Many books throughout history have tried to make sense of and explain the human condition. Some books succeed in analyzing the human condition on a level beyond other books. These books are able to become timeless, and their lessons about the human condition remain relevant throughout mankind s existence. These timeless classics would be considered as good works of literature. In the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, he utilizes the dual natures of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as each pursue his own self-interest to affirm his belief that the clash of one’s opposing personalities are what truly motivate us to SOMETHING.
Stevenson’s effective use of truth to comment on the human condition is one reason why his story
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is good. Throughout most of the story, the true identity of Mr. Hyde is kept a mystery. The connection between Jekyll and Hyde is not revealed until further into the story.
The true connection that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person is not revealed until Jekyll pays Hastie Lanyon, a fellow physician, a visit. Lanyon cries, “‘o God!’ ... For there before my eyes-pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death-there stood Henry Jekyll” (Stevenson 47). This big reveal of how Jekyll and Hyde are the same person shows how everyone has a second side to them, even if it is unknown to the world. Humans are dynamic and different emotions and personalities will show different “sides” of the same person. Henry Jekyll also states that humans have two sides, good and evil. He states, “this as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil” (Stevenson 51). Jekyll reveals the truth that that there are two …show more content…
sides of all human beings. The two sides mix and occasionally one side will overtake the other and reveal a seemingly completely different person. Many scientific studies have been conducted around the duality of Jekyll and Hyde to analyze its realism. Science has proven that “there is the multiplex and mutable character of that which we know as the personality of man” (Myers 134). The story of Jekyll and Hyde may be work of fiction, but the real life application about the duality of mankind shows that it is a fundamental part of human nature. Stevenson effectively uses truth throughout his novel to reveal the human condition of humanity’s dual nature. Stevenson’s effective use of vitality to comment on the human condition is another reason why his book is considered good.
Early on in the story, the reader is introduced to Jekyll and Hyde. They are set up to be opposites in terms of personality. Mr. Enfield says, “‘I see you feel as I do. Yes it’s a bad story. For my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties’” (Stevenson 10). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are well developed characters because they are set up from the very beginning of the novel to be diametric opposites. Jekyll admits in his letter that had both sides of good and evil within himself as Dr. Jekyll. He states, “both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering” (48). Dr. Jekyll has the two opposite personalities of good and evil clash within himself. It shows his two sides, and the fact that they both existed at the same time. Sometimes evil would overcome him, and he would turn into Hyde. This complexity reveals that humans experience something similar when different personalities clash. Stevenson is able to use vitality in complex characters to reveal the human condition of mankind’s dual
nature. Stevenson’s effective use of affirmativeness to comment on the human condition is also a reason why his book is considered good. Jekyll and Hyde act as two separate entities within the same person. There are benefits and downsides to both sides of Jekyll. Jekyll states, “to cast it in with Hyde, was to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to be become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless” (Stevenson 55). Jekyll also states, “to cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had late begun to pamper” (55). There are benefits to each side of Jekyll/Hyde and both are meaningful. Mr. Hyde is evil but Stevenson proves that he is important and worth writing about since he is an essential character as Jekyll’s counterpart. Both sides of Jekyll are important and they cannot be separated from each other. The whole point of the story “is not that a man can cut himself consciousness, but that he cannot” (Nabokov 184). Both sides of good and evil are a part of Jekyll/Hyde and it cannot separated in an experiment. Both are equally important to the point where it is impossible to separate each other. In order for one to die, the other must perish with them. Stevenson is able to use affirmativeness to create meaningful characters to reveal the human condition of mankind’s dual nature. Stevenson’s effective use of totality to comment on the human condition is a fourth reason why his book is considered good. Stevenson connects minute plot points and small details to the greater story to emphasize the dual nature