Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay

Satisfactory Essays
405 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay
Man often explores things greater than themselves which can lead to many consequences. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, the characters’ desires to search for a greater purpose ends up creating disaster in their lives. People try protecting their loved ones by hiding things from them. Mr.Utterson said “I thought it was madness, and now I begin to fear it is disgrace” (13). Utterson is a very close friend to Dr.Jekyll. Mr.Utterson is making comments about the will Jekyll left with him because he was questioning why Jekyll would leave all of his belongings with someone that he had never met before. Jekyll’s letter to Utterson stated, “that man is not truly one but truly two. I say two because the state of my own knowledge does not pass beyond that point” (62). The whole time Dr. Jekyll’s friends think he is missing or not around anymore he was really Dr.Hyde. He creates a whole life for his dark side in order to hide it from his companions. Jekyll’s actions although had good intentions ended up pushing him away from his closest acquaintances. Sometimes when looking too deep into something we discover things we never planned to discover. Lanyon wrote, “The creature who crept into my house that night was, on Jekyll’s own confession, known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every corner of the land as the murderer of Carew” (60). Although Lanyon, another mate of Jekyll did not expect to discover the truth about his friend, he ended up doing so. Discovering that Jekyll was this horrible murderer he slowly became ill and then died. When conversing with his close friend Mr. Utterson, Jekyll states the following as the move onto the topic of Mr.Hyde, “I do not wish to hear more. This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop” (22). From the beginning, Utterson was always intrigued in finding out who Mr. Hyde was. When he finally finds out the Dr.Jekyll was Mr.Hyde all along it is too late to say anything to him. Both Lanyon and Utterson uncovered a mystery that was haunting their hearts but it came with consequences. Multiple characters in this story experiment with various aspects of their lives which leads to many repercussions. Curiosity is a very dangerous path which involves many risks and consequences.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Resume: After dinner, Utterson goes in his business room before going to sleep. He opens his safe and takes out Dr Jekyll's will, that stipulates that should he die or disappear, all his possessions would go to a certain Edward Hyde. Intrigued by these terms, and somewhat uncomfortable, he goes to Dr Lanyon's house, thinking he should know something about this case. Dr Lanyon answers that he now finds Jekyll strange and unscientific, but that he does not know anything about this Hyde. Utterson then goes back home and goes to sleep with difficulty, haunted by nightmares and visions. From then on, he is overwhelmed by curiosity and starts walking around the door, wanting to see the face of Hyde. One night, he meets Hyde. The man behaves strangely, as if not wanting to be seen or remembered. The only impression he leaves behind is that of a deformed man, scary but vague. After that, Utterson goes to see Jekyll, but he is not at home.…

    • 2732 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 235 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the crucible act 2

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dr. Jekyll was often a PARADOX; as soon as you began to understand him, he became Mr. Hyde.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although, one night he was seen and it was the night her murdered a man with the cane Dr. Jekyll gave to him. He broke the cane over the man’s body as he pulverized him with it, leaving half of it at the scene. He quickly made it back to his house and ransacked the whole place, leaving nothing but ashes of document with his name on it and the other half of the weapon behind the door. When the evidence was found they went to the Doctors house to ask him if he had heard the news. He said it has been all over, and he gave the Lawyer his word to never lay eyes on Hyde again. He also gave the lawyer a note that he claimed was delivered directly from Hyde explaining that he was safe. It turns out that there was no letter delivered by Hyde that day, told to the lawyer by Poole, the Butler. The doctor had forged the letter for Hyde to throw off the people looking for…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A major theme in Stevenson’s piece, ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” was the duality of human nature. Dr. Jekyll states that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and he imagines the human soul as a battleground. Jekyll feels a sense of freshness and joy and power when disguised as Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll began to live a reckless life as Mr. Hyde making it difficult for him to escape his other personality (Miyoshi.) In various cultural myths, Mr. Hyde is considered a “Demonic man.” Jekyll is seen as an intelligent and dark character. Stevenson used imagery to help the reader have a better understanding of how ugly of a character Dr. Jekyll became in his Hyde phase (Doane.) Concepts of science, the laws of thermodynamics and force are seen in the text according to some analysts (McCracken-Flesher.) In the story itself Jekyll states “My two natures had memory in common, but all other facilities were most unequally shared between them” showing he cannot control both personalities. A reoccurring motif in the text was the depiction of Hyde’s evil and violent behavior. In the text Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that resulted in pure evil rather than good. Evidence supporting Dr. Jekyll understood he was being taken over was seen in his statement:…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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…

    • 100 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The characters of Jekyll and Hyde show Stevenson’s theory about the duality of man’s personality. Jekyll is good, respected character “Born to a large fortune” and “fond of respect of the wise and good among my fellow men... with every guarantee of and honourable and distinguished future”.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jekyll and Hyde

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    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.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Repressed desires will be satisfied in some way shape or form. An outlet will be found, and deeper darker forces will arise. Dr. Jekyll’s deeper darker forces come forth after years of his persona not acceptable in the eyes of others being repressed because of the pain that desires cause. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the repression of Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego eats away at him; for the repression of this other being can no longer be caged. Through the repression and absolution of his deepest desires, Dr. Jekyll’s desire for unattainable perfection in the eyes of his peers, dissection of good and evil within himself, and acceptance into society without worry of his darker side being found out…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dr. Jekyll eventually takes his own life to protect the world from the evil that is Mr. Hyde. This is a noble act and is the ONLY noble or heroic thing that Dr. Jekyll does in this novel. It does not balance out all of the discord that Mr. Hyde has caused. Mr. Hyde ran over a little girl without saying as much as sorry. “All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays