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Analytical essay the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hydeby robert louis stevenson
Explore how stevenson creates mystery and tension in the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde
Good contrasted with evil
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When one is presented with the capability to choose evil or kindness, which one will they choose to act on? Kindness could enhance one’s image to the public eye and make them feel a rush of temporary happiness overflow within themselves, yet choosing evil could feel so refreshing. Revenge on those who have once caused harm could taste so sweet, but force one to have to live with the permanent feeling of guilt. Dr. Jekyll, the main character from the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, often feels as if he is constantly at war with the good and evil within himself. He is a man of dual personalities. In attempt to mask the secret evil within himself he creates a potion, but instead of making the evil side to his personality, the …show more content…
serum actually enhances it and causes him to change into the remorseful Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll would agree with J.K Rowling’s quote from her novel Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix “We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” Jekyll believes that everyone has the quality of kindness and the curse of evil within themselves.
Henry believes that his experiment, creating the potion, will enable both versions of his conscience to exist separately. One would be sin free and without evil, while the other had free range to construct as much harm as felt necessary. This being said, the experiment started off as successful due to the fact that he could willingly adjust into whichever version of his conscience he felt was appropriate at the moment. Eventually, the sinful version of himself, Hyde, became much too powerful and began to switch on his own. Jekyll could no longer control whenever he switched into …show more content…
Hyde. Hyde continued to take over Henry Jekyll’s psyche and continued to flourish in strength and power more than ever thought possible. His actions became much more damaging and threatening. For example, the murder of Sir Carew. Once the damage was done, Jekyll had then vowed to never allow himself to turn into the evil, immoral Mr. Hyde again. Because of the amount of power Hyde now had control of, he could not be stopped. Jekyll had to build walls between him and his friends due to the fact that he could not control the switching of his consciences. Once Henry’s friends, Mr. Utterson and Enfield approach him, he rushes off because he cannot control when or where the switch of personalities will take place. Dr.
Jekyll eventually confesses his secret to his dear friends. He is no longer living a secret, impure life. Jekyll explains to them that he is not only but he is two. He explains that Hyde is the evil part of Jekyll’s psyche, while Jekyll remains as the pure, tender-hearted man he has always been. Although Jekyll admitted to enjoying the spell at first due to the fact that he could disobey laws and rules without the overwhelming guilt, he realizes that enough is enough. Jekyll decides that Hyde is far too much to deal with and basically feels the need to get rid of him as soon as he can without causing anybody new any harm what so ever. In order to follow through with his plan, Jekyll kills himself in order to be able to escape
Hyde. Henry Jekyll would have agreed with Sirius because they both were strong believers in having both traits of Kind, tender hearts, yet still having the ability to be vile and heinous. Jekyll found the part of the quote which states “What matters is the part we chose to act on.” to be nothing but reality once he realized that towards to end of the novel. Henry learned that being kind may be great, but being able to let go of all your hate and evilness, is the most courageous thing one could possibly do for themselves. Henry also learns that people must act on their lighter side because ponce the evil I in control, there is no turning back.
The time period plays an important role that pushes Jekyll to create the potion, so he can do the sins everyone has within. Evil which is not associated with wealth is hidden, and Hyde takes advantage of this. He uses his position, and makes the best of it to get away with his misdeeds. In the movie Hyde and Jekyll are shown hurting women; the director uses this to create a different kind of evil, that is more universally understood. The audience is either a female, or has a female family member. While watching the movie he wanted to make the audience despise Hyde and want to help Ivy and Beatrix. Ultimately the nature of evil, and the split of Jekyll’s identity lead to his
Considering The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an Effective Representation of Evil
As Jekyll reached adult hood, he found himself living a dual life. He had become more curious in discovering his other side. Jekyll insists, “Man is not truly one, but truly two” (125). This eventually led Jekyll into the scientific interests of separating his good and evil side, and he finds a chemical concoction that transforms him into a more wicked man, Edward Hyde. At first, Hyde was of pure impulse, but in the end, he became dominate and took control over Jekyll. Jekyll had never intended to hurt anyone, but he was aware that something could potentially go wrong. Jekyll presumes, “I knew well that I risked death, for any drug that so potently shook the very fortress of identity… utterly blot that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change” (127-129). One could say this makes Jekyll equally as menacing as Hyde. Jekyll couldn’t control the imbalance between the two natures. Jekyll foolishly allowed his evil side to flourish and become stronger. This is shown when Jekyll has awoken to find that he has turned into Hyde without taking the solution. Jekyll says, “But the hand in which I now saw, clearly enough in the yellow light of a mid- London morning…It was the hand of Edward Hyde” (139).
