Scared to death. It’s a hyperbole, it’s an expression, but for Robert Louis Stevenson’s character Dr. Lanyon, it’s a reality. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, two of his characters, Dr. Henry Jekyll and Dr. Hattie Lanyon are old friends, but after a fight nearly ten years ago, they are now just friendly. What were they fighting about? Their opposing views on science, on life, and on what could possibly be true or even possible. The specific views the two doctors have that conflict are scientific medicine, metaphysics, the basic nature of evil itself, and man’s duality. “They have only differed on some point of science,” Utterson thinks after hearing Lanyon discuss Jekyll, but there is more than just …show more content…
Jekyll believes that medicine can be used transcendentally, while Lanyon believes he is out of his mind. Jekyll in the form of Hyde states rather spiritedly that Lanyon has “denied the virtue of transcendental medicine,” meaning that Lanyon does not believe in the ways of mystical medicine. Jekyll though, believes that he has found a great use for medicine, being he “compound a drug by which (his spirit’s) powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and a second form and countenance substituted.” One could imply that after discussing his practices with his longtime friend and fellow scientist, it lead to the termination of their friendship. It is known that the two discussed Jekyll’s views as Jekyll states “you who have so long been bound to the most narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue of transcendental medicine, you who have derided your superiors--behold,” before transforming in front of Lanyon. Utterson isn’t too keen on Lanyon after expressing “but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant. I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon.” Jekyll thinks the mystical and magical is possible, as shown when he writes “…direction of my scientific studies, which led wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental….” This area of study leads to Jekyll’s ultimate drug, a transforming stimulant to make him someone knew, a truly changed man. Lanyon doesn’t like to think about metaphysics, and when he comes face to …show more content…
Jekyll believes that there can be two of a person, and brings it to life right before Lanyon’s eyes. Lanyon cannot believe what he has seen, implying that he does not believe that there can be two of any person, and is scared to literal death. Jekyll believes “…that man is not truly one, but truly two. …It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise 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; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements.” These ideas were Jekyll’s complete scientific beliefs, his entire life’s work, and Lanyon referred to them as “unscientific balderdash.” Jekyll had spent much of his life studying how man is not one, but two. He states that “All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil,” He believed that every man had an evil and a good, but is that truly the
Dr Lanyon is portrayed as being innocent in the novel. The fact that Lanyon refers to Jekyll’s scientific ideas as “balderdash” and “too fanciful” suggests that these ideas are too bizarre and out there, this perhaps may be suggesting that Lanyon is a very almost “by the book” sort of person and the fact that these “fanciful” ideas proposed by Jekyll causes him to refrain from being friends suggests his moral behaviour and perhaps his innocence for wanting to stay out of this “devilish” mans “balderdash”. Similarly, the quote, “I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away”, this demonstrates that Lanyon has seen this alto-ego and would rather die than live with this. Perhaps Stevenson is emphasising Lanyon’s
From the beginning of time, humans have questioned the validity of intrinsic duality of man. Are humans born with both pure goodness and pure evilness or is the latter cultivated? 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, so he decided to separate the two natures within one body. The outcome of his experiment resulted in the formation of a somewhat different product than he had imagined a creature by the name of Edward Hyde. Although Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the souls of one body, there are differences and similarities in their appearance and personality that illustrate the natural duality of good and evil within a man.
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
Both personalities do not want anyone to recognize that the two different individuals are one in the same. Even though Dr. Jekyll was view as an upstanding member of the community, some of Dr. Jekyll’s close friends began to wonder if he was becoming “wrong in mind”. As time progress Dr. Jekyll was appearing to be as unstable as Mr.
“It was for one minute that I saw him, but the hair stood upon my head like quills. Sir, if that was my master, why had he a mask upon his face?” (Stevenson 84 ). In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Mr. Utterson realizes that Dr. Jekyll has been acting strange and locking himself up in his laboratory. When Mr. Utterson meets Mr. Hyde for the first time he is weary of him. Mr. Hyde does many questionable things, such as killing a man and attacking a child. This leads Dr. Jekyll to write a note about his duality of human nature theory and how Mr. Hyde came about. In the letter he described how this theory had been his life’s work and that just by simply drinking a potion that he had compounded he became, the evil, Mr. Hyde. After writing this note Dr. Jekyll kills himself because he cannot stand to be Mr. Hyde any longer. Dr. Jekyll is in denial, he experimented with the potion, and because he is addicted to becoming Mr. Hyde, all of this makes Dr. Jekyll comparable to a drug addict of today.
