Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Anybody who thinks that he or she knows another person, even the closest one, inside out is mistaken. As proverb saying: “Every bean has its black”; in other words, everyone has secrets but some secrets are darker than others. Dr. Jekyll loved being a good and decent man and was ashamed of “the evil side of his nature” (Stevenson 52), so he decided to purify himself from evil-self. Unfortunately, Dr. Jekyll failed to do so; the darkness of his evil nature completely overpowered the light of his kind heart. Therein, a question emerges: Why the dark devoured the light in Dr. Jekyll’s personality and not vice versa? Is it because his soul contained too much darkness or is it something else? In my opinion,

Jekyll, the reader knows an exact moment, when everything went irretrievably wrong. It was a moment when Jekyll took a potion for the first time to become Hyde. It was emancipation in the fullest sense of this word. Edward Hyde is much younger than Jekyll, who is in his 50s and full of regrets about missed opportunities and unfruitful, boring life. Jekyll initially loved being Hyde because he regained the foolhardiness of the youth with concurrent to it senses of endless possibilities and some kind of invincibility. Jekyll could do whatever he wanted and did not feel any guilt. Moreover, he naively considered that he was the one in control. However, very soon he began to understand that he was not always in control and later that he was completely out of control. In this regard the other comparison comes into mind, which is drug and alcohol addiction. It is well-known that drugs and alcohol have some positive influence on the personality. Some people claim that under the influence of these substances they became more sociable, brave and creative. Initially, they all think that they are in control of their drug and alcohol consumption until they are not anymore. The similarity between Jekyll’s case and those with substance addiction is in desire of both parties to feel liberated from irksome everyday problems or to get rid of inferiority feeling; in other words, initially, they all are simply trying to become the best version of themselves. However, the reality is the life does not work in this way. The life is full of tests and complications. It is mankind’s quest to overcome them. The virtuous life is a really complicated one. The person should follow the code of a good person, which is do not harm anyone and make happy everyone. The light side of the human nature makes people work hard and does not have rewards easily or quickly. The dark side of the human nature lends rewards easily and quickly. However, it is extremely difficult to pay off such