[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by FryeDwight

I guess in the most vulgar parlance I can think of was He had a major desire to get laid, hence all the panting to get married. And while Muriel is out of town , he goes to see Ivy, but "undercover" as it were, to not have damage to his Victorian image/reputation.

Seriously, he wanted to separate the two selves of human psyche and have the best of both worlds without anyone knowing. In the excellent Greg Mark commentary (Greg is my favorite for these, good writer and cool guy), he compares Hyde at first as a young puppy or kitten, more mischievous than anything else-He also looks a LOT like Jimmy McNulty from THE WIRE in his first change. As time goes on, Hyde's baser instincts come out and he truly becomes a Monster.

I think you're right, in a way, on both accounts, that is in your first paragraph, you may be saying the potion is the vehicle for him to get laid in secret and 'not damage his Victorian image/reputation'. And in your second paragraph you're noting the film's, may I say, ridiculous theory about the good of separating the good man and the animal man -- which is not in the novel, and something I didn't like about the film.

You didn't mention what you thought the potion represented. In the short story (only about 170pgs), I think it's alluded to even more than in this or other films. I kind of think it's a bit obvious. I think it's alcohol. For many throughout history it's the potion that causes inhibition, and for some allows, or causes, people to lose contact with their higher brain function, empathy, morality, love and self control. Of course it's also a symbol for whatever else acts to do the same thing... a theory, a practice and societal system. But he does drink it, doesn't he?

Here's a quote from the film about the why he made the potion (which is not in the short story).

The soul of man.
My analysis of this soul,
the human psyche...
It leads me to believe
that man is not truly one...
but truly two.
One of him strives for the nobilities of life.
This we call his good self.
The other
seeks an expression of impulses...
that bind him to some dim animal relation
with the earth.
This, we may call the bad.
These two carry out an eternal struggle
in the nature of man...
yet they are chained together.
And that chain spells
repression to the evil.
Remorse to the good.
Now, if these two selves
could be separated from each other...
how much freer the good in us would be.
What heights it might scale.
And the so-called evil, once liberated...
would fulfill itself and trouble us no more.
I believe the day is not far off...
when this separation will be possible.
In my experiments, I have found...
that certain chemicals have the power....
Tell me, he can split me in two
like a jolly amoeba.

So, in the bold, is where it's ridiculous, that is, it doesn't really make any sense within itself. Liberate evil to fulfill itself so it troubles us no more? I'm guessing he means do it, the animal impulses, to get it out of your system? Yeah, like that ever worked. Both the book and film do point to the same thing, in that, even so with the alcoholic, the more this activity is done, the more it entrenches itself into the person/brain/psyche/soul, not the other way around. It, 'evil', or unchecked selfishness, and insanity, emerges even without the potion, and can't be reversed even with the antidote, so to speak.

Of course I recommend reading the short story, as it's only 170 pages. Love to hear what you think.