Cambley 1

Zoey Cambley

Ms. Moss

English 10H, P.2

21 October 2018

Manipulation Transformation
Manipulation can be seen as an evil entity, yet it can also been seen as a good

entity in some situations. It is the power that someone has to maneuver you to make a choice in

their favor or for their pleasure. Just as this evil versus good trend is in the foundation of

manipulation, it is also found in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis

Stevenson. Self manipulation plays a role with Dr. Jekyll when he is fighting his villainous side

of Mr. Hyde. Though this book does make a good case for the dynamics of manipulation, a more

modern take on a positive manipulation example can be found in Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D.

Schmidt. This journey embarks on a delinquent named Joseph who then becomes the foster

brother of Jack. Jack tries to nudge (manipulate) Joseph to open up about how his life, but

Madeleine was the one who got Joseph to open up and then become happy. Therefore,

manipulation is the primary theme connecting Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Orbiting Jupiter.

Those who relish in the displeasure of others or go out of their way to seek the

unhappiness of others, are manipulators. This conceptual personality can be seen by Mr. Hyde in

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and by Joseph in Orbiting Jupiter. So to understand the mindset of a

manipulator, Abigail Brenner explains the qualities that make up a manipulator. In 9 Classic

Traits of Manipulative People she asserts [that], “A manipulator avoids responsibilities for his

own conduct by blaming others for causing it. Manipulative people prey on our sensibilities,

emotional sensitivity, and especially conscientiousness”. This then correlates with Joseph in

Orbiting Jupiter. When he is explaining what happened with his terrible incident with the

teacher, he did not show remorse for the teacher, nor did he take full responsibility of it. Joseph
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blamed the accident all on the drugs he was given and didn’t even fault himself for being in that

situation. All he expressed was a need to better his life by getting his daughter back. This is then

the first sign of a manipulative behavior in Joseph. Another example of this unaccountable

behavior is expressed by Mr. Hyde, he used Dr. Jekyll’s weakness of having a longing desire to

be able to be two people at once. Mr. Hyde was the little voice in the back of Dr. Jekyll’s head,

influencing him to create the potion in the first place. After relinquishing this pleasure, Dr. Jekyll

thinks he has the perfect split life because his true self doesn’t have to volunteer in these hideous

acts. Mr. Hyde then expands this manipulative personality on others with his acts of crimes. Yet

still conveniences Dr. Jekyll that it’s okay to commit those crimes because technically it’s Mr.

Hyde that is the culprit. He created this crusaid that preyed on Dr. Jekyll’s sensitivity of not

feeling complete his whole life.

The evil side of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, then assumed power over his

consciousness. This is when he notices that his want of being Mr. Hyde is no more, and he is

being manipulative into indulging the villainous side. This realization is declared by Dr. Jekyll,

“It was on this side that my new power tempted me until I fell in slavery” (Stevenson 72). Dr.

Jekyll probably didn’t come to the conclusion that his experiment, Mr. Hyde, would be able to

gain main control. He’s main vision was to be able to have the best of both worlds. Yet with Mr.

Hyde taking human form with his own thoughts and actions, of course he would always want to

be himself and not some half version. So Mr. hyde did every possible trick with maneuvering Dr.

Jekyll. But the real ace up his sleeve was gaining control of being able to transform from Dr.

Jekyll to himself as he pleased. Mr. Hyde needed to have the main control so he could carry out

what he loved most, hurting and manipulating others. Which lead him to commit the murder of

Sir Danvers Carew. Though when Dr. Jekyll realized this, it was much too late. Going with this
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split personality of evil versus good, Joseph also manifests this attribute. Joseph admits that he

was overcame by a unknown being inside himself that was manipulating him to not care about

the risks ahead. This is displayed when Joseph hears about Madeline's death, he explains,

“He didn’t know what was coming over him, but it was huge and terrible and strong. It

was inside him and outside him, and it was already starting to scream, and it was getting

louder and his head was getting louder and his brain was getting louder and he threw

water in his face but he couldn’t stop it he couldn’t stop it he couldn’t stop it he couldn’t

stop it” (Schmidt 82).

