“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson is a book that intrigues one’s mind, because it makes us question ourselves about the balance between the two opposing forces. The story starts out with Mr. Utterson, a lawyer and a great friend of Dr. Jekyll, hearing about Hyde for the first time, who is very shady and somewhat misconfigured. Mr. Utterson hears about Hyde’s bad reputation, and his usage of Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory; therefore, Mr. Utterson suspects some kind of relationship between Hyde and Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Utterson’s friend Lanyon, who is a doctor, dies after Dr. Jekyll goes into seclusion; Mr. Utterson goes to Dr. Jekyll’s house to seek the truth behind Lanyon’s death, but he instead sees Hyde dead. Mr. Utterson …show more content…
Without the bad force, the good force can’t be present; therefore, the bad is within the good and vice-versa. The book presents Dr. Jekyll as a good and respectable man, but Dr. Jekyll hides his dark nature until the creation of Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll likes being nice and friendly, but he also has dark urges he wants to satisfy. Once he creates Hyde, he feels Hyde’s dark urges seeping into his mind, because his good intention and nature wasn’t able to keep his dark nature in check. Dr. Jekyll presents what is going inside his head in his statement. “I would still be merrily disposed at times; and as my pleasures were (to say the least) undignified, and I was not only well known and highly considered, but growing toward the elderly man, this incoherency of my life was daily growing more unwelcome. It was on this side that my new power tempted me until I fell into slavery.” (Stevenson 62) This line is very obvious at pointing how Dr. Jekyll is getting bored of his dignified and mannerly life. He is losing the balance that kept him satisfied. Before he created Hyde, he was not able to satisfy most of his dark urges, which causes him unhappiness. There is a small imbalance of nature before, and that causes him to be curious about separating his nature to satisfy his dark apetite. Hyde helped him satisfy the bad urges without destroying his good appearance. But, Hyde’s evil power becomes extremely strong that it pulled all the joy out of being the good-natured Dr. Jekyll. When a person falls into any kind of slavery, they have no power to choose their fate. This line proves the imbalance that is present before and after the creation of Hyde. Even Dr. Jekyll is beginning to understand the imbalance between the two opposing forces can cause trouble, as he described in his statement. “I were more conscious of a more generous tide of blood; and I began to spy a danger that, if this
Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde Literary Analysis Good and evil will always exist in the world. This is the main theme used in Robert Louis Stevenson’s mystery novella, Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. The Victorian era influences the character’s actions. For example, Jekyll was tired of being forced to live a good life, and he wants to be bad without hurting his reputation.
Jekyll is quite pleased with himself as he feels younger, lighter, and happier in Hyde’s body, but his feelings of happiness toward Mr. Hyde quickly diminish as he receives word that Hyde is responsible for the gruesome murder of Sir Danvers Carew, a client and friend of Utterson (Thomason ed. 198). Jekyll becomes even more panicked after he transforms into Mr. Hyde in his sleep (198). More unauthorized transformations occur until Dr. Jekyll runs out of potion. He desperately tries to recreate the solution without success hence he is stuck in the body of Hyde. A worried Utterson and Dr. Jekyll’s butler, Poole, break down the door of the laboratory that Mr. Hyde is in only to find that he had killed himself moments before they had come through the door (Stevenson ?).
In Jekyll and Hyde Louise Stevenson creates havoc for Dr. Jekyll, by showing us that Hyde is slowly taking over Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll originally created Hyde for his own enjoyment, a body in which he could “let go” his inner tensions and anger. Hyde however becomes too powerful for Dr. Jekyll to contain: “‘You are very good,’ sighed the other. ‘I should like to very much; but no, no, no, it is quite impossible; I dare not. But indeed,
Jekyll, a successful doctor who experiments with two sides of human beings: good and bad. Stevenson’s message is clear, it is good and evil in all of us. There is a formula, a potion, can bring out the evil in anyone. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are very different individuals Jekyll is handsome and good in the eyes of the community, whereas Hyde is ugly, evil and described as “like a money” when viewed through society’s glasses. Hyde is illustrated as animalistic and deformed mainly to evoke an evil character.
Significance of Reputation in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde illustrates the significance of concealing your secrets and desires in order to maintain a flawless reputation. He creates distinctive characters with various reputations and contrasts their abilities in retaining one. Stevenson emphasizes this through Hyde’s actions, when portraying Utterson’s flawless reputation, the contrasting vulnerability to desires between Utterson and Jekyll and the creation of Hyde.
Dr. Jeckyll chose by himself to create the more “wicked” and “disordered” version of him. This version of himself longs to be free of the facade he puts on when he is seen as the organized and friendly doctor, this covers up ultimately contributes to his overwhelming need for a less obligated life. By extending the exposure of the real reasoning behind Hydes behavior Stevenson is able to create a horrific feeling inside the character's
With all of the bad things that Mr. Hyde does in the story, it is hard not to believe that Dr. Jekyll does not have some evil intentions. I do not believe that Dr. Jekyll can be a good person and do the evil things he does in the story. Dr. Jekyll states, “man is not truly one, but truly two.” He believed that man had two different
Jekyll starts to have less control over changing into Mr. Hyde. I feel as if Jekyll’s body was so immune to the substance that controlled the change, which it seemed as if Jekyll was Mr. Hyde to begin with. “It seemed natural and human (Chapter 10)”. Dr. Jekyll explains how becoming Mr.
One of the major ideas presented in Jekyll and Hyde is the need for both good and evil to live in coexistence within an individual’s conscience. Jekyll’s experiments prove that a balance between the two sides of nature is crucial to be content in the world. He realizes that the only reason he is able to be one of the two sides of his nature is because he
when Dr. Jekyll says “I was no hypocrite, both sides of me were dead earnest.” Saying this the reader thinks that Jekyll could not overcome the temptations of becoming evil which is his fault for being weak enough to resist it. “Even as good shone upon the countenance
Good, however, is shown to overcome evil, by the actions and events taken and that had occurred within the novel. The "evil", Mr. Hyde, being born of good, the evil deeds only present while the novel 's "good," Dr. Jekyll is not, and the novel’s end, where Dr. Jekyll deciding to not let his darker half kill any longer and makes a decisive and sacrificial decision. All of these point to this concept that good prevails and triumphs evil no matter the cost and no matter the strength or power of evil whether it be an overwhelming gap or a tiny little crack. Dr. Jekyll was a good man and a good surgeon, doctor, and scientist, but he was not without his own vices and set of foreboding dark impulses. These he found a hassle to deal with and also big troubles.
However, Jekyll’s good psyche was quick to act and regain control of their mind. Months later, when Utterson is reading the full statement of the case, he discovered that “[t]he power of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll” (Stevenson 62). Jekyll has become sick literally and metaphorically from Hyde. The actions of Hyde in the murder caused Jekyll to become mentally ill from the constant fear of Hyde’s power. Jekyll is also “sick” with himself for creating the monster Hyde has become.
Jekyll is seen performing scientific practice, attempting to achieve a goal which can be argued to exceed his mental capacity. Dr. Jekyll wished to remove his dark side, tampering with the duality of man. He expressed hatred towards is his darker side. It shows this in the quote “many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as i was guilty of;... I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame.”
“Hyde” is just Jekyll, having transformed his body into something unrecognizable". Jekyll does not make the potion to take away all evil away from himself. He created a potion that would allow himself to express his feelings without feeling guilt and facing any consequences effecting his respectable self. Dr. Jekyll in the novella is a respected professor and well known around the town. While Hyde on the other hand is almost the complete opposite.
Jekyll lives his life as a good person with some evil and he struggles with this threw out the whole novella. Dr. Jekyll shows his good side