Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Good Vs Evil Analysis

As Jekyll thinks he’s in control of Hyde, his addiction to his darker side spirals out of control and he transforms into Hyde without taking the potion. Hyde’s character is gaining strength and Jekyll is getting weaker. Jekyll gets weaker because he is getting weaker at controlling Hyde. By becoming Hyde and letting his evil side out, he has made live harder for himself because now he wont be able to get rid of Hyde as he once said he could. Hyde has now overpowered Jekyll and is in control.

Jekyll talks about the years before the creation of the potion that transforms him into Hyde. He summarises his finding of the dual nature, human beings are half good and half evil. Jekyll’s goal in his experiments is to separate two opposite elements, creating a person with only good characteristics and a being of only evil. He does this because he wants to free his good side from dark urges. He fails this experiment, in fact he only manages to create a whole evil person ‘Mr Hyde’. In the letter, Jekyll says ‘I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man . . . if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.’ The events of the novel inform the reader that the dark side (Hyde) is much stronger than the rest of Jekyll, this is why Hyde is able to take over Jekyll. This letter is really important for the reader so that the whole novel is understood. A lot of horror is created and it is all quiet in the reader's mind. The reader feels horrified by the way in which Jekyll seems to love and care for Hyde. Jekyll’s words make the reader angry that a man who was so good could enjoy becoming so

     In the end, Jekyll decides to let Hyde take over and he gives up. Hyde is able to take control over Jekyll because Jekyll had originally taken the potion for selfish reasons. Jekyll knows that there is a good chance Hyde will take over but he continues with his experiment knowing the risks. He says, “To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it in with Hyde, was to die a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become at a blow and forever,

But in private, Jekyll confesses that when he “looked upon that ugly idol in the glass, [he] was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This too, was [himself]. It seemed natural and human” (Stevenson 78). Instead of feeling disgust at the appearance of Hyde, like every other character in the story, Jekyll feels comforted. The fact that Jekyll is able to view pure evil without revulsion is symbolic of his innate corruption and foreshadows Hyde inevitably overwhelming Jekyll. Throughout the story, Jekyll is utterly incapable of resisting the temptations of Hyde. Even after vowing to never transform into Hyde again, Jekyll drinks the potion after two months: “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” (Stevenson 86). By allowing himself to fall prey to temptation and feel comfortable with Hyde, Jekyll refuses to acknowledge the immorality of Hyde. This is illustrated by the fact that “While the other characters find ways to accept and cope with their shadow sides, Dr. Jekyll cannot, and his failure to integrate the seemingly opposite aspects of himself… [results] in his

Throughout The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses internal conflict, plot, and characterization to show that inner evil cannot be suppressed.

In pursuing his scientific experiments and validating his work, Jekyll claims, "man is not truly one, but truly two." So, in Jekyll's view, every soul contains elements of both good and evil, but one is always dominant. In Jekyll's case, his good side is dominant, but he knows there is evil inside of him, but at the end of the book his evil side becomes stronger and unstoppable. However, as a respectable member of society and an honorable Victorian gentleman, Jekyll cannot fulfill his evil desires. Thus, he works to develop a way to separate the two parts of his soul and free his evil characteristics. Unfortunately, rather than separating these forces of good and evil, Jekyll's potion only allows his purely evil side to gain strength. Jekyll is in fact a combination of good and evil, but Hyde is only pure evil, so there is never a way to strengthen or separate Jekyll's pure goodness. Without counterbalancing his evil identity, Jekyll allows Hyde to grow increasingly strong, and eventually take over entirely, perhaps entirely destroying all the pure goodness Jekyll ever had.

Jekyll doesn’t necessarily excuse Hyde’s actions but attempts to protect himself and deflect the scrutiny that may be placed on him. He attempts to use the fact that all men are have some form of evil within, no matter how many good deeds they may perform in their life to show that while Hyde’s thoughts and morals are his own, everyone has this evil side. At one point after the murder of Sir Danvers, Jekyll chooses to attempt to restrain Hyde and he “laboured to relieve suffering” (Stevenson 64). While he is successful for a short time, he is already too deep to prevent Hyde from surfacing again. Even though in the long run he is unsuccessful, Jekyll believes that this attempt to halt the growing presence and severity of Hyde’s actions somehow excuses his creation and the fact that he had those characteristics that make Hyde evil before Hyde was even created.

