Dark Side of Human Nature in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

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Throughout the story of “The Strange Case Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, presents his idea of the duality of man- where Dr Jekyll and Hyde have a dark, wicked side within them, where evil is held in waiting to surface, but they hide it away, they pretend it does not exist, and they keep it tame. He presents this idea by using two protagonists, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, who are actually the same person. One of these characters signifies the normal side of a person represented by Dr Jekyll, who is a typical upper class person, and the other, Mr Hyde, a deformed man, signifies the purest of evil. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde centers upon a beginning of human nature, although the theme does not come out fully until the last chapter, when the complete story of the Jekyll-Hyde relationship is revealed. Therefore the assumption of a dual human nature only after having witnessed all of the events of the book, including Hyde’s crimes and his ultimate overshadow of Jekyll. Mr Hyde is evil, deformed brings out the worst in people therefore he is showing a part of a dark side of human nature in the way he makes you feel bad to look upon him and his violence RLS shows in the story that there are some moral messages which relate to Mr Hyde by there is two sides to everybody good/evil and evil only held in check through rules, expected behaviour, and drug addiction. Dr. Jekyll believes good and evil exist in everyone. Experiments reveal his evil side, named Hyde. Experience teaches him how evil Hyde can be: he kills Ivy who earlier expressed interest in Jekyll and Sir Charles, Jekyll's fiancé’s father.

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