of mankind. Stevenson points out the small detail between Jekyll and Hyde in how they spend their time. He says, “it was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend’s quarters; and he aged the dingy, windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre” (Stevenson 25). Jekyll is shown to inhibit a large comfortable house while his other side, Mr. Hyde, spends most of his time in a small lab. This small difference shows the contrasting personalities within Jekyll and applies to the human condition of the dual nature of man and how opposite personalities will cause different preferences in lifestyle. Stevenson took inspiration from previous stories. The story of “‘Markheim’ came out just before Jekyll and Hyde; the dreaming of the latter clearly reflected current preoccupations” (Calder 127). The issue of the duality of mankind has been relevant before Jekyll and Hyde, but Stevenson is able to captivate his audience by writing an excellent book that deals with the truth of mankind’s dual nature. As the story nears the end, the fate of Jekyll is revealed to the reader. Jekyll writes, “here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end” (Stevenson 62). Jekyll tried all his life to separate his personalities into two separate entities; although in the end, he was unable to separate the good and evil in him into two separate entities. He tried to fight the human condition of duality and failed. His failure affirms the truth that mankind has a dual nature. Stevenson is able to use totality to connect small details to the major plot and incorporate it effectively to reveal the human condition of mankind’s dual nature. Stevenson’s effective use of beauty to comment on the human condition is the final reason why his book is considered good. He incorporates a writing style that slowly reveals the true identity of Jekyll and Hyde that keeps the reader interested and wanting to discover more. Mr. Utterson, a lawyer investigating the true identity of Jekyll, observes, “there’s a rather singular resemblance; the two hands are in many points identical: only differently sloped” (Stevenson 28). By slowly revealing the connection between Jekyll and Hyde, the reader is able to come up with a conclusion that they must be related somehow. This connection affirms the dual nature of mankind since it is eventually revealed that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, just merely two sides of the same coin. Many adaptations of the story of Jekyll and Hyde have been created after the book was released. Many directors often put their own little twist on the story to keep it interesting and fresh. However, they always have something in common with the original story. Many “Jekyll and Hyde films retain a large part of Stevenson’s story, and others retain only the control premise of a transformation that separates someone’s personality into independent components” (King 158). Even though directors put a small twist on the story of Jekyll and Hyde, they have the main components kept in the story. They always keep the fact that Jekyll and Hyde represent different personalities in the same body. This is to keep the central message of mankind’s dual nature. Stevenson is able to use beauty to create an entertaining and story that is able to be morphed but still keep its central message to reveal the human condition of mankind’s dual nature. Stevenson is able to utilize truth, vitality, affirmativeness, totality, and beauty to create a complex story that is able to speak on the human condition. Ultimately, Stevenson’s novel is a good book due to Stevenson’s effective use of literary elements to explain the human condition of how different emotions and personalities clash to create mankind’s dual nature.
Thus in conclusion, the concept that texts are a reflection of their context is applicable in Robert Stevenson’s novella: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. This is due to the values of the nineteenth century Victorian England such as technological advances, reputation and masculinity being reflected through the main characters of the text through Stevenson’s use of literary devices support.
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).
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.
Stevenson’s most prominent character in the story is the mysterious Mr Hyde. Edward Hyde is introduced from the very first chapter when he tramples a young girl in the street, which brings the reader’s attention straight to his character. The reader will instantly know that this person is a very important part of this book and that he plays a key role in the story. This role is the one of a respectable old man named Dr Jekyll’s evil side or a ‘doppelganger’. This links in with the idea of duality. Dr Jekyll is described as being ‘handsome’, ‘well-made’ and ‘smooth-faced’. On the other hand, Mr Hyde is described as being ‘hardly human’, ‘pale and dwarfish’, giving of an impression of deformity and ‘so ugly that it brought out the sweat on (Mr Enfield) like running’! These words all go together to conjure up an image in the mind of an animal, beast or monster. During the novel...
