The archetypal theme that evil exists in all humans is exemplified in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In all humans there are prominent examples of good and evil, depending on the way in which they are viewed in society. The stereotypical perfect fairy tale expresses that perfection is attainable and permits people to enhance their physical features through magic or witchcraft, which in reality is inaccurate. Humans also naturally posses a duplet identity that suggests that one is evil while the other is pure. For example, Dr. Jekyll is perfect while Mr. Hyde is pure evil. Furthermore, mortals occupy a trigger that is within them that wants to manifest into a monster to relinquish their inner demons …show more content…
Dr. Jekyll created Mr. Hyde because Jekyll is obsessed with the idea of perfection and splitting the good and evil apart. Performing this act is extremely dangerous; but Jekyll did it for the sole purpose of trying to attain perfection. Dr. Jekyll split himself into two sides, the good and the evil: “This is me, as I take it, was because all humans beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil” (108). From this statement, one can predict that Dr. Jekyll has somewhat of a guilty conscience and struggles to deal with the idea that the two forces—good and evil—can never be split into two. Dr. Jekyll grows frustrated with the idea that splitting the two forces is impossible but continues to transform himself from Jekyll to Hyde. Also--in the last chapter—Jekyll explains that when he is Hyde, it feels normal, almost like Hyde is natural identity and that he enjoys that side of himself. Jekyll states: “Yes, I preferred the elderly and discontented doctor, surrounded by friends and cherishing honest hopes; and bade a resolute farewell to the liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping impulses and secret pleasures, that I had enjoyed in the disguise of Hyde” (114-115). Dr. Jekyll enjoys that disguise of Hyde because everyone has a desire to be a monster, or someone other than himself. Seeing as, Dr. Jekyll was unhappy with himself
Considering The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an Effective Representation of Evil
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
From the beginning of time, humans have questioned the validity of the intrinsic duality of man. Are humans born with both pure goodness and pure evilness or is the latter cultivated? Or simply altogether is man an existence embodied with both? In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one man, a scientist named Henry Jekyll, concludes that all men are both good and evil. Through his own understanding of human nature, Henry Jekyll transforms and reveals himself to become and show the characteristics of both the protagonist and antagonist of the story.
Good and Evil in Human Nature in Lord of the Flies and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
For instance, Henry Jekyll who is seen as the good, or light character describes Jekyll as being ‘“a second form and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me because they were the expression and bore the stamp, of lower elements in my soul”’ (qtd. in Singh and Chakrabarti). Dr. Jekyll adds “Edward Hyde, along in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil”. When revealing this, Dr. Jekyll admits Hyde is not different from himself, because he feels Hyde’s desires within him. Jekyll attempts to rationalize his behavior throughout the chapter of “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case”. He continually defends his pure evil side by arguing everyone has the power to become their own version of Hyde, most people do not show it. Jekyll realizes his personal duality in the book by adding ”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 rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” (Stevenson 84). Jekyll believes Hyde is harmful to the world, yet he keeps letting him out. His actions prove he realizes Hyde is detrimental to society, but releasing Hyde feels too good to Jekyll to subdue him any longer, however, this is Jekyll’s greatest mistake. In the novella, Dr. Jekyll describes his opposing side by asserting, “My devil had been long caged, he came our roaring”
“All human beings are commingled out of good and evil” Robert Louis Stevenson once said. In this one of a kind novel entitled The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by the wonderful Robert Louis Stevenson. Throughout this literary work, the idea of good vs evil as well as your dark side being tough to handle is greatly expressed. Which is why the theme of this novel is good versus evil and having trouble controlling your dark side. Now some people may believe that your good side almost always triumphs over your bad side mnly becasue thats what wither see or hear about, the yin and yang sign for good and evil is perfectly balanced, and some others may believe that a person cannot have two completely opposite personalities.
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.
From reading the last chapter, we can all see that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are easily viewed as a symbol about the good and evil that exists in all men, and about the struggle these two sides in the human personality. Hyde has a short temper and is made to look evil. “I observed that when I wore the semblance of Edward Hyde, none could come near me at first with a visible misgiving of the flesh”. Jekyll is arguing that Hyde is the perfect physical embodiment of the evil inside him, implying that Hyde looks evil. Stevenson has also explored which aspect of human personality is superior, good or evil. Since at the start of the book Hyde seems to be taking over, you might argue that evil is stronger than good. However, Hyde does end up dead at the end of the story, suggesting a failure of the weakness of evil. Since Hyde represents the evil in Jekyll he is therefore symbolically represented being much smaller than Jekyll as “Jekyll’s clothes are far too large for him”. But as the plot progresses Mr. Hyde began to grow and becomes more powerful than Jekyll, and the reason for Hyde to become more powerful is due to the fact that Jekyll enjoys what Hyde does, which allow Hyde to gradually destroy the good in
Dr. Jekyll’s two personalities represent the extremely good and truly wicked side of human nature. When those personalities were split it created complete chaos. Dr. Jekyll needed both sides of his personality to fit in with society. When one side is stronger it creates an imbalance and brings up the true evil of his demeanor. He has to create a balance in both sides for him to live respectively. As he holds in his evil side of his personality it grows stronger and brings out a far more menacing persona than he was expecting. He did not understand how powerful his evil side could honestly be. When the evil becomes too strong his good side has lost all the ability to control both sides. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “At the sight that met my eyes, my blood was changed into something exquisitely thin and icy. Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde” (Stevenson, p.139). This quote illustrates how the evil side took control completely. However, Jekyll could have easily avoided this mistake by maintaining the balance of good and evil in not creating the potion that separated his personalities. Even in the story of Romeo and Juliet good and evil were better together through the possession of love. When Romeo first saw Juliet all he could see was the good in her not the evil from her family’s hatred towards the Montagues. As their love grew stronger love and war intensified. In Romeo and Juliet Tybalt was a pure
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).
Henry Jekyll’s innermost vices, but since he held himself to an extremely high standard of moral excellence, he needed to find another way of releasing. He creates Hyde as his way of getting these primal urges out. During this time period, the focus on reputation and credibility was huge, and this is how men were judged. He had many urges that he was internally repressing, as a result of existing in the Victorian era, which was well known for how incredibly stuffy and repressed it was. Jekyll was widely respected in the community as a doctor and he had many friends, so it is understandable that he didn’t want to lose his reputation, which came first for men of his social standing in this time period. He went to great lengths to create and cover for Hyde, including renting a place for Hyde to live, and making a bank account for his alter ego. The creation of Hyde turns out to be way more sinister than Jekyll initially imagined. Hyde’s own name is a pun, as he is the part of Jekyll that he must keep hidden away for fear of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both suffer; however, one from illness and the other from insanity. Mr. Hyde is a sociopath, and lives in it to the full extent as well as Jekyll being a psychopath. However, Hyde was created the way he was to portray a sinful side of Jekyll, while Jekyll was himself throughout, good and bad, to manipulate and gain in the harm of
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
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
Mr. Hyde is the monstrous side of Dr. Jekyll from their book “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” In their story, Dr. Jekyll is a brilliant scientist who has created a formula that turns him into Mr. Hyde. It is stated that, at some point, Dr. Jekyll became addicted to the potion. Though it is unclear what would cause the addiction, since it would be Hyde who would experience the “high” and not Jekyll himself. Hyde is the contrast to Dr. Jekyll, and is considerably more brutal and immoral. Modern incarnations depict him as becoming incredibly muscular after the transformation, though in the original work it is only implied that Hyde is stronger, retaining his previous physique. It is consistent that Hyde is shown to be ugly, perhaps even deformed.