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
Jekyll started taking the substance frequently declaring that he has it under control of Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll kept insisting to Mr. Utterson by claiming that he barely uses Mr.Hyde. Late night Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde had fun and falls asleep in a small room in Soho as Edward Hyde. The passage states, “Now the hand of Henry jekyll (as you have often remarked) was a professional in shape and size: it was large, firm, white and comely”(54) After his night sleeping he wakes up as Dr. Jekyll, but to notice that one of his hand looked different and recognize that it wasnt his hand but it was Mr. Hyde hand. Dr. Jekyll realizes that he taken advantage of the substance. The passage states, “All things therefore seemed to point to this: that I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second worse.”(55) In the quote proves how Dr.Jekyll felt so liberated when he is Mr.Hyde that he doesnt realize that it wasn’t going to last long. Time goes whne he started noticing that he is slowly turning into something that he doesn 't want to be that will lead into his tragic
Being an old friend of Jekyll he can see the changes but stops himself from interfering into Jekyll’s life but makes him depressed to handle with the weird dual nature of the Jekyll-Hyde relation but starts with investigation. But when he was informed by the servants of Jekyll that Jekyll has killed himself he takes quick action and breaks the door of the laboratory. When his friend Dr. Lanyon left a note for him which was not to be read until Dr. Jekyll's death, he stopped himself showing his loyalty by staying away from that documents though he was in search if he can get any
Jekyll does deserve his final miserable fate because he commits several selfish deeds to the point where he brings his miserable fate upon himself. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses Jekyll to represent how man prioritizes by putting himself over others. Throughout the book, Jekyll’s two different sides are used to show that man is consistently selfish and will usually think of himself before others. Even though Jekyll has a good side and an evil side, both sides of him are selfish. Jekyll originally takes the potion for selfish reasons, Jekyll uses Hyde to conquer his own evil temptations, and in the end Jekyll gives into Hyde and completely gives up.
Hyde kills Sir Danvers due to Jekyll’s attempt to repress him from coming out, Jekyll is imprisoned in his house because he realizes that he could no longer be Hyde in public. From this point onward, light is brought to the matter of Jekyll’s uncontrollable desire to be this detestable man and the reckless nature takes control due to its rush. When Hyde killed Sir Danvers, he needed to hide himself from sight and become confined but he could not confine Hyde because that was what gotten him into this predicament in the first place. He felt imprisoned in both being forced to be Jekyll and having to hide himself from his friends in case Hyde took over at any given point. This is analogous to having a drug addiction because just as somebody would want to hide their persona when on drugs, Jekyll is hiding Hyde. This additionally takes over their body and can affect them randomly and uncontrollably, just as Hyde affects Jekyll. In addition, this scene reveals how cruel Mr. Hyde because Jekyll says that when Hyde killed Danvers, he was “With the transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight for every blow; and it was not till weariness had begun to succeed that I was suddenly in on top of my delirium, struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror” (49). Jekyll has now begun to have good feelings while being Hyde, even though he does regrettable things in an uncontrolled and selfserving
of the other”(131). In conclusion, in the end Dr. Jekyll’s attempts to suppress the evil Mr. Hyde were in vain. He tried to use the potion to bring himself back to his original self, but it failed. Robert Louis
Dr. Jekyll is a man who is “caring“ and was “very well educated';, he like was the good side, and he had morals, and he was able to determine the difference between right and wrong when he was Dr. Jekyll. Once the potion started to backfire in Jekyll’s face because Hyde turned to evil and wants to kill him, Jekyll is upset and says only, “ Oh what a lesson I have learned! “. This shows that at least Dr. Jekyll realizes he made a mistake in the first place, he says to “ let him (me) alone to suffer for a great evil deed that I have committed';. He realizes that morally what he did was wrong. And that one shall just be as they are, and not try to change that. He tried, and he failed.
