Comparison Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

1735 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Compare Frankenstein and Mary Shelley

Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it 's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea can be dangerous and once it sticks to the mind, it gains control and ultimately becomes the centerpoint of a person’s conscience. An idea that both Jekyll and Victor had contributed to their downfall due to the focus they had on it. The unconventional and fantastical beliefs of Dr. Henry Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein cause these two individuals to isolate themselves and carry out their scientific endeavors in such a way as to prevent the possibility that they can be blamed for their actions but eventually these actions catch up with them and this leads to their downfalls. …show more content…

Hyde”, he becomes two different people. Hyde ends up wreaking havoc in society and brings attention to Dr. Jekyll, who seems to never be around. People are curious and concerned why Jekyll wants to take care of Hyde and leads to an investigation from Mr. Utterson. The effects of Jekyll’s creation become worse as he can no longer control how often he turns into Mr. Hyde and has a decision to make. Jekyll’s conscience ultimately comes into play and knows that he cannot let Mr. Hyde be a permanent character in society as it is too dangerous. After trying to get himself to no longer turn into Hyde fails, he chooses to kill himself. “The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were...undignified...his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure...from any degree of torture to another; relentless like a man of stone...but the situation was apart from ordinary laws, and insidiously relaxed the grasp of conscience” (129). Jekyll realizes that he has made a bad decision by wanting himself to be able to act on his suppressed ideas as Hyde has put his life in jeopardy after killing a man. Jekyll knows that he cannot be caught because he carries out his evil thoughts through Hyde, who nobody suspects to be Jekyll as that would be seen as nonsense in that time period. However, the decision to kill himself is Jekyll’s conscience taking over and realizing that the possibility of Hyde being a member of society only makes things worse and that he is sorry for his actions and the trouble that he has

Show More
Related

  • Perils of Addiction Exposed in Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examining Hero Archetypes: Jekyll, Hyde, and Batman

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    What is human nature? In almost every century someone has asked this question to try and find the answer. Each individual had a specific way of debating the matter. One specific author, Robert Louis Stevenson, described the duality of human nature in his book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

    Read More

  • Silent Homosexuality In Jekyll And Hyde

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jekyll was a lower class citizen, like Mr. Hyde. Unlike Jekyll, Hyde has the sole privilege of being dismissed and unnoticed because he is of a lower class. According to Martin Danahay, author of “Dr. Jekyll’s Two Bodies”, Jekyll wears the body of Hyde “as if Mr. Hyde were a pair of pajamas that he would wear while sleeping in one location, but not the other” (23). Essentially, he could take a nap as Jekyll, wake up as Hyde, and spend the evening in opium den after opium den, experiencing different forbidden pleasures other than sodomy. Dr. Jekyll enjoys his new found freedom through Hyde at first, but soon grows weary of it when Mr. Hyde takes over whenever he wants. As Hyde grows into more power, he becomes reckless and starts leaving messes for Jekyll to clean up. More messes means a greater chance of being exposed, and having his gentlemanly reputation ruined. It makes sense as to why Dr. Jekyll kills himself and Hyde in the end. According to Sanna, Jekyll is “no longer able to revert to his good and distinguished aspect and personality” and commits suicide to avoid social condemnation (36). Jekyll kills himself because he can no longer control Hyde’s lust for wickedness, and he is tired of trying to keep up the appearance of someone he is not in a society where men having a need for certain pleasures is frowned upon. And, because Jekyll cannot control his need for these pleasures, he would rather die than be made a fool

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dr. Jekyll's Description Of Robert Louis Stevenson

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jekyll in the urge of his evil instinct.The doctor has released the beast in him and violently experience the sensation of murdering Sir Danvers. “ There was something strange in my sensations, something incredibly new and, from its novelty, incredibly sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in the body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul.” With all the pleasure he has of being Hyde, however, cannot help Jekyll to carry all the consequences he has to bear. He starts to tie himself with repression “I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.” and finally, commit

    Read More

  • The Loss of Control in Henry Jekyll

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the character Henry Jekyll can’t seem to control his alter-ego—Mr. Hyde. At the beginning of the novella, he had a decent amount of control over Mr. Hyde, yet as the novella progressed, the strange other self of Dr. Jekyll was the one who started to control him. The research he conducted became progressively addicting. Every time it was used, he travelled closer to death. A variety of significant events caused his decline from being the perfect Henry Jekyll, to a Henry Jekyll who has no control over his monstrous self.