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a major theme in the story is the duality of good versus evil. In the novel, a character by the name of Dr. Jekyll believes in the dual nature of human beings, for he states, “ 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
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
In conclusion, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, represents many themes of duality in human nature. This is represented by the characters of Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Hastie Lanyon, and John Utterson. Some themes represented are the duality in conforming to societal conventions, curiosity, and temptation. Stevenson utilizes significant events including the deaths of Lanyon and Jekyll, and the transformations of Jekyll into Hyde to prove “that man is not truly one, but two” (125)
In the last chapter, Henry Jekyll’s full statement of the case, Dr.Jekyll states that he now believes that there is truly more than two sides of man. One way that this is true in the story is how Mr. Hyde becomes jealous of Dr. Jekyll and wants to overpower him showing the jealous side of man.
When Jekyll first turns into Hyde, he feels delighted at his newfound freedom. He states: "... And yet when I looked upon /that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, /rather of a leap of welcome..."(131). Now he could be respected as a scientist and explore his darker passions. Stevenson shows duality of human nature through society.
Some non believers may think that it is perfectly equal because in the picture the sides look almost the same. Despite this idea, Robert Louis Stevenson’s work [proves this claim wrong. The first example in the novel is when Jekyll is explaining what happened at Regents Park, “I began to be aware of change in the temper of my thoughts , greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the bonds of obligation. I looked down; my clothes hung from lessly on my shrunken limbs; the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy. I was once more Edward Hyde.” (73). This is an example of how Jekyll’s evil side just immediately takes over and causes his sides to be unbalanced. The second example is when Jekyll implies, “And hence as I think it came about that Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter, and younger than Henry Jekyll.”(64). And also a little further states, “Evi besides had left on that by an imprint of deformity and decay” (64). Jekyll is implying that the reason for why he his now older looking than Hyde is because his evil side of Hyde has now left an imprint on a regular body. Therefore leading to the fact that his two personality sides (Yin and Yang) are no longer balanced. The final example is when Jekyll states, “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end” (78). Finally Dr Jekyll’s evil side is taking over and there will no longer be a Dr. Jekyll only a Mr. Hyde
A major theme in the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the duality of good versus evil. A character in the novel by the name of Dr. Jekyll believes in the dual nature of human beings, for he states, “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.”. Dr. Jekyll is a respectable and well mannered man that gains an urge to set free his “wild side” from his
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the author Robert Louis Stevenson uses Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to show the human duality. Everyone has a split personality, good and evil. Stevenson presents Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as two separate characters, instead of just one. Dr. Jekyll symbolizes the human composite of a person while Mr. Hyde symbolizes the absolute evil. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who are indeed the same person, present good and evil throughout the novel.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some attention has been given to Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He claims that the brain was composed of several faculties, and that the brain and mind were connected in mysterious ways of madness. A trestle on insanity becoming a source of systematic perversion of the natural feelings, affections, inclinations, temper, habits, moral disputations, and natural impulses. Dr. Jekyll knew what he was doing when he made Mr. Hyde but he did not think about the consequences of making a duplicate of his insane side. As the story goes on, Dr. Jekyll becomes anti-social in some way for example, morbidly depressed or angry with everyone. Utterson soon knew that Dr. Jekyll was not telling him something when he read his will left up to a man name Mr. Hyde. Throughout the story Dr. Jekyll’s friends try and find out little by little who this man is and why are these crimes occurring and no names lead back to anyone. Even though Jekyll and Utterson are two totally different people, they are still somewhat the same because Jekyll is driving himself insane trying to keep Hyde alive but yet a secret to everyone. Mr. Utterson is also driving himself insane by trying to find out who Hyde is. These two men were obsessed with something made up and their obsession just grew stronger until neither of them could take it anymore. At the end of the story both Jekyll and Hyde become reckless as he locked up in the
Due to their concealed yet present inner evil, humans are naturally inclined to sin but at the same time resist temptation because of influence from society, thus illustrating a duality in humanity. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde focuses on how humans are actually two different people composed into one. The concept of dual human nature includes all of Hyde’s crimes and ultimately the death of Jekyll. Jekyll proposes that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and describes the human soul as a constant clash of the “angel” and the “fiend,” each struggling to suppress the other (Stevenson 61, 65). Man will try to cover up his inner evil because once it rises to the surface everyone will know the real...
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