Compare And Contrast Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Compare and contrast the ways in which Shakespeare, Stevenson, and Carter present good and evil in “Macbeth”, “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, “The Bloody Chamber”, “The Company of Wolves”, “The Tiger’s Bride”, and “The Courtship of Mr Lyon”.

The theme of good and evil is prominent throughout these texts. In “Macbeth” we are first greeted by the honourable thane of Glamis, Macbeth, who is described as a war hero: “For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)” and “If I say sooth, I must report that they were / As cannons overcharged with double cracks.” This implies at once that Macbeth is, or appears to be, a force for good, as he is described as a glorified war hero who fought well for his country. The same can be said

about Dr. Jekyll from the “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, as Dr. Jekyll is intelligent and dignified and, therefore, is well respected within the community.
In the “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” good and evil is arguably the most prominent theme, in particular the thought that there exists good and evil within every man. And that is also true in the other texts, such as “Macbeth”, as Macbeth at first appears to be a good, respectable and honest man, but temptation reveals the evilness living within him, making the statement true that there could exist good and evil within every man, and that it depends on the circumstance that the person is in whether or not the evil side of them is displayed. Dr. Jekyll says as much as in his letter he says “man is not truly one, but truly two" which is him believing that every man contains the elements of both good and evil.
Temptation seems to fall hand in hand with the theme of good and evil in these texts, as Macbeth from “Macbeth” falls to the temptation of committing the acts that he did, although it is fair to say he probably wouldn’t have committed those acts if it wasn’t for Lady Macbeth. However, it was still him in the end who did commit them, much like Dr. Jekyll in the “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde“ as he fell to the temptation of wanting to transform into Mr. Hyde, as we see from this quote "...and it was as an ordinary secret sinner that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation."
In “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde” the situation is similar to Macbeth’s. Dr. Jekyll is a well-respected man who comes over as someone who is a force for good, and is indeed so. But the temptation to do something more in life, the ability to act out some of his more evil thoughts and the desire to test the duality of man leads him to becoming Mr Hyde, who is the opposite of the respectable and the apparently good Dr. Jekyll. Therefore, the beginning of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is quite similar to “Macbeth” as both characters appear at first to be good, and are portrayed as so, but as their stories continue they both give in to some temptation or other that leads them to become evil. "I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.” This shows that Dr. Jekyll isn’t in control of himself and that evil is taking over. This is similar to Macbeth as at first he seems satisfied with his situation of being thane of Glamis and thane of Cawdor, noting that he is treated differently, and is continuously honoured by the king;
“He hath honoured me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.”

At this point he is in control, and is content with his current situation, but as the play progresses and Lady Macbeth intervenes we see Macbeth lose control as he gives in to temptation as he does indeed commit the atrocious acts as his greed strikes out from his loyalty to his king.

Many of the elements from “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” can be related to the theme of evil, from the gothic theme surrounding the novella, to Mr. Hyde himself, and even Mr. Hyde’s housekeeper is portrayed as evil, as we see in: “She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy: but her manners were

excellent.”
Masks are also an important element in some of these stories, in “The Tiger’s Bride” we read “although he wears a mask with a man's face painted most beautifully on it”.

From “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” we get "And sometimes that face, [...] seemed to me like a mask, as if his real face, the face that truly reflected all the life he has led in the world before he met me, before even, I was born, as though that face lay underneath this mask." The masks are important as we can deduce that they are hiding the personality underneath, as on first sight both the beasts from “The Tiger’s Bride” and “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” may come over as evil because they are beasts, but inside they are actually not all bad as we learn in both the stories. So masks are used to hide the true personality of these characters which can be linked to the theme of Good and Evil as either one (someone good or evil) may try and hide their true self behind a mask. The rooms in these texts are also very important in the presentation of evil as we get the torture room from “The Bloody Chamber” where the Marquis killed his victims and we have Dr. Jekyll’s lab from “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” where he conducts his experiments and creates the potion to transform himself into Mr. Hyde. There is also Duncan’s chamber from “Macbeth” where Macbeth kills

him.
The tone is set very early in Macbeth, as we are greeted by the three witches who at once add to the supernatural theme, indicating an evil presence. We are told by them that “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” which shows their love for chaos. The third witch mentions the protagonist by name in this first meeting “There to meet with Macbeth” which links him with ominous happenings in the future, again indicating some evil force.
However, Lady Macbeth appears to be the main source of evil, as she is very manipulative and is able to control Macbeth. This is in sharp contrast to Banquo, who seems to be one of the only loyal and trustworthy people in the play, for which he can be held in high regard as he did not fall for the witches’ ploy. Whilst he and Macbeth were present when the witches told Macbeth that he would be king, Banquo shows no interest in what the witches have to say and doubts them at once as we see in these lines:
“That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.”

So whereas Macbeth has instantly fallen for what the witches are saying, Banquo doubts them which shows that he has sense, and that the thought of killing Duncan wouldn’t cross his mind as he is good.

