In Laurence (2010) critical evaluation of “The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde,” it was found that duality was the central theme. In the novella, the theme of duality is two personalities (opposite and antagonistic). The character Jekyll can be psychoanalyzed as the superego of the human consciousness which attempts to control his physical urges of id ( Edward Jekyll). However, when the id is repressed rather than integrated into a functioning psyche, the individual’s behavior will grow increasingly erratic ( Laurence & Mazzeno,2010,para.3). Jekyll repression grew and manifested causing him to lose control. Jekyll not being able to control his alter ego Hyde, Hyde begins to take control by resorting to extreme forms of repression. Jekyll 2). Hyde and Jekyll are one;Hyde is the mask that Jekyll wears to avoid the consequences of his crimes. Padnick (2012) believes the story has been misinterpreted because Jekyll and Hyde are referred to as different people. Jekyll uses Hyde for the thrill; the failure to understand Jekyll’s need for freedom leads to the misunderstanding of the true explanation of the story. Jekyll and Hyde are one because he remembers everything in does while Hyde is roaming the streets at night.Jekyll is not the good person who he seems to be. Hyde was not created accidentally he was intended. Jekyll was deeply repressed and hid his violent sexual urges.Jekyll and Hyde are one, Hyde is the repressed nature of Jekyll that provides for a form of escape from society’s high Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.” The article considered different aspects to explicate the story. Due to the book being published 1886 during the late Victorian era it influenced the curiosity of the book. The comparison is not merely between good and evil but between evolution and degeneration (Buzwell,n.d., para.2). The appearance was described in a disgusting manner. Adjectives such as ape-like, troglodyte (brutal character) and hardly human.Hyde is displeasing and detestable. Charles Darwin hypothesized that humans evolved from an amphibian-like creature. Edward Hyde’s was physically detestable because he reminded people about their evolutionary inheritance. Buzwell (n.d.) depicted the meaning of the story as double lives and misleading appearances. Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde homes were different. Jekyll’s home presented an air of wealth and comfort while Hyde’s house presented an air of prolonged and sordid negligence (Buzwell,n.d., para.3). Other from Jekyll’s double life,other characters such as Enfield and Utterson who were coming back from a mystery place that at three in the morning. All the characters lives seem innocent is dark and sinister if examined
During the reign of Queen Victoria, there were many technological and scientific advances that impacted how people viewed the society. The nineteenth century saw the rise of ideas such as the ‘fin-de-siecle”, where the progress in technology or science might lead to ‘degeneration’. The idea that these advances would come at a cost and possibly end the human race was shared by many, including Stevenson. This value that technological advances might lead to degeneration is seen through the characterisation of Jekyll and Hyde. The imagery that Jekyll uses to describe Hyde: “the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy” depicts Hyde as a primitive being, a human that has been degenerated into an ape. This reference that Hyde is primitive can also be seen in the use of connotative words: “clubbed him [Carew] to death” which implies that Hyde is similar to an ape or early human, thus the idea of degeneration. Another reference depicting Hyde as less than human is seen through the metaphor used by Enfield: “it was like some damned Juggernaut”, again emphasising how technological advances might lead to degeneration, as Hyde was a product of Jekyll’s experiments.
Stevenson focuses on two different characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but in reality these are not separate men, they are two different aspects of one man’s reality. In the story, Dr. Je...
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde becomes Jekyll's demonic, monstrous alter ego. Certainly Stevenson presents him immediately as this from the outset. Hissing as he speaks, Hyde has "a kind of black sneering coolness . . . like Satan". He also strikes those who witness him as being "pale and dwarfish" and simian like. The Strange Case unfolds with the search by the men to uncover the secret of Hyde. As the narrator, Utterson, says, "If he be Mr. Hyde . . . I shall be Mr. Seek". Utterson begins his quest with a cursory search for his own demons. Fearing for Jekyll because the good doctor has so strangely altered his will in favor of Hyde, Utterson examines his own conscience, "and the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded a while in his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there" (SC, 42). Like so many eminent Victorians, Utterson lives a mildly double life and feels mildly apprehensive about it. An ugly dwarf like Hyde may jump out from his own boxed self, but for him such art unlikely creature is still envisioned as a toy. Although, from the beginning Hyde fills him with a distaste for life (SC, 40, not until the final, fatal night, after he storms the cabinet, can Utterson conceive of the enormity of Jekyll's second self. Only then does he realize that "he was looking on the body of a self-dcstroyer" (SC, 70); Jekyll and Hyde are one in death as they must have been in life.
Personality and the Beast Within in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Everyone has a dual personality, two sides, good and evil. Robert Louis Stephenson uses the book to explain this, he wanted people to. realise that not only does Dr Jekyll carry a double personality, but the other characters in the book, too. Also the people reading it must see that they too, are a part of this frightening, uncontrollable fact.
Stevenson’s most prominent character in the story is the mysterious Mr Hyde. Edward Hyde is introduced from the very first chapter when he tramples a young girl in the street, which brings the reader’s attention straight to his character. The reader will instantly know that this person is a very important part of this book and that he plays a key role in the story. This role is the one of a respectable old man named Dr Jekyll’s evil side or a ‘doppelganger’. This links in with the idea of duality. Dr Jekyll is described as being ‘handsome’, ‘well-made’ and ‘smooth-faced’. On the other hand, Mr Hyde is described as being ‘hardly human’, ‘pale and dwarfish’, giving of an impression of deformity and ‘so ugly that it brought out the sweat on (Mr Enfield) like running’! These words all go together to conjure up an image in the mind of an animal, beast or monster. During the novel...
