In Germany, it is often said that seeing or meeting ones doppelganger, or alter-ego, is a very bad omen that signifies impending death. They are said to represent a person, but in their evilest form. Dr. Jekyll, from the novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, does not meet his doppelganger; he creates him. Living in the proper city of London during a time which placed great value on manners and a gentleman-like nature, Dr. Jekyll felt restricted from even the time of his boyhood. He decided to; using his skill in chemistry, create a potion that would separate the two parts of him: good and evil. He named this other half Mr. Hyde and drank the potion almost nightly to release him into the city streets. On the other hand, During his nightly escapades as Hyde, Jekyll has been witness to many of his minor evils but the first major crime that Hyde committed was when he ran into and injured an innocent little girl. Jekyll’s only reaction to Hyde’s crime was to try to distance himself from his doppelganger after Mr. Enfield made the connection between him and the person who signed the check that Hyde had cashed for the girl’s medical charges. Jekyll “took and furnished [a] house in Soho… [and] open[ed] an account at another bank in the name of Edward Hyde…” (Stevenson 70-71). He is not at all concerned with Hyde’s actions and tells Mr. Utterson that “the moment [he] choose[s], [he] can be rid of Mr. Hyde” when Utterson attempts to confront Jekyll about having Hyde as the beneficiary on his will (Stevenson 20). Dorian’s first crime was leading on Sybil Vane and then breaking her heart without just cause. When he first saw her he said that “She was the loveliest thing [he] had ever seen in [his] life” and that only three weeks after meeting her, he was in love with her and had proposed (Wilde 50). But after he brought Lord Henry and Basil to one of her shows and her performance was worse than he had ever seen, Dorian told Sybil that she had “killed [his] love” (Wilde 84). She was as devastated as he was indifferent. When he returned home and saw the effect that his actions had on the painting, he was After months of restraining Hyde and refusing the urge to take the potion, Jekyll shamefully caves like an addict looking for a fix. He was “…tortured with throes and longings… [and] in a moment of moral weakness…” Jekyll took the potion (Stevenson 75). After being confined for so long, Hyde “…came out roaring” (Stevenson 75). He stalks the streets under the cover of night and violently attacks the first person he encounters, poor old Sir Danvers Carew. Utterson goes to confront Jekyll about his affiliation with someone who would commit such a horrible crime and Jekyll reassures him that “’… [he] is done with [Hyde] in this world’” (Stevenson 29). Jekyll is truly appalled that Hyde would stoop so low as to commit murder and makes a true and valiant effort to end their ‘relationship’ and to redeem himself. Dorian’s sin emotionally affects him much less. Basil hears the rumors that have been going around about his pure and innocent Dorian and decides to confront him about them. For all of Basil’s inquiries, Dorian only has one answer, “’I shall show you my soul’” (Wilde 145). Basil at first demands a real answer but Dorian is adamant, so the two men head upstairs to where the warped portrait lies in wait. When he sees what has become of his painting, Basil is horrified by the now-corrupt visage of what was once his greatest
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).
The time period plays an important role that pushes Jekyll to create the potion, so he can do the sins everyone has within. Evil which is not associated with wealth is hidden, and Hyde takes advantage of this. He uses his position, and makes the best of it to get away with his misdeeds. In the movie Hyde and Jekyll are shown hurting women; the director uses this to create a different kind of evil, that is more universally understood. The audience is either a female, or has a female family member. While watching the movie he wanted to make the audience despise Hyde and want to help Ivy and Beatrix. Ultimately the nature of evil, and the split of Jekyll’s identity lead to his
However, as the same happens much too often in real life, Jekyll is unable to keep this promise. He has already sunken too far into his addiction and it completely controls him, which Stevenson brilliantly illustrates as Hyde gains strength and begins to take over. As Hyde becomes stronger, he usurps Jekyll's body, mind, and life - just as drugs and alcohol often do to addicts, who sometimes lose their jobs, their possessions, and their friends. Jekyll finds himself turning into Hyde spontaneously, so he has to seclude himself from society, and give up his existence as Jekyll. His addiction has gotten so out of hand that his life has been completely destroyed; he is beyond resolution, since the only way to combat his problem is to kill Hyde, thereby killing himself.
