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The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Decent Essays

Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is a classic Victorian tale of good and evil. The novel tells the story of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a respected scientist who so desperately needs to separate his morality from his self-indulgence. Aware of the evil side of his own being, he seeks to be free of it through scientific experiments resulting into the “bestial” Mr. Hyde. It’s a simple tale about the good and evil that exist in all of us. Through his brilliance, Stevenson creates an atmospheric saga that tells more about our nature to be either good or evil. He presents Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as two very distinct and opposite beings who must coexist with each other. Despite their cohabitation, Mr. Hyde, being the vile one simply exists and his existence does not need justification. Unlike Dr. Jekyll, he doesn’t need to question his morality, or lack therefore of. He is completely liberated which then facilitate him into degenerating into being the most powerful, ultimately leading to the death of his cohabitant. This does not just depict the relationship between good and evil, but also the evolution — or downfall in that case, of a man ‘s rejection of his dual nature. This results into a tale about not just the dual nature of a man, but of society as a whole. The dualism message of the story is revealed trough the experiments performed by Dr. Jekyll. The plan for him was to fully separate good and evil; making them into two distinct entities. But

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