Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Example

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde In the famous novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde there are many underlying themes surrounding the story line. The story takes on a dark and mysterious aspect that seems to allude to something more then what it is letting on. One major theme that I saw throughout the entire story was addiction or substance abuse. The dual personality of Jekyll and Hyde is unnatural and their actions make the reader believe that there is a serious problem going on. The novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde illustrates the different behaviors and symptoms of addiction and substance abuse. The role of addiction and substance abuse plays out in many scenes throughout the story. As someone who may be struggling with this issue or someone who suspects another individual with this issue, this story could give insight on symptoms of addiction. In the world of psychiatry, there is a reference book called Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV for short (Defining). This book is basically a book of guidelines for diagnosing physiological disorders. The DSM-IV gives certain criteria for the diagnosing of addiction and it requires that a person must meet three of the seven criteria within a year to be diagnosed with addition. From this information we find that Jekyll meets six of the seven criteria (Altshuler).
The first criterion is tolerance. Tolerance can be defined as “markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of the substance ” (Defining). Jekyll meets this when he begins to increase the amount of substance that he consumes. He has become almost immune to the substance so now he has to increase the dosage to feel the affects. Later on in the abuse cycle, he has to take double the amount of his substance every few hours to avoid transformation (Stevenson).
The second criterion is withdrawal. Withdrawal often occurs a few hours after ceasing to use the drug. When someone is experiencing withdrawal, they