Jekyll. Hyde commits acts of murder and assault yet can be seen as Dr. Jekyll’s id or deep desires. By trying to separate good and bad . Dr. Jekyll passed scientific and social borders to isolate his personality. In doing so, he lost control of who he wanted to be. As a last resort he created a poisonous potion that Hyde drank and died through act of suicide. Dr. Jekyll although not working with anyone took matters in his own hands which makes him seem like an outlaw hero. He did not turn himself into the police when he had control. However, Dr. Jekyll seems to have qualities of a official hero in his maturity in handling the situation. He knows how evil his alter ego is, so he isolates himself from others as a safety precaution. Jekyll tries to live a normal life, but is unable to. His status as a well distinguished doctor and sociability skills with his
Benjamin Franklin once said, “It is much easier to suppress a first desire than it is to satisfy those that follow.” This is certainly true in the situation of Dr. Jekyll, as the temptation of becoming Mr. Hyde becomes stronger as he continually surrenders to the wickedness that is constantly misleading him. Mr. Hyde is never contented, even after murdering numerous innocents, but on the contrary, his depravity is further intensified. The significance of the repression of a desire is a prevalent theme throughout the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, as the inability to repress one’s curiosity can lead to a fatal end, whereas the repression of a desire that can no longer contain itself, or the repression of confronting a guilty conscience, will conclude in a tragic ending and in this case specifically,
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are the same person all within the body of Dr Jekyll. He switches between the two willingly for science and his own personal desire. This can be proven in the last chapter of the book where we see
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both suffer; however, one from illness and the other from insanity. Mr. Hyde is a sociopath, and lives in it to the full extent as well as Jekyll being a psychopath. However, Hyde was created the way he was to portray a sinful side of Jekyll, while Jekyll was himself throughout, good and bad, to manipulate and gain in the harm of
Mr. Hyde is the monstrous side of Dr. Jekyll from their book “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” In their story, Dr. Jekyll is a brilliant scientist who has created a formula that turns him into Mr. Hyde. It is stated that, at some point, Dr. Jekyll became addicted to the potion. Though it is unclear what would cause the addiction, since it would be Hyde who would experience the “high” and not Jekyll himself. Hyde is the contrast to Dr. Jekyll, and is considerably more brutal and immoral. Modern incarnations depict him as becoming incredibly muscular after the transformation, though in the original work it is only implied that Hyde is stronger, retaining his previous physique. It is consistent that Hyde is shown to be ugly, perhaps even deformed.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde takes place during a time in London when people flocked to the city for jobs which resulted in great competition and deceit. As the city grew in size with powerful men there became issues of appearance and reputation where men of high status began to dance with the devil allowing their evil nature to show itself. The social scene at the time required people to hide this evil nature so men and women began to create two sides of themselves so that they could maintain and uphold their reputation hypocritically. The text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde reveals human nature to have two sides; one represented by what a man claims and the other represented by how he/she acts.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a riveting tale of how one man uncovers, through scientific experiments, the dual nature within himself. Robert Louis Stevenson uses the story to suggest that this human duality is housed inside everyone. The story reveals “that man is not truly one, but two” (Robert Louis Stevenson 125). He uses the characters of Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Dr. Lanyon, and Mr. Utterson to portray this concept. He also utilizes important events, such as the death of Dr. Jekyll and the death of Mr. Lanyon in his exploration of the topic.
... man. Society in the Victorian era was consisted of two classes, trashy and wealthy. Jekyll was expected to be a gentleman, but he wanted to have fun. This was the reason he created Hyde, so he could both be respected and have fun. He was delighted at the freedom he now had. Lanyon was overly contolled, but Utterson knew all men had both good and bad within them and could control it. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, the dual nature of man is a main theme.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a scientist, Dr. Jekyll, creates an alter ego using a draught in order to escape the harsh views of society. As Mr. Hyde, he commits heinous crimes against citizens and becomes addicted to the perception of freedom from Victorian laws. Best stated by Norman Kerr about addiction, “there is an inebriety derangement of the mental faculties, so that the consciousness, perception, reasoning, power, and conscience are impaired” (Kerr 138). The character Dr. Jekyll illustrates the condition of addiction in the Victorian era through the motifs of the obsession with appearance and duality. Dr. Jekyll’s obsession with appearance causes him to become addicted to the character Mr. Jekyll himself.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” depicted many aspects of psychoanalytical and biographical references in which moral choice played a role in the transformation between Jekyll into Hyde a cycle of identity disorder. “Stevenson thoughts at this time was the duality of man 's nature and alternation of good and evil” (77) states Graham Balfour representing how Jekyll morally distinguishes what his foil persona commits as wrong, but evil wins the battle conquering the goodness within himself. The image of god and satan correlate into their human characteristics one presents the righteousness of good will meanwhile evil is exposed inconsistently. In the end Hyde 's evil persona lies beneath Jekyll knowing that in an attempt of suicide Hyde will get destroyed. Ironically Jekyll 's given up his life, but Hyde regains dominance so that his body would be found. The historical victorian era in which the novels was written reveals how immoral life was lived in reality a way in which Stevenson used the protagonists Jekyll and Hyde “Hide” to fit his