Despite saying this Jekyll still succumbs to his Id and Hyde is drawn out again. Jekyll knows of the evil that comes out when he transforms into Hyde. Jekyll says “This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil”(Stevenson 108). Here Jekyll clearly states that he knows Hyde is evil yet he still cannot overpower his Id and then his Superego is overcome. By turning into Hyde, Jekyll feels free and can do whatever he wants without the slightest hesitation. Following his innate desires Hyde murders Sir Danvers Carew and tramples a young girl. These actions are done through the Id and even though Jekyll is civilized law abiding man once the Id has taken over and he transforms into Hyde, his dark side is unleashed. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are but one; one body but two conflicting characters, the good and evil.

While Dr. Jekyll was in his opposite form, Mr. Hyde, he managed to murder a man named Sir Danvers Carew, “Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds, and clubbed (Carew) to the earth,” (Stevenson 15). Dr. Jekyll quickly becomes addicted to this version of himself, he lives vicariously through this opposite side of himself, similar to how drug addicts do through using cocaine or meth. When he made the decision to use the potion one more time, “it was in my own person that I was once more tempted to trifle with my conscience; and it was as an ordinary secret sinner that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation,” this was his ultimate downfall (Stevenson 50).

While student Ryan Vullo claims “that Mr. Hyde commits suicide”, this is entirely wrong. A human brain contains two hemispheres: the left brain and the right brain. Fredric Myers notes that the left brain contains the “sinister” (135) attitude and a “lower degree of evolution” (135) while the right brain contains the “higher quailites of character” (135) such as “self-control” (135) and “has risen from the savage level” (135). With these definitions, it can be concluded that Jekyll inhabits the right brain while Hyde inhabits the left brain. Jekyll, his side of the brain, and body are known as “rational, civilized, European, and highly evolved” (Showalter 1433).

Hyde was the embodiment of all of Dr. Jekyll’s wants; he was a vessel with which Jekyll could act on the evil and immorality that were the true expression of his personality. The wants that had been suppressed for the majority of his life bubbled to the surface upon his discovery of the draught that transformed not only his appearance, but also his state of mind into that of Hyde. Hyde became the morphine that relieved Jekyll of the pain of imperfection and gave him the ability to release all of his inhibitions and perform the brutal acts he had dreamed of. While society saw a brute and a monster, in Jekyll’s eyes, Hyde was the manifesto of his wishes and dreams. This is why when Jekyll caught his first glance of his alter-ego, he saw only the personification of everything he had craved for so long:

He foreshadows that he will be transforming into Hyde soon. Once Jekyll made the transformation he felt younger and happier. “In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit (78),” I honestly think that Hyde was one of the orphans that he experimented on. The quote that made me think this was, “I had now

Hyde is a part of Jekyll and the good and the bad are merged in one body and soul. Jekyll created Hyde for the purpose of enjoying. I think it is an interesting and extraordinary thing because as far as I concerned The Victorian Era worths to scientific studies.

Jekyll not only did an experiment to split his two personalities, but was willing to risk everything to do it. He was willing to risk his reputation, friends, and his life. Dr. Jekyll’s evil persona, even went as far as killing someone. This is what Dr. Jekyll said about Edward Hyde “long as I had considered my position, made enough allowance for the complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil, which were the leading characters of Edward Hyde. Yet it was by these that I was punished.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde not only conflicting forces but also affected by each other and dual natures. The book is written in only Dr. Jekyll’s perspective, so this paragraph will going to explain about Dr. Jekyll. Existence of Hyde provokes to know him more or to have a hard time (Suffered, wanted to destroy Mr. Hyde). In the story, Mr. Hyde couldn’t control himself and committed a crime. “Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of things; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body.” (Stevenson 3). Through this, Dr. Jekyll was suspected to blackmailed by Mr. Hyde, which decreases his social status and it could bring him big influence during Victorian era. Not only negative effect, but also positive effect exists. For instance, in beginning of the story, Dr. Jekyll has a lot of inner conflict, and due to that conflict, he seems always unorganized. “The thoughts of his mind, besides, were of the gloomiest dye; and when he glanced at the companion of his drive he was conscious of some touch of that terror of the law and the law’s officers which may at times assail the most honest.” (Stevenson 22). The narrator reveals this in chapter ‘The Carew murder