Mr. Hyde and Dr Jekyll majorly relates on the tale adapted from Robert Stevenson’s novella about a man who develops and takes a specific type of drug, which releases his evil side and turns him from a mild-mannered science man into a murderous maniac. As the plot goes on, his appearance changes along with the behavior. This paper analyzes this characters using Jeffrey Jerome’s concept as outlined in the “monster culture”. Discussion From this novel, it is apparent that Stevenson has demonstrated, through his characters, the concept of “Monster Culture” outlined by Cohen. For instance, Dr Jekyll a principle character in this novel is a man with two distinct personalities, …show more content…
In other words, they can easily be transformed from one form to another. This is exactly what is happening in Dr. Hyde who in one part is typified as a good person while in another scene is seen as an evil character. Specifically, Dr. Hyde is portrayed as possessing unconscious desires which he had to let out. After doing so however, he did regret it and sought to quickly get rid of the hidden part out of him. Nonetheless, Mr. Hyde finds that he cannot possibly go on with his dark desires while at the same time maintain his reputation. In Cohen’s \ perspective, the respectable Dr Jekyll could entertain thoughts as a man living a forbidden life and full of vices. However, he is held in check by his superego’s moral restraints. Consequently, we see Jekyll gradually transforming his moral and physical self into another being, Hyde, a diabolical man that comes to recognize his …show more content…
Through the character of Dr Jekyll character, we can see an unwillingness of entering the social order, which is made evident by Mr. Hyde, his direct opposite. At first he drinks the drug in order to enter into a realm that has no social mores, no laws from the father to follow. He assumes a Mr. Hyde, the new identity so as to test those boundaries. Through the “monster culture” we can establish that Dr Jekylls unconscious desire is personified in Mr. Hyde, and this will enable us to see Dr Jekyll as the illusion of reality and he was not whosever he claimed to be. He possessed unconscious desires which he had to let out. After doing so however, he did regret it and sought to quickly get rid of the hidden part of him. Moving on, we can then say that when we are born with corrupt and unconscious desires, then eventually in some way we will manifest them. To some degree, everyone is at the sympathy of fate in whatever hidden carnal desires that we are born
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Show MoreJekyll and Mr. Hyde, the duality between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shows a difference between an evil personality versus a good personality within the body of Dr. Jekyll. One example of the personality change is evident when Dr. Jekyll cuts off Mr. Hyde and his friends notice once, “the dark influence of Mr. Hyde had been withdrawn, the doctor had returned to his old tasks and amities; a week ago, the prospect had smiled with every promise of a cheerful and an honoured age; and now in a moment, friendship, and peace of mind, and the whole tenor of his life were wrecked.” (Pg. 36-37) Dr. Jekyll was under the influence of a friend, Mr. Hyde which made his whole personality change, but once this figure was removed from his life he returned to his happy and friendly self. Then a sharp change occurred and everything went back to the way he acted when he was with Mr. Hyde, evil, dark, and disconnected. Dr. Jekyll later in his statement admitted he had two personalities saying, “Although I had now two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll.”
Overall, Stevenson’s presentation of the duality of man is conveyed by the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde because towards the end of the novel. Jekyll begins to realise that the schism which once caused them to despise one another, help them understand each other situation. Jekyll even begins to ‘pity’ Hyde toward the end of novel, praising his ‘love for life’ by calling it ‘wonderful’, as his creator he consequently acknowledges the condescending attitudes towards Hyde, unfairly for his appearance, however rightfully so for his actions. Moreover, like Darwin’s theory, Hyde could never be accepted into society, often being characterised as a ‘brute’. Additionally, Jekyll’s actions would be condemned by the Victorian readers, as he was
Irresponsible Use of Knowledge & Consequences Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein and Robert Stevenson 's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are two horrific tales of science gone terribly wrong, it emphasizes the saying, with great power comes great responsibility. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tells the story of Dr. Jekyll who, while searching for a way to divide his good self from his bad impulses, creates a potion using science that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a bright young doctor who, devastated by the death of his mother, becomes obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. In the texts, authors Robert Stevenson and Mary Shelley use multiple literary elements to emphasize that knowledge
Within the novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, there stands a strange case of good versus evil. However, this story has no great villain or even a valiant hero, it has only a man fighting with his vices and dark urges and desires, which grow darker, more morbid and perverted at the novel goes on. Then, as a means to free himself of such darkness and “evil,” the man creates an antidote or rather cocktail of drugs to help him in such matter. Only problem being, the cocktail separates his psyche in two and with the two sides released from each other. The darkness the bad is allowed to grow and lash out unattended and unblocked.
