Jekyll acknowledges experiencing a distinct sense of liberation when he transforms into the "shadow side" of his personality. Upon becoming Hyde, he observes, "I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy ... an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul." This newfound freedom arises from the expression of his inner desires, which he had to repress as a respectable Victorian gentleman.