One might question the extent to which Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are in fact a single character. Until the end of the story, the two seem nothing alike. Stevenson uses this marked contrast to make his point: every human being contains opposite forces within him or her, an alter ego that hides behind one's front. Correspondingly, to understand fully the significance of either Jekyll or Hyde, we must consider the two as looking at one single character. When viewed separately, neither is a very interesting personality. It is their relationship that gives the novel its power. Despite the seeming opposition between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, their relationship in fact involves a complicated duo. While it is true that Jekyll largely appears as moral …show more content…
Jekyll himself ascribes his odd results to his state of mind when first taking the potion. He says that he was motivated by dark urges such as ambition and pride when he first drank the liquid and that these allowed for the release of Hyde. He seems to say that if he entered the experiment with pure motives, an angelic being would have emerged. However, one must consider the post events in the book before accusing Jekyll of any blame. For, once released, Hyde gradually comes to dominate both personas, until Jekyll takes Hyde’s shape more often than his own. Of course, by the very end of the novel, Jekyll himself no longer exists and only Hyde remains. Hyde seems to possess a force more powerful than Jekyll originally believed. The fact that Hyde, rather than some creature, emerged from Jekyll’s experiments seems more than a chance event, subject to an arbitrary state of mind. Jekyll’s drinking of the potion seems almost to have afforded Hyde the opportunity to assert himself. It is as if Hyde, but no comparable virtuous essence, was lying in …show more content…
You may recall that Hyde is described as resembling a “troglodyte”, or a prehistoric creature; perhaps Hyde is actually the original, authentic nature of man, which has been retained but not destroyed by the gained weight of civilization and conscience. Perhaps man doesn’t have two natures but rather a single, ancient, without morals one that remains just barely restricted by the bonds of civilization. However, the novel suggests that once those bonds are broken, it becomes impossible to get them back again. Even in Victorian England, Stevenson suggests that the dark, instinct side of man remains strong enough to take in anyone who proves foolish enough to unleash
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a classic mystery story, enticing to all audiences merely upon it’s suspense alone. When Stevenson first wrote the story (after recalling a dream he had) he had only the intentions of writing such an entertaining tale. Yet at the suggestion of his wife, he decided to revamp the mystery to comment on the dual nature of man and of society in general.
R. L. Stevenson has written many memorable novellas and novels. One of the most important from the Victorian Gothic Era would be “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” This novella deals with many themes that intertwine together to form a complex idea of dualism. It has aspects from personality division and the ultimate question of how good and evil can tie into Victorian society’s view of public and private life. Stevenson the personalities of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with evil and good aspects as well as the public and private life to demonstrate a clear understanding of dualism.
“All human beings are commingled out of good and evil.” Robert Louis Stevenson was no fool when it came to understanding the duality of human nature evident within mankind. In his novella, the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson is able to explore his interests concerning the dark, hidden desires that all human beings are guilty of possessing. In his story, a well-respected professional by the name of Dr. Jekyll experiments with the idea of contrasting personalities and successfully undergoes a physical separation of such identities—one which would soon wreak havoc upon his very existence. As a result of his success, Edward Hyde is born. Hyde, characterized as a miniscule and terrifying, apelike figure from the start,
On the other hand our introduction to Hyde is different in all ways possible. Hyde is described as , “a pale, dwarfish man”, his appearance is grotesques to every eye it seizes. His hobbies weren't monotonous like Jekyll's but they were nefarious and brought him great pleasure. The contrast of these natures are purposely polar opposites to make us think that they are two people, by the same token Stevenson drops hints and clues progressively throughout the book leading to the reader's realization that they are the same person. In contrast, if he has used two characters the idea of duality of human nature would not have been comprehended by the reader, but even keeping them as one wasn't enough to convince the reader, so Stevenson showed personality differences.