Dr. Jekyll is seemingly good, kind, and benevolent; while is not purely good he is a moral gentleman. He started his experiment so he could totally separate the bad and the good in himself into two separate beings. He did not succeed, however, for Dr. Jekyll is plagued by the feeling that he wants to become evil again, thus he wants to become Mr. Hyde. It is important to note that Mr. Hyde is completely evil; he has no goodness in him, in contrast to Dr. Jekyll who was a troubled mix. Mr. Hyde feels no remorse for any evil he has done and actually feels elated when he does commit a moral sin.
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
Jekyll and Hyde TCEA In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the predominant archetypal theme is “good and evil exist in all humans, and we live our lives struggling with these two forces.” This theme describes the duality of good and evil in Dr. Jekyll—the good being Jekyll and bad being Hyde— and the struggle he has with both sides fighting for dominance within himself. The emotional mindset and the physical attributes of Jekyll and Hyde show the good and evil within themselves.
This in itself is answered and directly bought up by Jekyll in the book, with the quote: I believe that this quote explains that Dr. Jekyll feels that although Hyde is pure evil, he knows that there is also an evil side to Jekyll – he allowed Hyde to exist, fully well knowing that Hyde would be dangerous. Alongside the titular Hyde and Jekyll is Utterson – Jekyll’s best friend who is only trying to find the truth and bring righteous justice – compared to his colleagues, he is a lot less judgmental of bad actions; and will only choose to judge when he has answers. Throughout the story, Utterson is trying to find out the truth about Hyde – who he is, and where he came from, et cetera – as well as Jekyll, wanting to know information like why he entrusted his fortune to such an unknown and shady person such as Hyde – as shown in the
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.”
The “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” paints a picture of how many battles daily to fight the good and evil within. Stevenson furthermore illustrates the rational and the irrational mindset by contrasting reality with the supernatural. This is one of Stevenson’s finest literary
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.
Interests in math and science. Mr Hyde had developed a potion that allowed him to turn into Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll found a way to separate his good side from his darker side, by transforming himself into a monster free of consciences. But he later found that he was turning into more and more into Mr Hyde. He started turning into Mr. Hyde in random places, the transformations got worse and worse.
The description Jekyll portrays upon taking the potion is illustrated to the reader as if he is being re-birthed but into a whole new perception of life. Physically, he is in such a pain because his bones are grinding, horrendous spirits are among him, and he is overcome with nausea. When it subsides, he is self-aware of his new mentality of wickedness (Stevenson 1710). Hyde sees himself in a mirror as the smaller, less robust side of Jekyll, and this is probable due to the facts of evolution because Jekyll, as a public figure, practiced more good in the world, as to Hyde, who is now getting to release his evil (Ferrer-Medina). Hyde, having an aggressive instinct, no moral or social standards, takes pleasure in violence ultimately leading to his own destruction (Singh).
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” because the story takes place in Victorian England we see that the characters have no room for expression of emotions or violence. Everything they do is secret, so the more Dr Jekyll is repressed, the more he wants to be Mr Hyde. The original characteristics of Henry Jekyll are reflected as “...life of effort, virtue, and control” (pg. 172) because, most of his life his vice activities were maintained a secret. According to Jekyll, when evil is separated into one body, one will not know right from wrong because there is no conscious in a being of complete evil which was Hyde for
Stevenson also warns readers of the all-consuming nature of evil. This is indisputably epitomised in the character os Dr. Jekyll as he succumbs to his “other self”, Hyde, and is unable to escape from the insidious nature of Hyde. Only death was able to relieve Dr. Jekyll of his immoral and “wicked” side (Stevenson 1689). Therefore, the text could be viewed as a 19th century social novel that allegorises the evils and immoral vices of