The Duality Of Man In Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

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
However in the Taoism, a chinese religion, to be a good person you must seek balance between the two sides. “When one realizes the need for balance between yin and yang, and stops struggling against that which is natural, one can gain contentment through wu wei, enlightened non-action”(Wheeler 4). This idea of having both sides of the spectrum in duality to be at equilibrium is the key to not having negative effects of suppressing one side of the spectrum. In The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr.Jekyll attempts to remove the evil side of his dualistic nature to fit in the Victorian society’s standards. He considered the duality of man to be “a curse of mankind that these incongruous faggots were thus was bound together” (Stevenson) and thus tries to answer the question how were these two sides were to be separated. What Dr. Jekyll soon learns is that both sides are a necessity to the nature of man. In attempted to overthrow his evil side, he enables it. Mr. Hyde slowly takes over Dr. Jekyll, and his evil desires manifest in reality. For example, the murder of Sir Danvers Carew could have been avoided if there was only balance between the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll tries to suppress his evil side which only resulted in a terrible
that same thing may be both hot and cold”( Cohen 1). Each side of duality is necessary to have the one thing the two things reside in. Love can't be love without hate. “Virtue itself turns vice being misapplied/and vice sometime by action dignified”(Shakespeare Ⅱ iii 21-22). Because love and hate are the same thing. Each side can happen to be use in a way that is both negative and beneficial. For example, “My only love sprung from my only hate/too early seen unknown and known to late/prodigious birth of love it is to me/that I must love a loathed enemy”( Shakespeare Ⅰ v 138- 141). Juliet love came from her family’s enemy. Love and hate can be rolled into one. They are not just two separate entities. Everything has a duality and the are part of the same