Joseph never took the moral fault for trying to kill the teacher, so maybe this is due to him

believing it wasn’t his true self that did the action. The drug that he took, assumed his right state

and released the evil side of Joseph and that’s why he went after the teacher. This other Joseph

coexists with the traits of Mr. Hyde, both being manipulative of their better haves. The evil sides

forced them to do the unthinkable in their right states. But Madeleine’s death is what caused

Joseph to take the drug, though he is still flawed for taking it. Yet both fit the mold for a

manipulator.

When hearing the word manipulation, it can be perceived as very negative and in

most cases is. But there are some incidents where a positive manipulation can take form. In

Situationism, Manipulation, and Objective Self-Awareness Hagop Sarkissian illustrates the ideas

of how manipulation can be used for good. He address how manipulation is used in our daily life

by explaining,

“The precise contours of manipulation are complicated and hard to pin down, partly

because influence and sway are part of the very fabric of social life—T.M. Wilkinson
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notes that people can be manipulated when they go shopping, strike contracts, vote, study

at school, visit their doctors, or take turns to do the housework”.

Yes, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde does have a wicked manipulative theme. Yet

a good manipulation theme can also be argued to be present alongside the evil. This time the

manipulator is the good-hearted Mr. Utterson who is not only a integreible lawyer, but a caring

friend of Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Utterson is the lawyer who manages the will of Dr. Jekyll in the book.

His biggest contribution was drawing to the conclusion that Mr. Hyde did in fact commit all

those terrible crimes, which lead him to raise questions about it to Dr. Jekyll. This forced Dr.

Jekyll to face the music, and realize that being two people at once is no longer possible. Which

then lead him to reveal his activities to a colleague named Dr. Lanyon. Along with trying to get

Dr. Jekyll to reveal the honest truth about Mr. Hyde, Mr. Utterson also tends to Dr. Jekyll as a

supportive friend. He came to his house to question the will, and then throughout the book he

checked on Dr. Jekyll occasionally at his laboratory. By doing this, it forced Dr. Jekyll to try and

make more appearances in society when he is his rightful self. Thus displaying how Mr. Utterson

manipulated Dr. Jekyll in a positive manner. In Orbiting Jupiter Jack attempted to do this for

Joseph, though he only accomplished getting Joseph to open up. Their standard friendship even

resulted in Joseph being comfortable enough to entell his life story to Jack. This did relieve

anguish for Joseph, but the only person that was able to manipulate Joseph that would benefit

him for good, was Madeleine. Meeting her and having a relationship, helped Joseph be content

with his life for a brief time. Madeleine’s manipulation is being used for as a blessing. She was

such an important person in Joseph’s life, all she wanted was for him to be happy. When

explaining this Joseph conveys,

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“They watched movies, they played tennis on clay courts, they walked long walks

through the back acreage, and they swam in the pool. She laughed and sometimes he

laughed too. She never asked him why his face looked so beat up” (Stevenson 70).

This demonstrates the persuasive power Madeline had over Joseph. She was able to convince

him to take a vigorous walk of 7 miles to her house on most days of the summer. Then at her

house, she was able to reach the vulnerable side of Joseph with his troubling thoughts and sad

present of living with his father. She crowded his mind with fond memories of the two of them

doing activities at her house. This lead to him being positively manipulated by her so he could

find happiness in his life. So that’s why when Joseph found out about the death of Madeleine, his

split self was liberated. She was his calm before the storm, and once it ended he became a

hurricane. Him acting out after her death in such a extreme way is the biggest example of her

control on Joseph. Most honest people don’t believe they are being manipulative, but as seen

with Mr. Utterson and Madeleine, it doesn’t necessarily have to be negative. They both were

looking out for important people in their to have them be fulfilled with joy.

