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Dr jekyll and mr hyde gcse essays
Dr jekyll and mr hyde literary analysis
Dr jekyll and mr hyde literary analysis
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Have you ever wondered what it’s like to have trusted someone.In this book the strange case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr.hyde, Dr. Jekyll drank a potion to try to make himself good. He was doing the experiment to see if he could make someone good or evil. The experiment didn't go as planned and he turned himself into Edward Hyde who was going to be his test person but it didn’t workout. In the book Dr.Jekyll tries to find out if he can make a person good with a potion. But the potion he makes and uses does the complete opposite and he ends up turning into Edward Hyde. This shows that if we get to much power we can end up messing with our lives. But after Dr.Jekyll drinks it he starts to get ill and becomes addicted to the potion much like drugs
...hat he can finally recognize the severity of his weakness to his drug. Dr. Jekyll's plight, therefore, could be an exploration of the destructive behavior brought on by addiction, and an underlying moral message is embedded in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - the implication that addiction will inevitably lead to evilness and the destruction of productive lives.
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
I believe Dr. Jekyll created Hyde because he had a theory that man has a good side and a bad side. While investigating this, he developed a potion that could release the evil in a person in the form of a totally different person. Then this person could commit any evil act it wanted, and then drink the potion to return back to normal. The only problem with this is the fact that he drank this potion so many times that he was no longer able to control this process. He was unable to transform back into Dr. Jekyll.
Famous respected London scientist Henry Jekyll is a handsome and courteous man. Knowing that, all human beings have double sides evil and good in nature, he desires to develop a chemical system of detaching these double personalities in order to let one side from two sides to enjoy pleasure without blaming the other side to remain for a longer time constant and not be provoked by the other side. Once he gets a line he understands that the evil side dominating personality cannot be controlled. Jekyll's incomplete success attempts only elaborating the darker side i.e. evil side. So at end Henry Jekyll is no longer available as he dies and only Edward Hyde stays.
“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 unveils his story, it becomes evident that Dr. Jekyll’s efforts to keep Mr. Hyde, his immoral outlet, reticent are in vain. Dr. Jekyll succumbs to Mr. Hyde once and eventually the pull of his worse self overpowers Dr. Jekyll completely. His futile attempts to contain Mr. Hyde were more damaging than auspicious, as Mr. Hyde would only gain a stronger grip on Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll writes, “I began to be tortured with throes and longings, as of Hyde struggling after freedom; and at last, in an hour of moral weakness, I once again compounded and swallowed the transforming draught… My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring” (115). Dr. Jekyll’s inevitable passion for debauchery is only further invigorated by his repression of Mr. Hyde. By restraining a desire that is so deeply rooted within Dr. Jekyll, he destroys himself, even after his desires are appeased. Like a drug, when Dr. Jekyll first allowed himself to concede to Mr. Hyde, he is no longer able to abstain, as his initial submission to depravity resulted in the loss of Dr. Jekyll and the reign of Mr.
Duality is a huge aspect in both of these works of literature. In Jekyll and Hyde Jekyll wanted to be able to cut loose and be able to be like someone who wouldn’t have been respected. He also wanted to be someone who was respected so he made a potion where he could be both; no one would disrespect Jekyll but
Jekyll says, “With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two” (Stevenson 83). Jekyll believes he will get pleasure from both alters without any backlash; however, Hyde soon becomes more powerful than his ‘good’ alter and ultimately leads Dr. Jekyll to his doom (Singh). Stevenson creates in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, to coexistent to make up a “normal” individual (Singh). Seeing things as Jekyll did, “Humans are half-good, half-evil” Stevenson separated the two, making one pure good (Jekyll) and one pure evil, as Jekyll says, “Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil” (Stevenson 88). After all, good and evil are independent objects, people; they possess distinctive psychological characteristics and consistently fight with each
Jekyll’s addiction. This type of behavior is commonly used by addicts to avoid facing the uncomfortable reality of their problem. Jekyll's denial first comes up at his dinner party when Utterson comments that he is becoming increasingly informed about Hyde. “ ‘ Jekyll says’ to put your good heart at rest, I will tell you one thing the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde” (Stevenson 24). This quote suggests that it comes from a person who has a drug problem. The illusion of self-control maintain and increases the addict's dependence on his intoxicating substance or behavior, as long as he can develop a fantasy that his addiction can be arrested and his true self is dismissed for his behavior. "It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty, ‘Jekyll protests’ ”(Stevenson 64). Jekyll denied that he was not doing this. It was hyde who did all and not him. His response is similar to the addicts today who claim that they can stop using the drug and that there will be no harm. “To the extent that the addict cannot comprehend his behavior in terms divorced from the rhetoric of personal and moral failure, the addict likely will refuse to admit that he cannot govern his condition”. It is a type of denial that is used by Stevenson to show dr jekyll
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
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
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are two entirely different people who have different personalities. They are also different physically, mentally and morally. In the end it was Dr. Jekyll’s fault for letting his evil side take over. Every time he would drink the potion he would transform into Mr. Hyde and that kept getting Mr. Hyde more and more powerful. Then sadly Dr. Jekyll gave in to the worst and became Mr. Edward
In conclusion, Dr. Jekyll did not create a potion to remove the evil parts of his nature. He made a potion that allowed him to express his needs without feeling guilty and without any consequences of damaging his good name. That’s also why he names his alter ego “Hyde,” because Hyde is a disguise, worn and discarded like a thick cloak.