Dr. Jekyll is a man with a deeply divided sense of private self and public self. He is a doctor and a long-time good friend he is also a scholar. Mr. Hyde thinks about "himself as a fifty years old a large tall man without facial hair". He believes that Dr. Jekyll is devoted to charities and to his religion.…
In the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, although Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde are of the same body, they have completely different personalities, as well as completely different physical appearances. While Dr. Jekyll “‘is a tall fine build of a man” (Stevenson 45), Mr. Hyde is described as “pale and dwarfish” (19). This contrasts the stature of both men. Dr. Jekyll is written to be tall, and Mr. Hyde short. The author writes Dr. Jekyll as having a “large handsome face” (24), yet creates a grotesque image for Mr. Hyde by giving him “an impression of deformity” (19) and “a displeasing smile” (19). These two men are written to be extremely different, not only in nature and appearance, but also…
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 victorian era commanded Dr. Jekyll to repress his inner persona, in both his public and private life's. Leaving Dr. Jekyll with a choice, to repress himself and be respected as a professional, or to let himself flourish and be seen as unrespectable and a bit maniacal. By creating Mr. Hyde Dr. Jekyll believes that he has solved his problem of inner repression cause by the culture forced upon him. While in reality, by constructing Mr. Hyde Dr. Jekyll is inevitably driving himself to insanity, and developing case of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Both leading to Dr. Jekyll's impending…
In Robert Stevenson’s book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde duality is a reoccurring theme. Stevenson shows his duality through the plot, setting, and character’s dialogue throughout the novel. William Shakespeare shares the theme of duality in his play Romeo and Juliet. The duality of society and the duality of good and evil are a couple of the dualities revealed.…
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…
Every person has the ability to kill another. Thought the statement may seem harsh and untrue, a deeper look into one's carnal instincts would prove the claim to be correct. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson, is about a man who transforms between the two personae: Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde. Dr. Jekyll was the front runner and sawn to be polite and overall a moral person and Mr. Hyde, his deformed and polar opposite side. The book is a critic at the hypocrisy of society in the way it shuns the duality of humanity but continues to promote it in political policies. Dr. Jekyll's and Mr. Hyde's personas portray the idea that people are born with the desire to do "heinous" acts and most…
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll has an aching curiosity to discover the vulgar and divergent side to life that he’s never been able to experience before. With prolonged amounts of time spent pondering about the measures needed to be taken to attain what he wants, Henry Jekyll creates a plan and gathers quantities of chemicals and salts that he believes will transform him into a different being; a sinister being that could commit the sins that he had always been disciplined to avoid but inwardly always wanted to do himself. After consuming his concoction of chemicals, Dr. Jekyll alters into what we soon become very well accustomed to, Mr. Hyde. With a new evil being to escape into, Jekyll experiences things he couldn’t before, but is also guilty for the crimes that Hyde commits as well. Jekyll and Hyde, although the same person in principle, are two very different people with altered personalities, looks, motives, and actions.…
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.…
Jean-Paul Sartre writes, in his essay, "Existentialism", that an individual's responsibility extends not only to him or herself, but also to all of humanity. He believes that we must take this into account for every decision we make. This extra accountability can cause distress for an individual because of the pressure that it brings. In Lorraine Hansberry's play, Les Blancs, Tshembe is faced with an important decision that will not only affect his own life, but the lives of his whole nation. Although none of Tshembe's decisions are without struggle, and irresolution, he reacts to the controversy before him by making choices in accordance with Sartre's definition of "good faith," despite the anguish it causes him.…
Jekyll also says that Hyde is “less developed, much less exercised and much less exhausted”. Hyde was weaker than Jekyll but later on he develops and starts to take over the control. “At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion” hyde was doing more and more evil things and Jekyll felt so ashamed that he couldn’t cope with this anymore. Other people disliked or hated Hyde even more that some of them wanted to kill him “Every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw the sawbones turned sick and white with desire to kill him”. People wanted to kill him because he shows what they hated the most, evil. They have seen no good in him at all. It caused them to feel like that because sins like gambling or drinking were very unacceptable in their society and nobody wanted others to found out about this. But Hyde could not show any good. That provoked people the most to want to get rid of him. As Mr Enfield said “It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut” people’s impression on Hyde looked like that since they first saw him.”Well we screwed him up to hundred pounds” Enfield blackmailed Hyde when he trampled over little girl. He said if Hyde will not give a hundred pounds to the girl’s familly he will tell local people about that…
In the Victorian society, many things were unacceptable or looked down upon. Because of this rigid societal upbringing, it was difficult for Dr. Jekyll to act on all of his wants and needs. Most people living in the Victorian age must have had some sort of other secret life because of the strict boundaries of how to think and how to act. Hyde expressed the freer, more natural man that Jekyll could never show publicly. He had to maintain a professional, well mannered persona for the society he lived in.…
Jekyll desire to be accepted in society transforms into a wanting to dissect and separate the evil from himself and add that evil into another persona of his being; a desire that has been repressed for a long time. Dr. Jekyll’s reasoning for another being of himself to exist was because of the morbid sense of shame that he felt for the desires that lie deep within him (103). Dr. Jekyll did not want others to know of the thoughts that he had on the other side of his personality. He knew of the good and ill that was divided in him and couldn’t help it any longer than to let the ill of his spirit break free (104). Dr. Jekyll had the knowledge of the good and evil that resides in every person’s soul; no longer could he allow the desire of his other half eat away at the good that was left. Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde was the only way that his desires of fulfilling the evil within him could be satisfied. Through the separate and secret creation of Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego, he still had the ability to fit into society like every other person. Mr. Hyde takes away the unacceptable behaviors that society frowns upon. A strive for perfection is sustained in these…
Dr. Jekyll on all appearance was a distinguished person in London --- a physician, member of the upper class, etc.…