Jekyll and Hyde Essay In the novel, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson writes about a doctor who has found a way to transform himself into someone with a different personality and appearance through drinking a potion. The doctor, Dr Jekyll, transforms himself into an “evil” man called Mr Hyde, he does this to allow himself to follow his instincts and his own moral code without suffering the consequences of society’s restraints and rules. Dr Jekyll is a well respected and wealthy doctor in London. He is described as having “every mark of capacity and kindness” and a “large, handsome face” (pg 27). Jekyll has friends who trust him and a good reputation among his peers. In order to maintain his good reputation, he must follow society’s …show more content…
Utterson even compares his face to “Satan’s signature” (p23). Dr Lanyon writes that Mr Hyde has a “remarkable combination of great muscular activity and a great apparent debility of constitution” (p65).When a young girl is in Hyde’s way, he tramples her without asking if she is hurt. While this is regarded as a cruel and violent action by most people’s morals, Hyde appears to feel no remorse for what he did. This demonstrates how his moral code differs from that of society. Another instance of this violent, psychopathic behavior is when Mr Hyde beats an old man to death with a cane with what is described as “ape-like fury”, demonstrating his animalistic side which allows him to follow his instincts (p30). Since murder is a crime, Mr Hyde becomes a wanted man, and even his moral counterpart, Dr Jekyll, wants nothing more to do with him. Most killers are tracked down when the police question their friends and family to help give an idea of where they went, but Hyde is a solitary man with almost no ties to other people. This isolation aids him in escaping the law and living his free life without being restrained by society’s rules and code of behaviour. Whereas Dr Jekyll is concerned with keeping his good reputation, Mr Hyde does not have to worry about this since he was always “despised and friendless” and therefore has no reputation to lose (p79). In his statement, Dr Jekyll says that whilst Jekyll
“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde” is a novella written in the Victorian era, more specifically in 1886 by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. When the novella was first published it had caused a lot of public outrage as it clashed with many of the views regarding the duality of the soul and science itself. The audience can relate many of the themes of the story with Stevenson’s personal life. Due to the fact that Stevenson started out as a sick child, moving from hospital to hospital, and continued on that track as an adult, a lot of the medical influence of the story and the fact that Jekyll’s situation was described as an “fateful illness” is most likely due to Stevenson’s unfortunate and diseased-riddled life. Furthermore the author had been known to dabble in various drugs, this again can be linked to Jekyll’s desperate need and desire to give in to his darker side by changing into Mr Hyde.
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
Hyde’s character doesn’t seem to be liked by Mr. Utterson and most likely will be a theme throughout the entire story. Most characters in novels are first described on a physical level to get the reader to have an image in his or her head on what the character might look like. Mr. Utterson doesn’t really give us any physical attributes on Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde seems to be a broken down individual emotionally or spiritually because Mr. Utterson describes Mr. Hyde as deformed somewhere when it isn’t on his body. In the next sentence, Mr. Utterson describes Mr. Hyde as an extraordinary looking man so, Mr. Hyde may look normal on the outside, but may have a dark character that may foreshadow future events coming to Mr. Hyde and his relations with Doctor
“Man is not truly one, but truly two” (Stevenson 104). Or so is the belief of Dr. Henry Jekyll in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll came to this conclusion at a fairly young age after taking note that the desires he wished to indulge in were not widely accepted, and deciding that it would be best if he repressed these dark pleasures and instead lived only as his moral side. This decision created a great divide in the two selves of which Jekyll was made; neither side was any more or less a part of him, but his dark side, which later manifested itself as Mr. Edward Hyde, was hidden inside of him while the good and well accepted side, Dr. Henry Jekyll, was out on display. The man stayed like this until one day his curiosity got the best of him, and he decided to concoct a
With the topic of moral corruption comes evil; everyone is innately evil. Dr. Jekyll’s innate evil was hidden for many years until he performed his experiments and transformed into Hyde. Jekyll states that as Hyde he, “...could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path doing the good things in which he found his pleasure and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil”(43). Jekyll is morally corrupt, for he is able to carry out all of his hidden dark desires as Hyde, and not be accounted for any of it. For example, after Hyde murdered well-known politician Sir Danvers, he was able to avoid prosecution by remaining as Jekyll. In the case of Rappaccini’s Daughter, Signor Rappaccini is corrupt because he risks the lives of others for his experiments without a single tinge of remorse. Signor Baglioni states that Rappaccini, “...would sacrifice human life...or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so much as a grain of mustard-seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge”(4). Rappaccini would willingly risk any life in the name of science; he purposely poisoned his daughter as an infant, regardless of any peril it entailed. The two texts also include the theme of limits on scientific experimentation; both Jekyll and Rappaccini are condemned by fellow men of science for their unconventional
A few weeks later Jekyll hosts a dinner-party. Afterwards Utterson stays to discuss the will and the meaning behind leaving such an important lifestyle to Edward Hyde. Jekyll jokes with Utterson but eventually asks him to end the discussion and promise to follow his will exactly. Almost a years later there is an incident involving Sir Danvers Carew and a mysterious man that beat him to death. With Carew, there was a letter addressed to Utterson. He leads the police to the home of Hyde where no one is found. The murder weapon and a burnt checkbook are discovered but in the weeks that follow, there are no signs of Mr. Hyde. On the same day of the murder, Utterson again visits a very ill Dr Jekyll. Jekyll says he has ended the relationship between himself and
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 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
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.
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.
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).
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.
Dr. Jekyll is a symbol of both the good and the bad in mankind, while Mr. Hyde represents pure evil. For instance, when Dr. Jekyll is himself, he is seen as a respectable man who is adored by his colleagues: “he became once more their familiar quest and entertainer; and whilst he had always been known for his charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion” (Stevenson 29). However, when Dr. Jekyll transforms to Mr. Hyde his morals are quickly disregarded. An example of this occurs when Mr. Hyde murders Sir Danvers, shortly after Dr. Jekyll submits to the temptation of changing to Mr. Hyde: “instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me…with a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow” (Stevenson 56). Even though the carnal side of Dr. Jekyll enjoys the incident, this event also illustrates the conscience side of Dr. Jekyll because in the mist of this brutal murder, he begins to feel guilty for committing the crime.
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
As the reader completes the novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll’s lack of common sense and ethics becomes vividly clear. It is transparent that the idea of creating a separate identity without control is unreasonably absurd. For example, it is comparable to a drunk who listens to his own advice as, “he is once out of five hundred times affected by the dangers that he runs through his brutish, physical insensibility”(Stevenson 86). This would include scientists who possess the capability and knowledge to fulfill their heinous experiments such as Dr. Jekyll who undertakes the risk and regretfully realizes what he has accomplished as he claims it, “made enough allowance for the complete moral insensibility