Lanyon’s description of Hyde is that he is something abnormal. Everyone gets a sense of unease upon seeing him. He seems so unnatural and like the creature in Frankenstein, he cannot fit into the society. By this creation of a counterpart, the unacceptable Hyde, he allows him be a part of the society. Hyde cannot be accepted as a human being, so Jekyll betrays his community. The consequences are devastating. Jekyll becomes isolated with his counterpart and he is unable to rid himself of Hyde. Much like Victor Frankenstein, Jekyll pays with his
Dr. Jekyll is benevolent and pleasant in his social interactions. He attempts to cover up his darker self by creating a courteous public persona. Everyone has a different persona when they are outside in the eyes of the public and when they are inside. Through Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll reveals his destructive side. Transforming into Mr. Hyde gives Dr. Jekyll a freedom to act and behave without caring about the public’s opinion or about the consequences of his actions. Dr. Jekyll is captured and locked up deep inside, he appears reasonably appropriate on the exterior but his inner reflections drives him towards immorality. As Dr. Jekyll privately turns into Mr. Hyde, not only is his appearance transformed, but also his behavior. This can be a similar caparison on people in today’s society. People with high status or popularity are always being watched with every move they make. If they make one small mistake, then that will look bad on
If Hyde has been described as Hyde "savage, uncivilized, and given to passion…poorly evolved" (Shubh), then perhaps he represents the true, original nature of man, repressed by society, norms, and conscience. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde suggests that this restrained, amoral side of human nature, once given a chance to escape, cannot be controlled. Even in this 'height of western civilization', Victorian England, this tempting evil can overcome even the most virtuous of men. Jekyll is neither good nor bad, but a man whose deeply repressed urges motivated him to separate, but not remove, the evil parts of his nature. There is a misinterpretation that Hyde is an unwanted byproduct of trying to create pure good, that Jekyll is not in control as Hyde, and that Jekyll doesn't enjoy being Hyde. In fact, Jekyll loves being Hyde, he revels in the freedom that he brings him (Stevenson 54), but the problems with his dual personality starts when he has to face the consequences of his actions. Jekyll has a difficult time balancing Hyde's debaucheries and Jekyll's rational, refined side. However, Jekyll realizes too late that he has indulged in Hyde too much and has let him grow out of control. At the beginning of the novel, Hyde was the “smaller, slighter, and younger than Henry Jekyll” (Stevenson 57). His more youthful appearance represents how young and free Jekyll feels as Hyde, but also symbolizes how little his personality was seen before Jekyll drank his potion. Early in the novel, Hyde is easily controlled, Jekyll can use his potion to limit how often he transforms into Hyde (Stevenson 56). However, as he starts to morph back and forth, it starts to take more and more potion to control the switches until
Eventually due to the inaccuracy of his ‘unscientific balderdash’ (as spoken by Lanyon) something goes wrong and his changes from Jekyll to Hyde become more irrepressible, ‘My blood was changed into something exquisitely thin and icy. Yes I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde.’ He lacks the power or strength to stop these changes. Hyde seems to perform the metamorphosis without warning or consent. I believe this to be significant to the fact that Hyde is becoming stronger and less willing to do as dictated, and because he, the inner demon, has been exercised at such a severe extent he had become a bigger part of Jekyll and so containing the inner beast becomes harder. Stevenson writes ‘the powers of Hyde seemed to grow with the sickliness of Jekyll.’ I do not think he wrote this meaning a literal sickness but was instead talking about the mental deterioration of Jekyll. The distinction of the unplanned and unwelcome changes between Jekyll and Hyde is symbolic to the fact that as the lines forming the distinction of the personality of Hyde and Jekyll began to merge thus so did the transition.
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
Hyde. He is a dark sinister personality. One that tramples a young child, seriously injuring her, and acts as if it was nothing. Mr. Hyde is totally opposite of Dr. Jekyll in both appearance and public status. Mr. Hyde has a deep desire to push the limits of public acceptance by indulging in activities that would bring negative attention to him and even public scorn and shame. He lack any sense of remorst and could careless if he is not accepted by others.
Jekyll is tempted to do bad things and he uses Hyde to overcome his temptations. Jekyll gets his satisfaction of doing bad deeds by becoming Hyde. Jekyll says “If each, I told myself, could be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way” (Page 105). He states that he wants to do bad things but knowing he cant and still live the life he has, he uses Hyde as an escape from his temptations. Once Jekyll is able to control his temptations but still do bad as Mr. Hyde he says “I felt younger, lighter, happier in the body” (Page 106) Mr. Hyde is Jekyll’s way of escaping his sophisticated lifestyle and entering a totally separate way of life. Jekyll then didn’t feel any guilt for Hyde’s actions.
An earlier party to the knowledge that Jekyll and Hyde are one, he has already lost his life to that secret. A man who believes in rationalism and moral rectitude, Lanyan simply cannot adapt to the truths uncovered in the revelation of Hyde: improbability and "uttcr moral turpitude" (SC, 80). He sinks slowly into death, his body following the lead of his "sickened" soul. His too is a kind of suicide, a death permitted, if not willed. Lanyan simply cannot accommodate himself to the horror of Jekyll unveiled.
The author’s use of diction establishes how the author makes the characters feel an ominous feeling as well as being fearful and anxious, specifically towards Mr. Hyde, by using certain connotations. Jekyll acknowledges that his second half is a “malign and villainous” (46) character that is a “man of stone” (46) and is “lusting” (52) to harm anyone who gets in his way. Prior to Jekyll revealing to Mr. Utterson that he would drink a vial and switch between himself and his wicked counterpart, all of the characters found Hyde to be an evil being that is capable of anything. When the people believe that Jekyll had been murdered, they believed that Hyde was the culprit behind it all since he would be the receiver of everything Jekyll had; in addition, Hyde had actually trampled over a young girl in the street and left her crying without a care for her well-being, which ultimately, casted further suspicion on Hyde. The more insight given in regards to Hyde’s personality creates a more sinister outlook onto Hyde as it causes both the characters and the reader to think about what Hyde is actually capable of as well as the lengths he would go to. As the story moves on, the connotations shift to demonstrate how Jekyll feels about his dark side that is embodied by Hyde as he fully comprehends what his own experiment has done to himself. Jekyll is afraid of becoming Hyde; he is frightened when he wakes up to find himself as Hyde; however, at the same time, he is tempted down that dark path where his desire to be someone else and his darkest desires can be “gratified and stimulated” (49) even though he has become “a slave” to something that is “tenfold more wicked” to his original self (44). While Jekyll is scared of
The reason for Jekyll creating Hyde is to release these (his own) primitive urges and to allow them to flourish unhindered by societal laws or mores. It
Although Jekyll was initially in control and had all the means to stop turning into Hyde, Jekyll portrays himself as Hyde’s victim. By victimizing
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).
One of the most vital concepts incorporated into The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the representation and depiction of the duality of mankind. Jekyll works to find a solution which will separate him into his reckless, immoral persona and his respectable, Victorian self. After consumption, this potion causes him to completely transform into a man who is known as Hyde. As Hyde, he can express himself in immoral, evil ways. This not only includes moral and immoral wants but rational and irrational wants. Not only does this transformation enable him to keep his good reputation even while he does horrid, unacceptable things, but it allows him to do things which he most likely would not even
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.
Towards the end of the book things start to go downhill. Jekyll freed his dark side by drinking a potion that transformed him into Mr. Hyde. He enjoyed this sick twist of events. Mr. Hyde always thought about the unthinkable. Right off the bat Hyde was the odd ball of the story, mentally and
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