Lanyon is the prosecution charging Dr. Jekyll within the story. Lanyon acts as the prosecution due to his disbelief and fear of the events that played out before him when Hyde transformed into Jekyll. Lanyon viewed the transformation as monstrous and described Jekyll as “a man restored from death” (Stevenson 53). Due to Lanyon’s scientific beliefs and foundations, “[he] asked [him]self if [he] believed it, and [he] [could] not answer” (Stevenson 53). The event that took place before him were so terrible that he could not “dwell on it without a start of horror” (Stevenson 53).
He believes the existence of the supernatural, that flesh body can be shaken by immaterial power. Since this idea disobeys the common belief of the society, Jekyll keeps doing experiments on the transcendental secretly. Consequently, he gradually becomes the outsider of the society due to his isolation. What’s more, his secret investigation confuses Lanyon a lot, because scientific research should be open to the public so that its accuracy can be examined. This aggravates Lanyon’s disinclination towards Jekyll’s scientific ideas.
In the novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson provides insight into the inner workings of the duality that exists within humans. Dr. Jekyll is a well-respected doctor in his community while his differing personality Mr. Hyde is hideous and considered by the public as evil based on appearance. As the novel progresses Dr. Lanyon begins to investigate Mr. Hyde, he begins to realize similarities between both Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll such as their handwriting which results in the discovery that they are the same person. Dr. Jekyll is able to transform himself into Mr. Hyde by drinking a serum he has created which was intended to purify his good. Stevenson stresses the duality of good and evil that exists
In the novel “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde” there is a theme of good vs evil. Good being Dr. Jekyll and evil Mr Hyde they have the inner fight between themselves, because they are the same person.Robert louis Stevenson uses Diction,imagery,and details to contrast the character of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Hyde and was repulsed but in shock.When Utterson visits Dr. Lanyon again at his sickbed, he brings up Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Lanyon is immediately repulsed and cannot stand to talk about him. Stevenson shows this to his readers this by writing, “I wish to see or hear no more of Dr. Jekyll… I am quite done with that person, and I beg that you will spare me only allusion to whom I regard as dead”(Stevenson 23). Lanyon did not want to hear about Jekyll anymore because it was Jekyll who had caused him to go into shock when he saw Jekyll himself, turn into the infamous Mr. Hyde. Seeing this made Lanyon sick and he couldn’t bear it. This shows that when a certain evilness of when a person’s human nature comes into full light, people don’t want to see it, or they are not prepared. It is truly a gruesome sight and it is also part of that seer’s human nature to be repelled by that sight. It is simply not naturally part of a person’s human nature to have their dark side of their demeanor to be fully brought out of the darkness.
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.
As it was some where in the 19th century it would have been the Victorian period, the Victorians were particularly interested in psychology and science. Jekyll's discoveries were closely linked to the Victorian's fascination with science, "even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle". As the Victorians took their lives very seriously, Jekyll had to do so to, "in the course of my life, which had after all, nine-tenths a life of effort, virtue and control". This meant that Jekyll had to repress his darker more fun loving side to remain in the standing that he did.
In the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde it is regarded that these identities are two different persons but this is not the case, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are one in the same. There is much confusion when reading this literary work by Robert Louis Stevenson; this piece is regarded as horrific and disturbing in many ways. But the biggest twist is when it is reveled to the reader that these two people are the same and that below the surface of Dr.Jekyll is an evil man who enjoys committing evil acts. Mainly that Dr. Jekyll believes he has no choice but to commit these horrid acts because he has no control over is evil side. I don’t believe this is the case, Hyde isn’t a real person and doesn’t exist, nor is he someone who commits
Dr. Jekyll demonstrates the first sign in his relationship with Dr. Lanyon. The two had been close friends, but fell out due to arguments about Jekyll’s science, arguments that must have been severe, as the normally calm Lanyon “flushes suddenly purple”when he recollects them to Utterson. The second, however, is not present in the novel. In fact, Jekyll says that memory is the only attribute that he shares with Hyde: “My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally shared between them.” This has the effect of only adding to his pain and guilt, as unlike a drunk oblivious of his violent drunken deeds of the previous night, Jekyll is forced to, “with tears and prayer smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds with which my memory swarmed against me”. The third is certainly there: “I had not yet conquered my aversion to the dryness of a life of study … I had only but to drink the cup, to doff at once the body of the noted professor, and to assume, like a thick cloak, that of Edward Hyde. I smiled at the notion; it
Though duality in human nature is the central idea of the book, we do not become fully aware or even able to understand how it has any relevance to the book until the very end. Jekyll very clearly states his thoughts on this in chapter 10 “man is not truly one, but truly two”. Not only does he believe this, but also he believes that these two sides of man are “Polar twins”. Though the large majority of the focus is placed on Jekyll when trying to express this concept, we also see Utterson becoming “curious” at times which