Thursday, October 1, 2009

Randy Behavior’s poem “Both of Me” shows the duality of the Apollonian and Dionysian sides of humans that was apparent in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Behavior writes in the first 4 lines of his poem, “There are two sides to me, they battle here for supremacy, one mindful and mannered, the other ripe and reinvented,” implying that he is torn between the Apollonian and Dionysian principles. One side of him has the traditional Apollonian traits: reserve, reason, and thought. The other side of him is more like a Dionysian: chaotic, emotional, and sensual. Behavior writes further on in the poem, “Now under your gaze, ashamed, I want to hide this wanton girl away” proving that when he is conflicted between these two personalities he is embarrassed by himself and wants to hide one of his sides. By hiding one of these personalities he feels he can become a person with a single personality. This can be easily related to the part of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when Jekyll is conflicted between himself and Hyde. At this point he is unsure of who he wants to be and struggles to decide which personality to keep and which to discard.

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