Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay

Jekyll escapes his life by becoming a different person. This can have some major consequences. In the book the consequences resulted in him doing some bad things also it caused him to also go crazy, but it finally led him to his death. When he did bad things, these “Bad things” were him murdering one of Utterson’s clients. This was a big deal because not only did he kill somebody, but it was also his friend’s clients. When Jekyll went crazy he started to change in to Mr. Hyde more often than ever. This was very unhealthy for him to be going through these changes frequently. Lastly it led to his death because all this changing did a number on him and led to his death. Because he was so badly hurt he needed to have the finest of medicine which no drug store had. Finally, he ran out of time and passed away. With how Dr. Jekyll escaped his life was not a very good way to do

Jekyll seems to be in control of his desires and temptations but as Hyde he can fulfil them and not feel guilty. Stevenson is stating that everybody has evil inside of the, wanting to get out and that everyone gets a thrill of letting it out sometimes.

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

By looking at Dr. Jekyll, one may think that he is pure and innocent; a dignified scientist who is kind, pleasant, and lives in a grand house full of servants who love him. Little does everyone know, Jekyll possesses a hidden, sinful side that desires to be freed. Although Jekyll has temptations to commit acts of darkness, it does not necessarily mean that he is a corrupt man. According to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll wrote in his confession 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…I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll’s id is Mr. Hyde. As stated in an outside source, “A study in dualism: The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “Mr. Hyde would seem easily recognizable as the id, seeking instant gratification, having an aggressive instinct, and having no moral or social mores that need be followed,” (Singh and Chakrabarti 13). Mr. Hyde as seen multiple times throughout the novel, expresses one of the components of the id mentioned in the quotation. One example showing how he lives by no morals or values is when he kill Sir Danvers Carew. Hyde beat him to death out of impulse when he passed him late at night on the street. This murder also represents how Mr. Hyde shows aggression. Instant gratification is seen towards the end of the novel. In chapter 10 Jekyll says “My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring,” (Stevenson 92). Hyde could not withhold being repressed anymore and breaks out without Dr. Jekyll’s potion. He does this because he is looking for pleasure. This relates to Freud’s pleasure principle where it is Hyde’s instinct to transform to be

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

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

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.

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.

Throughout the novella there is a constant power struggle between Jekyll and Hyde, which Hyde eventually wins but Jekyll finishes by taking his and his counterpart's life. In the beginning Jekyll is in full control, all he has to do is drink the potion and "Edward Hyde would pass away like a stain of breath upon a mirror". Also another important discovery to know was that in the beginning there was only pain turning into Hyde but as committed more atrocities, Jekyll became more consumed by evil, finding it hard to become himself again. Jekyll soon comes upon the theory that Hyde is smaller in person because Jekyll's evil side has been "less exercised", but as Hyde commits more wrongs his stature becomes stronger. Two weeks before the murder of Sir Danvers, Jekyll is in bed in Sohowhen he falls back to

“No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will”(John 10:18). In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll makes the decision to create another identity for himself through the use of his own concoction in order to freely take part in malevolent activities without feeling remorse or ruining his reputation. The doctor is fascinated with his theory that people have a good and evil side, which drives him to conduct the experiment in order to create an outlet for his dark desires. He is unwilling to get rid of Hyde despite knowing the consequences of his actions. Additionally, he underestimates the power of Hyde, and so he is taken aback when Hyde gets stronger. Therefore, Dr. Jekyll is at fault for his own death in the end because he himself sought evil in the first place.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll desires to relive his past events that are considered unfit of society, creating Mr. Hyde to do so without getting caught and losing his high reputation. Dr. Jekyll allows his evil side develop as “his temptation of a discovery so singular and profound, at last overcame the suggestions of alarm” (44). Dr. Jekyll lets his curiosity take over his moral judgments by creating a potion that allows him to switch bodies from himself to Mr. Hyde. The emphasis on his temptations being his only and most important ambition gives him reason to create another persona to satisfy his desires. Consequently though, Jekyll acknowledges that “a current of disordered sensual images running like a mill-race in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul” will be the cost of breaking the rules of society (44). His decision alludes to chaos through the imagery of disorder when being free from responsibilities, but he sees the disorder as something positive and enjoyable. For him, it may be a way to get out of his

His thought of separating his two personalities of good and evil, living the life of two different people, and getting the same respect while partaking in the atrocious acts of killing people was very cultivating. Jekyll thought that this potion has solved his problems of living the best of both worlds without knowing that this could go wrong anytime. As a scientist, Jekyll created this potion to separate the two natures of men knowing that he was putting his life in danger. However, the fact that he committed the very first sin of drinking the potion knowing the consequences of it was as evil as Jekyll can get. Once he was intoxicated he felt stronger, and younger and that his body has changed. He was enjoying the feeling of being indistinguishable.

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

Jekyll. The potion was created in order for Dr. Jekyll to turn into Mr. Hyde and vice versa, he had to consume a certain potion, and after a while, it was causing Mr. Hyde to appear more often. When Mr. Utterson and Mr. Poole was trying to get into Dr. Jekyll's laboratory, Mr. Hyde/Dr. Jekyll was “Crying night and day for some sort of medicine and cannot get it to his mind…,” but every time the drug was delivered, “There would be another paper telling me to return it, because it was not pure…” (Stevenson pg. 45). Unfortunately, by the time his colleagues got into the lab, he had killed himself. In Jekyll’s confession statement, he wrote that “I knew well that I risked death; for any drug that so potently controlled and shook the very fortress of identity…” (Stevenson pg. 66) and had on one occasion “gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde” (Stevenson pg. 72). He also wrote that he “had voluntarily stripped myself of all those balancing instincts by which even the worst of us continues to walk with some degree of steadiness among temptations; and in my case, to be tempted, however slightly, was to fall” (Stevenson pg. 76). The potion had become addicting to Jekyll like modern day drugs - one time can get anyone hooked for life. Because of the drug, he continued to turn himself into Mr. Hyde, knowing the risks that could