Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay

The main theme of the novela, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is about man’s double being and between good and evil. The book represents a double life of a person who is sick and tired of his normal life. Dr. Jekyll, a doctor and a well-liked member of a society of successful bachelors, that values his perfect reputation, created Mr. Hyde. His other persona. Dr. Jekyll thought of this as an experiment to fulfill his desires. He also felt repressed by the Victorian society. This is what my essay is going to be about.

I would describe Dr. Jekyll’s apperance as rather a calm, middle-aged, large, sympathetic person.

He was a proper face of the Victorian society, cared about his reputation greatly, was well educated and carring. Also had good manners and he was able to determine the difference between good and bad. Mr. Hyde, on the other hand, is a total opposite of Jekyll. He gives the impression of being deformed and troglodyte. Hyde is violant, hairy, and much younger than Jekyll and many people feel sickened by him. Hyde was ignorant and only cared about himself. You could say Hyde is sort of Jekyll’s evil persona. He demonstrates evil by trampling a little girl, or killing Carew Lanyon with such anger and cruelty just like a madman, but the situation where Jekyll created Hyde was not all evil. He created Hyde to satisfy himself and explore what he could not do as Jekyll, which normal in our everyday lifes. We all want what makes us happy. The creation of Hyde was an experiment that simply went wrong. So why would a successful doctor create a monster? What was his motive? Even though Dr. Jekyll was the kind of person who knew the difference between good and wrong, he was still human and had his desires.

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In the Victorian society the standards of morality did not allow certain behaviours. There was a low tolerance for crime, strict social code of conduct, and any sexual behaviour was forbidden. Thus Dr. Jekyll decided to create Hyde to express his desires which he was not able to express as himself in the Victorian society. He found a side of him he wants to release but does not want to reveal himself. He also did not want to cause much trouble for himself. So he made a transgression to another person. Jekyll was happy that he could express himself and fulfill his desires without his friends knowing. Otherwise his reputation, which I bet he worked hard on, would be destroyed. His fear of losing his reputation was the only thing stopping him from doing the things he wanted to do. If it wasn’t for the Victorian society and its morals, Jekyll would not have created Hyde. The strictness of the Victorian times made him want to reach for more. He felt the need to explore the ”dark” side of life. With time his evil self grew stronger and stronger. So I guess you could blame the Victorian society for creating a monster that Jekyll accepted as his other self. In a way the Victorian society is responsible for Hyde’s cruelty.

As I said before, the creation of Hyde was Jekyll’s experiment He took great pleasure in his experiment Of course Jekyll thought he would be able to control Hyde but later on Hyde takes over. ”…I can be rid of Mr. Hyde…” Jekyll claims he has control over Hyde and can stop him at any moment. But the pleasure he gets from his experiment is much stronger than he thought it would be. The ugly face of Hyde gradually takes over Jekyll with more greed, slowly getting out of control. Jekyll asks Utterson for justice for Hyde when he is no longer there. So is this where Jekyll started to lose control over his own creation? In my opinion, yes. This is where his evil side started becoming dominant. The greed for pleasure lead to both of their deaths. The temptation to discover was a mystery to him and he wanted to explore it more than anything. Jekyll felt so repressed by the Victorian society, he thought his only option was to create a monster.

The Vitorian society, Jekyll’s experiment and his greed for more lead to creating Hyde. His normal life as Dr. Jekyll was not interesting. I suppose it was melancholic. His other life as Mr. Hyde was sort of his passion but also it was overwhelming at the same time. Soon it became his addiction. He acted like he wanted, and did the things he wanted to without anyone ever knowing it was him. So his experiment was not all that bad until the greed became more than him and he lost control. The satisfaction he got out of being Hyde seemed to be worth everything. The author of this book Robert Louis Stevenson explores the divide between double lifes. He explores it with the two main characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They are totally opposite but still they have one trait in common, they are the same person. The good and the bad. Dr. Jekyll being the perfect bachelor and Mr. Hyde the ugly, vicious creature.

Stevenson, R.L . Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, NY.