Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde" depicts the notion of the exploration of good and bad that resides in human nature. The main character, Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde, is shown to struggle between those two forces. However, it is only until the very last chapter "Henry Jekyll's Full Statement of the Case" where the theme of good versus evil is fully transpired. There, the theory of the duality of human nature is revealed within the Jekyll-Hyde relationship after witnessing the events prior to the character's death. This theme is central, as it forces us to contemplate the management of our own battle with these two forces that fester beyond our control. In addition to Jekyll and Hyde's support of the theme of human nature, …show more content…
Mr.Utterson, although a character not as exciting as the former, contributes to this theme through his involvement in the Jekyll/Hyde case, or lack thereof. Ultimately, the Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde character is viewed as an analogy for the good and evil that exists in all beings, which leaves us to question which trait is supreme and whether we can manage them.
Dr.Jekyll is "a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness"(23). While he well represents a human's good nature, Mr.Hyde's personality and appearance contrasts as Mr.Utterson describes him as "something displeasing, something downright detestable" (10). This truly displays the polar opposition between the personas of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde as one exhibits morals and the other embodies evil. Although Jekyll's initial plan was to "be housed in separate identities"(75) so he'll be "no longer be exposed to disgrace …show more content…
and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil"(75), his pure side is still unable to escape the darkness he has encountered. This allows him to struggle with committing to his good side the more he was " slowly losing hold of his original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with his second and worse"(84). What the Jekyll/Hyde character's struggle says about these two forces is that we may possess one over the other, whether we want to or not. This is because of the separation of the good and evil bonds; once Jekyll had divided them, it became impossible for him to restore them to the way they previously were, which was demonstrated when he "mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow"(87) after transforming back to Mr.Hyde. The character truly displays his struggle committing to his ethical persona, but finds that he cannot stray from the power he created for himself. Ultimately, Jekyll/Hyde shows us that balancing our good and bad aspects gets difficult, therefore the wickedness that resides in us may be strong enough to, if we are careless, consume our entirety. Mr. Utterson is described as "a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary..."(3), giving the surface view of his appearance as more evil than good. However, he was still perceived as "somehow lovable"(3), indicating that he is indeed a good man and kind to others. Although he "was demonstrative at the best, and even his friendship seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good nature"(4), he is in fact a complex character. He is shown to be constantly attempting to solve the mystery behind Jekyll/Hyde's case, however he states "I incline to, Cain's heresy...I let my brother go to the devil in his quaintly: 'own way'"(3), which means that he would rather stand aside and let his friend commit wrongdoings than interfere and prevent them from happening. This statement is in reference to Cain from the Bible, the son of Adam and Eve, when he asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?"(Genesis 4:9), dictating that he is not responsible for other people. Just like Cain, Mr.Utterson feels he should stay on the sidelines than feel obligated to confront any suspicions he had towards Jekyll's criminal activity in order to remain an objective third party. Furthermore, we see Utterson battling his own two sides, one of which is a persona that doesn't gossip and doesn't judge the misdeeds of others, and the other in which he wants to aid and stand by those in distress. This contributes to the novella’s theme of good versus evil because of Utterson's personal battle correlating to the battle that Jekyll faces between his two personas. While Jekyll/Hyde is an obvious parallel to good and evil, Mr.Utterson plays a substantial part in recognizing that the duality of human nature doesn't have to necessarily focus on good and bad, but on whatever forces you are struggling to maintain within your control. We are confronted with the issue of dueling our good and bad sides when Jekyll asserts in his statement "that man is not truly one, but truly two"(74).
