His deceit and cover-up of his true relation to Hyde from Utterson, Lanyon, and other characters leads to his downfall, in addition to his addiction. Jekyll creates a self induced personality order that is dissociative and causes him suppress his dual identities. According to Patricia Ferrer-Medina's article Wild Humans, “Henry Jekyll believes that the general essence of the human being is a composite of both good and evil tendencies. The potion that he drinks succeeds in letting loose Jekyll's evil side...the potion does not have a creative effect, but it controls identity; thus, a pure extract of evil is produced from Jekyll" (2007). The potion in which Jekyll creates to fulfill his good and evil tendencies, in turn forms an addiction in …show more content…
Jekyll engages in his alternate identity of Mr. Hyde in order to deceive others, so he may fulfill his evil tendencies without facing the repercussions under his true identity, highlighting the duality of human nature in the novel. Near midnight in a foggy and gloomy London, Hyde encounters Sir Danvers Carew, an old-man who was widely respected, and beats him with a walking stick to death. In the novel, “The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trile hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth” (Stevenson 27). Dr. Jekyll expresses his inner brutality and desire to commit acts of evil through Hyde's deformed persona. He does so to avoid being penalized and have his crimes traced back to him, thus he can successfully mislead others. Moreover, Hyde commences his crimes indirectly on an evening in which a little girl was strolling down the street. Hyde runs into her and tramples over her leaving her there and offering no assistance. Mr. Enfield, a cousin of Utterson, describes the scene in which he first encounters Hyde, “...then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the, child’s body and let her screaming on the ground” (Stevenson 6). Through Hyde's persona Jekyll could divulge in his malicious motives and revert to Jekyll without being penalized for the crimes he committed. The dual nature of Hyde is purely evil, an element in which he cannot perfect. Hyde …show more content…
Dr. Jekyll is analyzed as a character who is “self divided between good and evil impulses in perpetual conflict, and he proposes a highly problematical split between mind and flesh in response.Stevenson's modern account is chemically based, as Dr. Jekyll turns to substance abuse” (2004). Jekyll's addiction to the potion is an answer to his desires to commit acts to evil. It enables him to commit crimes as Hyde and get off scotch free and still live the comfortable life he has as Dr. Jekyll. Hyde tramples the little girl but later on has a dinner party with his friends under the impression of Dr. Jekyll. In the novel, "... Dr. Henry Jekyll was already a dual character before drinking the potion. Duality defines his character...Jekyll himself sees Hyde as a projection of his evil disposition...On the one hand we have the penitent, moral, and remorseful Jekyll; on the other, we have the free, animal-like, and devillike Hyde" (2007). The potion Jekyll consumes heightens his dual nature and animalistic qualities, which he must suppress or risk being rejected by society. The potion releases his evil side that is "devillike" and he feels no remorsefulness for the crimes he committed (2007). Thus, Jekyll's desire to commit acts of evil while deceiving the other characters contributes to the works meaning of the duality of human
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
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!
Another example of Hyde's evil is in the killing of Sir Danvers Carew. Sir Danvers appears to have been killed for no apparent reason. The murder of Sir Danvers was seen by a maid who was working nearby. She states that Hyde meet with a man in the street. After the two exchanged words, Mr. Hyde lifted his heavy walking stick and clubbed the old man to death.
“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.
Everything in this story has a Dual side, including the setting in London, London had streets that were respectable and others that were made of squalor and crime. In the story of Dr.Jekyll and Hyde characters hid their side and showed only one certain side, as a matter of fact a quote from the book that says “an ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy: but her manners were excellent..” (Stevenson Chapter 4 P 54). This quote is trying to convey a message of Mr.Hyde's keeper being oh so well mannered, but don't let her fool you she was an evil person. That quote was also trying to demonstrate good versus evil and how it is conveyed through the book. Hyde was taking control completely over Dr.Jekyll , Dr.Jekyll was sure that there was no way for him to regain his identity, and his only option was to flee. “I lingered but a moment at the mirror; the second and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen if I lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house.” (Stevenson Chapter 10 P 112) Dr.Jekyll’s
Hyde kills Sir Danvers due to Jekyll’s attempt to repress him from coming out, Jekyll is imprisoned in his house because he realizes that he could no longer be Hyde in public. From this point onward, light is brought to the matter of Jekyll’s uncontrollable desire to be this detestable man and the reckless nature takes control due to its rush. When Hyde killed Sir Danvers, he needed to hide himself from sight and become confined but he could not confine Hyde because that was what gotten him into this predicament in the first place. He felt imprisoned in both being forced to be Jekyll and having to hide himself from his friends in case Hyde took over at any given point. This is analogous to having a drug addiction because just as somebody would want to hide their persona when on drugs, Jekyll is hiding Hyde. This additionally takes over their body and can affect them randomly and uncontrollably, just as Hyde affects Jekyll. In addition, this scene reveals how cruel Mr. Hyde because Jekyll says that when Hyde killed Danvers, he was “With the transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight for every blow; and it was not till weariness had begun to succeed that I was suddenly in on top of my delirium, struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror” (49). Jekyll has now begun to have good feelings while being Hyde, even though he does regrettable things in an uncontrolled and selfserving
Dr. Jekyll had been transformed into the evil Hyde and committed many injuries and crimes. As another example, “He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child running from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams” (Stevenson 1682-1683). He also ends up killing himself, Dr. Hyde, by keeping his own evil soul. Overall, the story of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written as a reflection of the values of the Victorian era. Hyde could have, and probably would have been punished or executed for his crimes.
This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human” (Stevenson 88). This statement is rather heart breaking as Jekyll simply sought a means to end his misery. When Dr. Jekyll cannot reverse his “cure” on cue to the good, law-abiding man, he commits an act of “self-destruction by drinking a poisonous phial to avoid capture and the following legal and social condemnation” (Sanna 35-35). In terms of Jekyll and Hyde’s dissociation, no matter the cause, the theory of dualism comes up numerous times.
Jekyll is respectable man with a very good career. He is a doctor that is highly regarded in his community for what he does as far as charity and his manners. As young man growing up, he was secretly involved in weird behaviors that made him a bit questionable. Dr. Jekyll finds his other side to be quite bothersome and he decides to experiment so he could try a separate the good from the evil. He creates potions and other things that really do not help. After so many attempts of trying to restrain his evil side, he brings forth Hyde through his failed experimentation. Therefore, he only accentuates his evil self to come forth. Hyde is an extremely ugly creature that no one could stand the sight of. He is deformed, violent, and very evil. Throughout the story, he fights against Jekyll to take over his life eventually causing Jekyll to murder one of his good friends, Mr.
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 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.
...(43). The reader is draw to the wishes of Dr. Jekyll, each person wants to better themselves and each person finds themselves straying from the correct path in life. In trying to better mankind, Jekyll destroyed the decent man he was before.
This guilt drives him to have “clasped hands to God…tears and prayers to smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds that his memory swarmed against him” (Stevenson 57). As a whole, the text demonstrates that Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego, Mr. Hyde, is the mastermind of pure malevolence who participates in activities that Dr. Jekyll cannot Jekyll experiences. For instance, Dr. Jekyll’s physical appearance begins to decline as he stops taking the draught. The text describes Dr. Jekyll’s physical characteristics as “looking deadly sick” when his is usually a “large well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness” (Stevenson 19-25). Not only does Dr. Jekyll’s health begin to decline, but also his behavior changes as well.
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