Although it is fair to note that Lady Macbeth didn’t commit these murders herself, you could say that she had a bigger role in committing them than Macbeth himself did. As soon as Macbeth murders Duncan, it is implied that he is ashamed of his actions, first with forgetting a simple task (an important one at that) of hiding the daggers on Duncan’s men to incriminate them, and then refusing to go back to Duncan’s chamber to do the deed of hiding the daggers when told so, replying to Lady Macbeth that

“I’ll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on ‘t again I dare not.”

Again, Lady Macbeth mocks Macbeth by replying:
“Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures.”, at which point she takes the daggers herself and plants them on Duncan’s men, showing that she is not fazed at all by this situation. This shows that she’s not very woman-like, which also goes hand in hand with her “unsex me” quote where she calls upon spirits to remove her feminine nature so that she doesn’t have feelings regarding killing Duncan.
Lady Macbeth then proceeds to clear her hands, saying that “A little water clears us of this deed”, again showing that she is not much fazed by this situation and believes that just by washing the blood off her hands that the whole thing would appear as though it never happened, and it would have no effect on her at all. But we find out otherwise towards the end of the play, the blood isn’t rid from her hands, as she suffers and goes insane by the end of the play due to these acts, although at the time she seemed to have no problem in doing them. This is very similar to Dr Jekyll, as he at first was fine with the actions of Mr Hyde, as he chose to transform back into him on a few occasions, but by the end we know that Dr Jekyll is ashamed of his actions as Mr Hyde, as we see in this quote “Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame.” This shows his inner conflict as he struggles over which form he should take, as he knows what he is doing as Mr. Hyde is wrong but still succumbed to the temptation of transforming.
Macbeth is afflicted by with guilt after murdering Duncan. “Stept in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as going o’er” shows this conflict, also that he does not know whether he has made the right decision by killing the king, to whom he swore loyalty. Therefore with his guilt it is fair to say that Macbeth does know the difference between good and evil, but the choices in the play he made lead him down the evil route. The same can be said regarding Dr. Jekyll, as we see from “All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.” So we are able to say that Dr. Jekyll did know the difference between good and evil, but fell for the temptation of transforming into Mr. Hyde.
Macbeth believes the witches, as they already knew that he was Thane of Cawdor after only being made so “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!” along with their prophecy “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” Macbeth concludes that if they had been right about him becoming thane of Cawdor when in reality there was little chance of them finding out, then there must be some hope for him becoming king, and so the idea is formed inside his mind, and over time grows. At this point it is clear that Macbeth won’t actually go through with the plot to kill Duncan, as we see with his inner confliction.
Dr. Jekyll’s relationship with his other self can be described as a disease, as he begins to favour the evil Mr. Hyde’s, like some sort of addiction. He says to Utterson “The moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.” but we know this is not true, and we could say therefore that in this novella evil does indeed triumph over good. We see both good and evil exist in unity in the “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” “Both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering.” shows Dr. Jekyll’s inner confliction with the crimes that he carries out, which can be linked to Macbeth’s confliction when considering killing Duncan and with his guilt after murdering Duncan. This shows that both of them have goodness inside of them as they are conflicted, but allow the evil within take over.
In “The Tiger’s Bride” The father seems upset at the loss of his daughter, to which The Beast remarks “If you are so careless of your treasures, you should expect them to be taken from you” there is evil on both sides here, with the beast for taking up the fathers offer of his daughter in a betting game, and on the father’s side for actually betting his daughter. This shows the father’s greed as the daughter seems like nothing more than an object to him if he is willing to sacrifice her in a game, even though he is upset afterwards.
With Dr. Jekyll’s death we can say that him dying as Mr. Hyde shows that good triumphs evil as he dies regardless which counters my previous point of it showing that evil triumphs good as he died in his evil form instead of his good form. To counter this we have the ending of “The Bloody Chamber” where the mother of the nameless heroine and narrator kills the Marquis as he is about to behead her daughter, and they (the mother and the daughter) along with Jean-Yves live happily together, with the daughter and Jean-Yves married. They gave away the wealth of the Marquis and turned his castle into a school for the blind, which shows that they are not tempted by greed like Macbeth that they choose to give away those items instead of keeping them and as a result they are helping other people. This is similar to “The Tiger’s Bride” as the daughter learns after peering into a mirror that The Beast kept his word, and sees her father with all his possessions returned to him, all but one, herself, as she is meant to leave for home that very day, so the beast in this story keeps his promise instead of falling for temptation and succumbing to greed. This is also similar to “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” as The Beast keeps his promise and helps Beauty's father regain his wealth, and lets Beauty join him in London, which proves that the beasts are good although they naturally will come over as evil because they are in beast form.
To conclude, I’d say that the severity of the acts committed by all these characters is dependent on a moral judgement made by the readers themselves. Also that it is clear that the authors of these texts did believe that there lies good and evil in every person, that everyone has the capabilities to be evil, but it depends on the situation that the person is in or the opportunities that they are given.