    Read More

  • dr jekyll and mr hyde

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll, in grave danger, writes a letter to his good friend Lanyon. With Jekyll’s fate in Lanyon’s hands, he requests the completion of a task, laying out specific directions for Lanyon to address the urgency of the matter. In desperation, Jekyll reveals the possible consequences of not completing this task through the use of emotional appeals, drawing from his longtime friendship with Lanyon, to the fear and guilt he might feel if he fails at succeeding at this task. Through Jekyll’s serious and urgent tone, it is revealed that his situation is a matter of life and death in which only Lanyon can determine the outcome.

    Read More

  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • The Repression Of Desire In The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Similarities of Characters in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    wrong, a lot like the way Mr Hyde was thought of. So to Mr Utterson,

    Read More

  • Characteristics Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    ​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.

    Read More

  • Characters In Frankenstein's Monster, Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a little different then Frankenstein in a way that the monster isn’t identified as a monster as much for his appearance as he is for his actions. Dr. Jekyll was a scientist and as a scientist he had to keep and good name but he didn’t want to be good he want to be bad. So, he decided he would have two personalities. Thinking that if he had two personalities he could be good and evil. He made a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. So, He could do all those bad things that he wanted to do but then had a way to cover it up by saying it was someone else. But, eventually this plan got out of hand yes, he had two personalities of Dr. Jekyll being the good doctor and then Mr. Hyde being the murder, but he started no being able to control when he was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He fears that he will turn into Jekyll permanently. Society doesn’t except this because your not supposed to be two different people. Trying to be two different people is monstrous because that just doesn’t happen and him to think that is okay is monstrous. Also, for him to murder people makes him a monster. By Dr. Jekyll’s friend starting to get suspicious about this situation drive Dr. Jekyll to worry then, he turns back to Mr. Hyde and thinks it’s a good idea to kill himself. So, society drove his monstrosity to kill himself, which made him to continue to be a

    Read More

  • Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Compare And Contrast

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are both different is morality. Both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have highly different morals. For example Dr. Jekyll’s morals are to contain the evil inside him and to keep his good side away from his bad side. Eventually Dr. Jekyll’s for trying to isolate his evil side it took over him. Dr. Jekyll’s mind was too weak that is how Mr. Hyde took over. Which now lead to Mr. Hyde’s evil mind, Mr. Hyde is the evil side to Dr. Jekyll and now he has full control. Mr. Hyde is the moral downfall of Dr. Jekyll.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a little different then Frankenstein in a way that the monster isn’t identified as a monster as much for his appearance as he is for his actions. Dr. Jekyll was a scientist and as a scientist he had to keep a good name but he didn’t want to be good he want to be bad. So, he decided he would have two personalities. Thinking that if he had two personalities he could be good and evil. He made a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. So, He could do all those bad things that he wanted to do but then had a way to cover it up by saying it was someone else. Eventually this plan got out of hand. Having two personalities of Dr. Jekyll being the good doctor and then Mr. Hyde being the murder, he started not being able to control when he was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He fears that he will turn into Mr. Hyde permanently. Society doesn’t except this because your not supposed to be two different people. Trying to be two different people is monstrous because that just doesn’t happen and him to think that is okay is monstrous. Also, for him to murder people makes him a monster. By Dr. Jekyll’s friend starting to get suspicious about this situation drive Dr. Jekyll to worry. Then, he turns back to Mr. Hyde and thinks it’s a good idea to kill himself. So, society drove his monstrosity to kill himself, which made him to continue to be a monster. Having two identities is not only monstrous but it’s psychological. (Dr. Jekyll and

    Read More

More about Comparison Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Open Document