society’s influence and restraints leads him to reject Hyde’s body.

            The queer theory notion that heterosexuality or straightness is not legitimate can also be used to understand the dual identity of Dr Jekyll. What is considered monstrous is the homosexual aspect of Dr Jekyll, but the heterosexual side is viewed as normal. Dr Jekyll, therefore, comes out as a bisexual who can serve in both identities. He can be the “straight’ man who experiences sexual intimacy with a female individual, but he can also comfortably have an intimate sexual relationship with a man. Holding dual identity is confusing as seen in the characterization of Dr Jekyll and mar Hyde and it only takes a matter of practice to be those two aspects. In his defense, Dr Jekyll explains that:

            ...From the nature of my life, advanced infallibly in one direction and in one direction          only. It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the   thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in   the field of my consciousness, even if I could slightly be said to be either, it was only       because I was radically both... (Stevenson 1990: 74).

Dr Jekyll’s statement above can be analyzed using the ideology of queer theory that homosexuality and heterosexuality are not fixed identities, and neither are the phases of development in life. Based on that, bisexuality cannot be described as half straight and half gay. The condition is like a fluid that can spill in more significant amounts to either side such that at times the person likes men more and at other times the individual is attracted to women more.

            Both Physics and Chemistry

and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde revolve around the challenges that individuals face in search of the sexual identity. The problems associated with sexual identity emanate from the society’s nature of not accepting the non-conforming. Physics and Dr Jekyll find it difficult to express their different selves without hiding and instead of being proud of who they are, they are ashamed until they fully discover how liberating it is to be identified as non-conforming. Queer theory broadens the discussion on individual identity and forms criticisms on how societal influences, as well as the gender factor, contribute to the way in which a person maintains, creates or even changes identity. Based on that, it is apparent that the societal norms and the gender factor are significant barriers in the process of self-identification. The two factors cause people to undergo repression of their true selves to fit within the category for which they are identified. Physics has challenges trying to hide her lesbian personality just in the same way Dr. Jekyll does not want people to know that he is also Mr Hyde. The outcomes of the stories are not good. The two teachers are fired and have to look for alternative jobs while Mr. Hyde dies out of fear of being identified as the queer person in the society. These bad endings are the result of the society’s failure to fully accept the fact that gender is a continuously performed activity that is not static and people can exhibit various performances of the gender script to emerge as heterosexuals, bisexuals, homosexuals and lesbians. The two texts serve as a warning to members of the society that they must be willing to embrace the differences and accept the exceptional.

References

Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble. New York: Routledge. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble. New   York: Routledge.

Kay, J. (2002). Physics and Chemistry. In: J. Kay, ed., Why Don’t You Stop Talking. Picador,           pp.210-223.

Stevenson, R. (1990). The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Lincoln: University of         Nebraska Press.