When Jekyll created his experiment to separate both his sides to escape his inner demons, it doesn't result in what he intended. Therefore, he starts battling between staying in his pure form and succumbing to his dark hidden pleasures when he is in Hyde's form. Eventually, Jekyll, in his pure form, loses control over his physical changes and ultimately ends his life by drinking poison. His death depicts the difficulty in maintaining a balance between the forces of good and evil, as he always wanted to feed his demons. This was exhibited even in his final moments of life, as he was transforming into Hyde after he consumed the poison. It was only when he lost control over the power to shift forms that he decided it was best to leave Hyde behind, otherwise it is untold how long he would continue committing acts of evil. With that being said, the outcome of the book says that the relationship between those two forces cannot be balanced, because even with Jekyll in his purest form, he was still tempted to shift back into Hyde, displaying that every person, even in their purest form, can feel outside forces beyond their control. He states, "it was in my own person that I was once more tempted to trifle with my conscience"(95), justifying that with or without a "potion", it is merely impossible to separate the forces that reside
in every human being. Although this pegs the question, "how can we manage these forces?” the relationship in which these forces were built on supports that we cannot, as all good is linked with bad and vice-versa. We simply cannot rid of one trait without the other because that is ultimately what makes us human. This is displayed through Hyde's physical form being the one that ultimately dies, but Jekyll's persona dying with him. Therefore, the outcome of the book tells us that in order for humankind to manage whatever forces we're combatting, we must not separate them or else one may destroy the other, and our other half may be wiped from existence. Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde have taught us that there cannot be pure evil without pure goodness. The character of Jekyll/Hyde struggle between balancing staying clean and satisfying evil cravings can correlate to how humankind has struggled with morals and temptation. Moreover, the character Mr.Utterson has also displayed his struggle between staying objectively neutral and interfering with his friend's business, which demonstrates another set of evils and virtues that lead to more ethical dilemmas. Separating those bonds has caused more anxiety for the characters than repairing them, allowing us to understand that we cannot discard one without the other. Robert Louis Stevenson made the central theme very clear during the last chapter of the novella by opening up the notion of whether we can manage these forces on our own. Ultimately, "The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde" reveals that humankind can solve this mystery by looking within ourselves for the answer.
Considering The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an Effective Representation of Evil
Despite being published in 1886, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson remains to be recognized and referred to as one of the initial studies of the duality of human nature and mans struggle between two natural forces – good and evil. The story takes place during the Victorian Era in which society is already somewhat constrained and cruel and explores the human struggle between being civilized and facing the more primitive aspects to our being. According to author Irving S Saposnik, “Henry Jekyll’s experiment to free himself from the burden of duality results in failure because of his moral myopia, because he is a victim of society’s standards even while he would be free of them.” Henry Jekyll, an English doctor faces duality when he comes into battle with his darker side. Creating a personification under the name of Edward Hyde in order to fulfill his desires, Dr. Jekyll feels as if he will be able to control the face that he wants seen to public vs. the one in which he wants to keep more private. “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.” (10.1) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a story about how people are scared to acknowledge personal duality so they keep silent and in this case, create a personification in order to fulfill evil desires without thinking through the consequences of such actions.
Within the text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson portrays a complex power struggle between Dr. Jekyll, a respected individual within Victorian London society, and Mr. Hyde a villainous man tempted with criminal urges, fighting to take total control of their shared body. While Dr. Jekyll is shown to be well-liked by his colleagues, Mr. Hyde is openly disliked by the grand majority of those who encounter him, terrified of his frightful nature and cruel actions. Throughout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson portrays the wealthy side of London, including Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll, as respected and well-liked, while showing the impoverish side as either non-existent or cruel.
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.
Jekyll is respectable man with a very good career. He is a doctor that is highly regarded in his community for what he does as far as charity and his manners. As young man growing up, he was secretly involved in weird behaviors that made him a bit questionable. Dr. Jekyll finds his other side to be quite bothersome and he decides to experiment so he could try a separate the good from the evil. He creates potions and other things that really do not help. After so many attempts of trying to restrain his evil side, he brings forth Hyde through his failed experimentation. Therefore, he only accentuates his evil self to come forth. Hyde is an extremely ugly creature that no one could stand the sight of. He is deformed, violent, and very evil. Throughout the story, he fights against Jekyll to take over his life eventually causing Jekyll to murder one of his good friends, Mr.
...ve duality of man;… if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” Thus, Stevenson creates in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, two coexistent, and eternally opposed components that make up a “normal” individual. However, here, good and evil are not related but are two independent entities, individuals even, different in mental and physical attributes and constantly at war with each other. Evil now does not require the existence of good to justify itself but it exists simply as itself, and is depicted as being the more powerful, the more enjoyable of the two, and in the end ultimately it is the one that leads to Dr. Jekyll's downfall and death. Stevenson creates the perfect metaphor for the never-ending battle between good and evil by using Jekyll and Hyde. However, this novella is perhaps one of the few that truly show the power of Evil.
