At this point in the story, Dr. Jekyll has not completely accepted Edward Hyde as being a part of him. He recognizes that Edward Hyde is “pure evil” but needs further proof that so much evil can be part of a person that is good. The story describes his transformation after drinking the potion as mental, physical, and spiritual. The spiritual part is very interesting because Dr. Jekyll in part always thought he was a fraud and even though he did walk the line of good he expected he was not truly good. I think Hyde was a manifestation of his thoughts of impurity because deep down he believed to have a good soul he must never have impure thoughts. I think this was his true…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson is a late-Victorian novel. It tells a story about a London lawyer Mr. Utterson investigates the unusual relation between his old friend Dr. Jekyll and the wicked murderer Edward Hyde. The message that author tries to convey throughout the novel is controversial and revealing. In fact, in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson makes effective use of imagery, characterization and several points of view to emphasize his contention that a dual nature exists in every human being and that both good and evil sides should be recognized and kept in balance.…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is perhaps the purest example in English literature of the use of the double convention to represent the duality of human nature. That Dr. Jekyll represents the conventional and socially acceptable personality and Mr. Hyde the uninhibited and criminal self is the most obvious aspect of Stevenson’s story. The final chapter, which presents Jekyll’s full statement of the case, makes this theme explicit. In this chapter, Jekyll fully explains, though he does not use the Freudian terminology, that what he has achieved is a split between the id and the superego.…
Robert Louis Stevenson has been coined the title of a literary genius for his work, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Put shortly Jekyll and Hyde, is a story about a man investigating the secrets of a second man, who is in fact two different men living two different personas. Though the story is indeed short enough to read within a few passing hours, it is long enough to force the reader to question their own duality. Is man truly one? Or is each man composed of two separate halves, the good, and the evil? It is undeniable that the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is strange indeed. However, it is also a work of art filled with impossible sciences.…
The concept of monsters has captivated our society for hundreds of years because they represent what society has driven out of the individual. Monsters encapsulate the aspects of humanity that have been changed by the growing civility and refinement fostered by our society.…
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s timeless novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he uses setting and characterization to emphasize the idea that a person will act a way if they are expected to. In his novel, the character of Dr. Jekyll alludes to the mostly good people. Mr. Hyde, however, specifically shows the bad people in society. For these two characters, the constantly changing gothic setting of this novel and the different extremes between light and dark represent their characterizations.…
The doctor scoff down the strange concoction. Suddenly pangs of uneasiness and pain rush through the doctor body stringing him along. A change of deformity had occurred. The doctor was no longer his usual, genteel self. He was of a small stature and dwarfish and a frightening malice seen when in the creature presence. This is one of Henry Jekyll’s shocking discoveries. “Man is not truly one but two”( Stevenson) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde explores the theme of the the duality of man. As well as The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, It explores the dual nature of everything. “ Violent delights have violent ends” ( Shakespeare Ⅱ vi 9). Dr. Jekyll is indulgent with his evil side which creates a violent end for him. Because of this…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson leaves the reader to ponder whether not Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person or two different people. The book describes several commonalities and differences between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The differences and commonalities are not just found in the physical description of the characters but also in their personalities and their actions. It is my opinion that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are in fact one person with two separate personalities.…
Hyde was his bad side and his pure side, which everyone came to know, wasn’t what Jekyll really wanted. He wanted to let Hyde out and to do so he had to take drugs, like Sonny did. Jekyll’s surface was a proper man but his true identity was what lied beneath him and what he allowed to surface when he conjured up his potion. Letting out this carnage side made Jekyll feel alive, with no remorse of what he was doing. The aliveness he felt was the disregard of his culture and their rules, and this is where he found himself happy. The disobeying Hyde was Jekyll’s true identity and how he really wanted to feel. Have you ever one day been faced with the opportunity to break cultures rules and done it? Did you feel exhilarated? Ones identity will never change. When they figure out what the true inner person is that, whether its a naughty person or a great person is what surfaces when the person is alone or set with a straining situation. The Jekyll side is what culture wanted to see, but the true identity of Jekyll was the disobeying side of…
Examine Robert Louis Stevenson’s Use of Duality in ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’…
Not everyone is perfect. We all have weaknesses and character flaws. Some people drink too much; others smoking or spending too much money. Many people lead a seemingly moral and righteous life, but have secret, dark thoughts or desires. Mr. Hyde has all these flaws and he flaunted them openly. Actually, when you examine his character on a deeper level, the “respectable” Dr. Jekyll is actually and deeply flawed and immoral character. Mr. Hyde is just another part of him, his immoral subconscious, who, because he is given free reign, does the immoral things that Dr. Jekyll couldn’t do because of his reputation. The greatest flaw that Dr. Jekyll has starts with the incident in his laboratory. He experiments with chemicals and discovers another side of himself. Stevenson characterizes Dr. Jekyll as a desperate man dependent on his symbolic drug to escape the moral confines of Victorian society.…
Stevenson says,”Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde. How was this to be explained? I asked myself; and then, with another bound of terror-how was it to be remedied?” (Stevenson 72). Jekyll could not control his transformation and was worried he would transform at a bad time and it created stress within him and his only thought was wondering how these transformations could be kept under control. Stevensons also said, “The powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll. And certainly the hate that now divided them was equal on each side” (Stevenson 81). Jekyll and Hyde hated each other. Hyde was growing stronger and taking over Jekyll. Although Jekyll tried to stop it, instead he let it consume him. The creative author also writes, “The hatred of Hyde for Jekyll was of a different order. His terror of the gallows drove him continually to commit temporary suicide” (Stevenson 82). This quote is talking about Jekyll in the novel and how he gained stress and anxiety from not being able to control his transformations caused him to commit suicide to stop the stress and tension. When an old friend of Jekyll's named Lanyon found out that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person, he became so overwhelmed with stress that he died of shock. Lanyon in Stevenson's novel said, “My life has shaken to its roots; sleep has left me;the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day and night; and I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must die, and yet I shall die incredulous” (Stevenson 63). The shock and tension from finding out new news after knowing Jekyll for so long was too much to take in and Lanyon later died in the novel. In the end of the novel Jekyll and Lanyon both die of overwhelming stress that overtakes them and controls…
As addicts would go to any extent to hide their addiction from the people, Jekyll tried to keep his respectable side out in the open while his Hyde self in the dark. Because of society’s rules Jekyll tried to hide Hyde his darker self. However Hyde’s lack of conscious and prevailing dominance in Jekyll’s personality, it brings light to Jekyll’s glowing darkness to society. His desperation to regain control over Hyde shows in the increase of dosage that he takes before he dies.…
The multiple sides of a person are most clearly illustrated by the revelation that Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll are the same person. Stevenson lays the evidence for the extreme duality found in human nature in Hyde’s powerfully vicious and violent characteristics contrasting with Jekyll’s…
In Mr. Stevenson's opening chapter of his book, he is a law student that is assigned to meet with Henry. Within his meeting, he learns how generous and compassionate Henry is and I'm sure is wondering how could this man kill someone. This makes him start thinking what race, poverty, and capital punishment has to do with people being convicted. Mr. Stevenson eventually comes to the conclusion that America tends to condemn the most vulnerable of us. He also concluded that, just because you may be African American you have a higher chance of being incarcerated.…