The Nature Of Evil In Dr Jekyll And Hyde

Hyde as a character is one that is inherently human and will continuously appeal to audiences through his representation of human nature and the primal instincts that society may discourage. The character of Hyde retains this relevance due to the nature of his character. Henry Jekyll created Hyde to exist as a separate entity from himself, but he comes entirely from Jekyll. Hyde is both entirely evil and entirely human. The darkness and malevolence that Hyde represents were always present in Jekyll and it was through his elixir that he was able to isolate each extreme that exists within everyone in a presumably healthy intermingling of good and evil. Jekyll mentions this later in his confession. “This, I take it, was because all human beings,

Audiences can relate to both Jekyll and Hyde because they see themselves in both of the characters. They may not see themselves in Hyde’s more unrestrained behaviors, but an honest audience can relate to Jekyll’s desire to become Hyde and pursue human instinct without guilt. They may understandably see Jekyll as a victim. By just pursuing to feed these primal instincts, he fell victim to the immense power that can come with supreme evil and in extremes in general. Striving to be either entirely good or entirely evil is an interesting thought, but one that arguably can never happen given this duality that Stevenson is trying to convey. Even Hyde was not as evil as Jekyll makes him out to be, as we see him agreeably pay for any damages that he might have caused, even going as far as to offer to wait until the bank opens and deposit the check with the injured party to ensure the check goes through (Stevenson, 3-4). One cannot be entirely good or evil and must, instead, strike a balance between the two. Jekyll is not necessarily at fault for attempting to realize this, although he was just a tad naive in doing so. These instincts will always be a part of humanity at some level, so there will always be some aspect of the self for the audience to relate to. Though Stevenson wrote for an audience from 1889, these instincts are still very much a part of us, however the culture we are immersed in differs