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.
For this reason I’ll be explaining Jekyll’s mental health. Jekyll has as what we now call Multiple Personality Disorder; “I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could be rightly said to be either, it was only because I was radically both,” Stevenson 57.) The disease was first discovered by Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot. He would ask patients symptoms that he found common in MPD. Many patients know about their alternate personality but refuse to acknowledge it’s existence. In some cases they may even refer to it as a separate person entirely. In this case Jekyll is very much aware of his alternate personality, going as to so far as to willingly change into him. However despite this he also categorizes Hyde into a separate being. For example when Hyde does something unappealing or distasteful he blames it on a separate person. Consciously though he is aware that he is Hyde and Hyde is him. (MD, Arnold Lieber. "Multiple Personality Disorder / Dissociative Identity Disorder." PsyCom.net - Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986. Vertical Health LLC, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2016).
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a little different then Frankenstein in a way that the monster isn’t identified as a monster as much for his appearance as he is for his actions. Dr. Jekyll was a scientist and as a scientist he had to keep a good name but he didn’t want to be good he want to be bad. So, he decided he would have two personalities, because most people saw him as a normal person (Simons). Thinking that if he had two personalities he could be good and evil. He made a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. So, He could do all those bad things that he wanted to do, but then had a way to cover it up by saying it was someone else. Eventually this plan got out of hand. Having two personalities of Dr. Jekyll being the good doctor and then Mr. Hyde is the murderer, he started not being able to control when he was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He fears that he will turn into Mr. Hyde permanently. Society doesn’t accept this because you’re not supposed to be two different people. Trying to be two different people is monstrous because that just doesn’t happen and him to think that is okay is monstrous. Also, for him to murder people makes him a monster and a serial killer because it wasn’t just one it was many. By Dr. Jekyll’s friend starting to get suspicious about this situation drive Dr. Jekyll to worry. Then, he turns back to Mr. Hyde and thinks it’s a good idea to kill himself. So, society drove his monstrosity to kill himself, which made
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.
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 and Mr. Hyde is a little different then Frankenstein in a way that the monster isn’t identified as a monster as much for his appearance as he is for his actions. Dr. Jekyll was a scientist and as a scientist he had to keep a good name but he didn’t want to be good he want to be bad. So, he decided he would have two personalities. Thinking that if he had two personalities he could be good and evil. He made a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. So, He could do all those bad things that he wanted to do but then had a way to cover it up by saying it was someone else. Eventually this plan got out of hand. Having two personalities of Dr. Jekyll being the good doctor and then Mr. Hyde being the murder, he started not being able to control when he was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He fears that he will turn into Mr. Hyde permanently. Society doesn’t except this because your not supposed to be two different people. Trying to be two different people is monstrous because that just doesn’t happen and him to think that is okay is monstrous. Also, for him to murder people makes him a monster. By Dr. Jekyll’s friend starting to get suspicious about this situation drive Dr. Jekyll to worry. Then, he turns back to Mr. Hyde and thinks it’s a good idea to kill himself. So, society drove his monstrosity to kill himself, which made him to continue to be a monster. Having two identities is not only monstrous but it’s psychological. (Dr. Jekyll and
This guilt drives him to have “clasped hands to God…tears and prayers to smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds that his memory swarmed against him” (Stevenson 57). As a whole, the text demonstrates that Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego, Mr. Hyde, is the mastermind of pure malevolence who participates in activities that Dr. Jekyll cannot 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.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are both different is morality. Both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have highly different morals. For example Dr. Jekyll’s morals are to contain the evil inside him and to keep his good side away from his bad side. Eventually Dr. Jekyll’s for trying to isolate his evil side it took over him. Dr. Jekyll’s mind was too weak that is how Mr. Hyde took over. Which now lead to Mr. Hyde’s evil mind, Mr. Hyde is the evil side to Dr. Jekyll and now he has full control. Mr. Hyde is the moral downfall of Dr. Jekyll.
Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I have been reading the book Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The book was written by Robert Louis Stevens on during in the 19th century. This book was written during a time where Victorian society had a lot of strong moral values. These codes were very strict and controlled every aspect of the Victorian lifestyle. People in these times believed to settle things verbally rather than aggression so fighting was looked down upon.