To conclude the way that Stevenson has described Hyde and what Jekyll has done in most parts he has related it to the devil which in Victorian times was considered very dangerous, even though today he’s not considered that powerful it would still make a big impact. Stevenson has been successful in using many elements of a shocker/thriller to write a novella with a much deeper moral significance because every aspect of the story relates back to the Victorian morals of 1837 till 1901 and for a 21st century reader some parts of the novella will make them think what is really happening around them now and whether it is right or not!
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
Before leaving, she decides to visit her aster once more. To the shock of the reader, Hyde attacks Mary and tries to cut her throat, although he ultimately fails to kill her. He reveals that he has mixed poison into his antidote and injects it into himself. He finally becomes Jekyll once more and breathes his last in Mary’s arms.
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
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.
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.
Stevenson explains to the reader that humans have lots of different sides to each other and not just one. The final chapter of the novel, ‘Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement Of The Case’ explores the ways in which the author presents Victorian attitudes to the nature of humans. He also explains how duplicitous humans are, which means how people often have two separate approaches to their life. The duality of man means the two sides of the person’s mind and is most apparent in, as the title suggests, the characters ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. The separation of Jekyll into two beings, Jekyll and Hyde, is an analogy for humankind’s conflicting forces of good and evil. These characters bring to life the inner struggle between the two powers of the soul. Dr. Jekyll asserts that ‘man is not truly one, but truly two,’ within the book to illustrate the theme of the novel and to help describe Mr. Hyde to more rational people such as Mr. Utterson.
During the reign of Queen Victoria, there were many technological and scientific advances that impacted how people viewed the society. The nineteenth century saw the rise of ideas such as the ‘fin-de-siecle”, where the progress in technology or science might lead to ‘degeneration’. The idea that these advances would come at a cost and possibly end the human race was shared by many, including Stevenson. This value that technological advances might lead to degeneration is seen through the characterisation of Jekyll and Hyde. The imagery that Jekyll uses to describe Hyde: “the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy” depicts Hyde as a primitive being, a human that has been degenerated into an ape. This reference that Hyde is primitive can also be seen in the use of connotative words: “clubbed him [Carew] to death” which implies that Hyde is similar to an ape or early human, thus the idea of degeneration. Another reference depicting Hyde as less than human is seen through the metaphor used by Enfield: “it was like some damned Juggernaut”, again emphasising how technological advances might lead to degeneration, as Hyde was a product of Jekyll’s experiments.
A doppelganger by definition is a double or counterpart of a person or an alter ego of a person (Dictionary.com). Everyone has a doppelganger that influences their lives every day in their decisions they make. Their doppelgangers are their suppressed selves and, if uncovered, will reveal to the world the kind of people they genuinely are. What one may show on the outside could be completely different from what they truly feel. One can really know a person only once he fully knows the person that he is on the inside. Mr. Hyde represents the inner evil of Dr. Jekyll in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde while the painting in The Picture of Dorian Gray resembles his own inner evil as well. In each of these novels, the suppressed sides of the characters are present and influence their every action thus slowly reveal the true identities of the men. The nature of man is composed of inner sinfulness that is masked by outer composure set by society, but once the suppressed half is exposed, only then will the public fully know a man.
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...
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a highly acclaimed novel, in which Jekyll is painted as the loving victim while Hyde is the murderous villain. In the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the fact of the matter is one is a psychopath born cold-hearted, while the other is a sociopath created by society. Anti-social disorder is at the crux of the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, which reveals the psychotic characteristics, deprived social relations, and *** of the psychopath, Dr. Jekyll, and the sociopath, Mr. Hyde.
...of bettering the Victorian society, although it went entirely wrong. The falling action toward the denouement occurred when Dr. Jekyll was unable to create anymore of the potion needed to keep Dr Jekyll intact; resulting in Hyde completely taking over the body of Dr. Jekyll.