The main theme in this story is good vs. evil. This is shown through the main character that has two very different personalities; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll is either all good, Jekyll, or all evil, Hyde, but either way he feels that he isn’t his complete self as either Jekyll or Hyde, “[…] both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame than when I labored, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering.” (Stevenson 57). Jekyll is constantly at war with his other personality, Hyde; he can switch between the personalities on his own free
Hyde's morality didn't exist as compared to Dr. Jekyll. I am not sure if Mr. Hyde even had morals. Dr. Jekyll does realize his moral differences as Mr. Hyde through his "shameful behavior" and "pleasure-seeking half" when he says, "Dr. Jekyll says that he is no more himself when he labors in the light of day at the continuance of knowledge and the relief of suffering than he is at night when he lays aside restraint and plunges into what he calls shameful behavior”. He understands how all human beings are “dual”, so he seeks a potion to separate these dual personalities in order to allow one side to seek pleasure without guilt. He discovers that once the two personalities are separated, the pleasure-seeking side dominates and the socially responsible side cannot control it." Dr. Jekyll seems to have remorse and struggle with what he has done, especially when he says, "I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin." Even Dr. Jekyll himself admits to his moral conflicts around being more wicked when he says "I felt younger, lighter, happier in 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 innocent freedom of the soul. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are not alike. Mr. Hyde is violent while Dr. Jekyll is calm, cool and collected. Dr. Jekyll is a man in his fifties, Mr. Hyde is much younger: “…Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than Henry Jekyll The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, pg. 107)”. Dr. Jekyll is handsome; however, Mr. Hyde is ugly. Dr. Jekyll is good and Mr. Hyde is in Dr. Jekyll’s words, “pure evil” (pg. 108). Dr. Jekyll is a kind person who, if he bumped into someone and knocked them down, would apologize and help them up. When Mr. Hyde bumped into the little girl, he did not care and walked all over her: “…[Mr. Hyde] left her screaming on the ground (pg. 40)”. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are not alike, yet they are the
This side of his identity isn't dynamic; however, he chooses to initiate it through his analysis. This side winds up dynamic through the persona of Mr. Hyde - a criminal man who perpetrates pitiless demonstrations of savagery against others. Through this adjustment in Jekyll's character, Stevenson demonstrates the duality in human instinct - the possibility that everybody can do good and insidiousness
The two characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are considered to be polar opposites. In a way they're total strangers. they have completely different physical features, act different, and share different moral beliefs. This causing them to have two separate personalities but in one person.
Dr. Jekyll is respectable man with a decent profession. He is a specialist that is exceptionally respected in his group for what he does similarly as philanthropy and his conduct. As young fellow growing up, he was covertly included in abnormal practices that made him somewhat faulty. Dr. Jekyll observes his other side to be entirely annoying and he chooses to test so he could attempt a different the great from the shrewdness. He makes elixirs and different things that truly don't help. After such a large number of endeavors of attempting to limit his malevolent side, he delivers Hyde through his fizzled experimentation. Along these lines, he just complements his malicious self to approach. Hyde is a to a great degree terrible animal that nobody
In Jekyll’s “full statement” at the end of the novella, he admits his addiction with Hyde goes deeper than the drug he used to first induce the transformation. He believes that there is a “duplicity of life” which his high moral standing in the community would never permit him to explore without the help of creating a second personality, a personality which was already living within him. This second personality helps to relieve him of loneliness and he finds extreme pleasure in the evil life that Hyde
In the book, the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are two separate personalities inside of one person, Dr. Jekyll represents the good side of himself and Mr. Hyde represents the bad side.
Jekyll believes that “man is not truly one, but truly two” (Stevenson, 83). This shows that the doctor believes he can fully separate the good and evil halves of the body. Thus Dr. Jekyll formulates an elixir which ultimately creates another version of himself, named Hyde. With Mr. Hyde as his alter ego, Dr. Jekyll is able to lead an insidious secret life. He describes being Hyde as feeling “younger, lighter, happier in body” and becoming evil “braced and delighted [him] like wine” (Stevenson, 86). This confession is exceptionally cogent, not only of his state of mind after the grisly transformation, but also of his prior inclination towards committing sins. Though Hyde truly is a villainous and abhorrent creature, it becomes quite axiomatic that this apparent wickedness originated from the depths of Dr. Jekyll’s true personality; this spark of evil is referred to as being “the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace: punishment coming…years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault” (Stevenson, 54). Basically, the evil was inside Dr. Jekyll the whole time, but only once he changed into Mr. Hyde did it become more
In 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a best selling novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It told the terrifying story of the power of addiction and the monsters that lurk within all of humanity. In this story many readers are intrigued by the psychological depth that Stevenson puts into the duo of Dr. Jekyll and his alternate personality Mr. Hyde, and even today the names of this alternating couple have become a kind of parable for any “devil in disguise”. The theme of dualisms main role is proven in this story as the theme when Jekyll undergoes radical changes in his emotional state and personality and assumes the character of Hyde. Through these changes, Stevenson portrays the duality of human nature and moral standard, and as Henry Jekyll