Compare And Contrast Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

One could certainly argue that Dr. Jekyll is in fact two men that encompass one body. While reading this story the two split personalities of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde seem nothing alike. Dr. Jekyll is a man of honor and class who is well respected by his friends and collogues while on the other half Mr. Hyde is a vile, miserable disgusting man. While it can be said that Jekyll himself displays two personas, one that he displays publically and one that he displays privately. In public he is known as a kind doctor, a loyal and giving friend, the first to help those in need, and a highly intelligent man. One of the more prominent characters, Utterson, himself called Jekyll a deeply religious and charitable man. Though in private he is more reserved, where he longs for the ability and freedom to go a little crazy and do all the things that could potently harm his reputation and career.

Jekyll may be all of those things but Mr. Hyde was a very different man. Hyde could be described as a harsh, destructive, self-serving, selfish man. His actions proved to benefit himself and only himself. He showed time and time again that he felt no remorse for his actions except for when he reverted to child-like behaviors when he feared he would be caught. At times he was actually driven to tears over the thought that one day he might actually have to pay for the things he has done. While reading this story it appears that Jekyll never really embraced the kind and loyal part of his personality the way he did with the destructive Hyde side of his personality. Part of this seemed to be because the Jekyll part of him was actually in two parts so it was a question of was he showing signs of the loving side or the side of him that longed for rebellion and freedom when he was displaying this part of his