A person can’t be born with a manipulative personality trait, it is developed

through their life. Manipulation has to have a driving force that pushes a person to want to see

how they can control others. Marco Brambilla and Paolo Riva wrote about a study, Predicting

Pleasure at Others’ Misfortune: Mortality Trump's Sociability and Competence in Driving

Deservingness and Schadenfreude that was conducted and was based on finding the drive for

manipulation. In their journal they explain,

“Study 1 compared a competent but immoral individual to a competent but unsociable

person and found that people felt more schadenfreude when a misfortune befell an
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individual lacking morality. Study 2 confirmed the primary role of morality in driving

schadenfreude by manipulating not only morality and sociability, but also competence”.

Schadenfreude is having the pleasure of the misfortune of another. It is what drives adverse

manipulation with people full of malice. Although Joseph does display self manipulation, the

real schadenfreude seeker is Joseph’s father. His father was the evil that Madeleine had to

manipulate Joseph to stop dwelling about. Before meeting Madeleine, Joseph was put down by

his father beating him often. The father found the pleasure in destroying any chance of happiness

in Joseph’s life. Even after Madeleine’s death when Joseph was with his foster parents, the only

way the father could torture Joseph was through Jupiter. He postponed the adoption for her so he

could get a benefit and try to remind Joseph that he still had some power. This father had such a

need to feel superior that at the end of the book he kidnapped Joseph which ended tragically with

the both of them driving into the river. In spite of that, Mr. Hyde’s personality also complements

that of Joseph’s father. With seeking to find the misfortune of his victims and lastly, Dr. Jekyll.

When Dr. Jekyll tried to better himself by not taking the potion for a month, but then indulging

Mr. Hyde and took it again. Mr. Hyde was severly repressed for this time being, which made him

act out even worse than before. His authority was threaten and he had to prove his power over

Dr. Jekyll. To illustrate this drive for manipulation, in the last concluding thoughts of Dr. Jekyll

he admits that Mr. Hyde exudes a manipulative personality. An exemplification of this would be,

“This familiar that I called out of my own soul and sent forth alone to do this good

pleasure, was a being inherently malign and villainous; his every act and thought centered

on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of fortune to another;

relentless like a man of stone.” (Stevenson 74).

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Despite Dr. Jekyll coming to this conclusion, it was much too late for him to make any life

altering changes. He saw the villainous side of Mr. Hyde in actuality, but with no solution to

rewind his error of creating the potion in the first place, Dr. Jekyll had to prepare for the worst.

This manipulative force of Mr. Hyde lead him to his demise just like Joseph.

Although most don’t like to admit it, manipulation is everywhere. Parents manipulate

their kids to want to go to college. Commercials manipulate their audience to want to buy their

products. Friends manipulate their friends through gossip of others. Madeleine and Mr. Utterson

manipulated Joseph and Dr. Jekyll to find happiness. Yet manipulation isn’t strictly just for such

mundane occurrences. People with no sense of soul will manipulate others to fail for their

enjoyment. Yet self manipulation also made an appearance with Dr. Jekyll and Joseph and their

evil sides. Manipulation is one of those topics where people look at it through a black and white

lense. It is seen as very heinous without even a consideration of its other complex details that

make up its entity. But most people in society do this with everyday life, and not give a concept

another thought other than being distinctively bad or good. This revelation also coincides with

manipulation because most don’t think that it is in the daily life of society. So instead of being

persuaded by another’s wishes, think is this for their pleasure? Are they being manipulative?

Works Cited
Brambilla, Marco, and Paolo Riva. “Predicting Pleasure at Others’ Misfortune: Morality

Trumps Sociability and Competence in Driving Deservingness and Schadenfreude.”

Motivation and Emotion, vol. 41, no. 2, 2016, pp. 243–253.

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Brenner , Abigail. “9 Classic Traits of Manipulative People.” Psychology Today, Sussex

Publishers, 27 Oct. 2016, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-flux/201610/9-classic-

traits-manipulative-people.

Sarkissian, Hagop. “Situationism, Manipulation, and Objective Self-Awareness.” Ethical Theory

and Moral Practice, vol. 20, no. 3, 2017, pp. 489–493.

Schmidt, Gary D. Orbiting Jupiter. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories. Pan

Macmillan, 2017.