Jekyll is given as a respected man raised in a wealthy family. During the era, people are meant to be well-mannered and polite without any sign or thinking of violence and crime; however, Dr. Jekyll secretly has a desire to perform evil. Conflicted with the ideal of society, he has repressed his emotion through many years and eventually he decided to conceal his pressure as he said, “And indeed the worst of my faults was a certain impatient gaiety of disposition, such as has made the happiness of many, but such as I found it hard to reconcile with my imperious desire to carry my head high, and wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public. Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.” (48) From this quote, Dr. Jekyll discloses that he’s not desired to be cheerful, as many do, and decides to fake his pressure in front of the public eyes. After many years, he then realizes he was only hiding his true emotion. Eventually, to resolve his situation, he is inspired to create a potion that could transform himself to Mr. Hyde that could free him from the struggle between protecting his reputation and following his emotion and
Jekyll writes in the confession, “ the praises of conscience began to grow into a thing of course; I began to be tortured with throes and longings, as of Hyde struggling after freedom.”(Stevenson 86) In this way, one moment Jekyll wants to indulge himself, and feeling disturbing for next. He falls into the painful dilemma, “I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse. Between these two, I now felt I had to choose.”(Stevenson 84) If he chooses to connect his destiny with Dr.Jekyll, then he must stop everything about hyde, giving up all the pleasure of acting aggressively and arbitrarily; in another hand, if he chooses to connect his destiny with Mr. Hyde, then he will lose all his interests and ambitions, being a man who is disdained and criticized by
Jekyll experiences. For instance, Dr. Jekyll’s physical appearance begins to decline as he stops taking the draught. The text describes Dr. Jekyll’s physical characteristics as “looking deadly sick” when his is usually a “large well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness” (Stevenson 19-25). Not only does Dr. Jekyll’s health begin to decline, but also his behavior changes as well. Normally, when Dr. Jekyll would have a visitor he would greet his guest with a warm welcome, but as the text illustrates in Chapter 4, Dr. Jekyll did not have the strength to greet Mr. Utterson: “He did not rise to meet his visitor but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice”( Stevenson 25). Another example of Dr. Jekyll’s behavioral change is seen when he physically separates himself from his colleagues for days on end locked in his laboratory resulting in his friends to repeatedly check on him. This act of withdrawal connects to the reality an addict faces during rehabilitation. The said addict has to seclude himself from temptation in order to be successful in the recovery stage. The final behavioral change for Dr. Jekyll is shown through his reiteration of him cutting off all ties to Mr. Hyde and his outburst of violence. During a conversation Dr. Jekyll has with Mr. Utterson shortly after the murder of Sir
Though Hyde is pure evil, Jekyll is not pure goodness; he is still the same old conflicted mix of both good and evil. To cover his tracks, Jekyll rented a room for Hyde, opened a bank account in his name, and explained to his household servants that Hyde was to be allowed to freely come and go through the house. Hyde was even made Jekyll’s sole heir. At first, Jekyll delights in having his alter ego. Through Hyde, he can live out his fantasies of doing whatever he pleases, with no consequences, seeing as how he has but to drink the potion to make Hyde disappear. No accountability for Hyde’s
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll has a desire for splitting his personalities and taking pleasure in two different lives. A sinister, malicious, abnormal, small man would control one life while; an honorable, wise doctor would control the other life. Dr. Jekyll produces a potion, which allows