In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, there were different themes throughout. The theme that stood out the most was “Good and evil exist in all humans, and we live our lives struggling with theses two forces.” The real world has examples of good and evil such as yin and yang, water and land, life and death. All of these examples balance each other out just like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde balance each other out. Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that transforms him into the infamous Mr. Hyde who soon will take him over.
“The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground” (3). Mr. Hyde ran over a young girl late into the night without feeling any guilt. Robert Louis Stevenson shows the archetypal theme of good and evil exists in all people in the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. Good and evil exist in all people and we struggle with these two forces. This is shown through Jekyll because he is good with a little bad in him, this is also shown through Hyde, who is evil with some good, and it is lastly shown with the lab because it brings good and evil into Jekyll’s life.
Robert Steveson once wrote, “In each two natures are at war - good and evil”, highlighting the struggle between good and evil within people. In the short novel In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mr. Utterson, a lawyer, tries to unravel a mystery of occurrences and connections between a murderous criminal and a renowned doctor. As the story progresses, the complicated relationship between the doctor and the criminal is revealed and exposes the duality of the doctor. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson emphasizes the duality of man through contrasting emotions of virtue and evil causing internal conflict. In Chapter 3, one can balance good and evil, but oftentimes, one tends to lean toward one side rather than another.
Good vs. Evil: In Plain Sight A theory by Sigmund Freud explains how the unconscious mind can be evil because of the id- a part of the brain that is extremely selfish and does everything to benefit itself. It is accompanied by the superego, which is civil and respectful, and the ego, which attempts to please both the id and the superego. A lot of people easily give into the id and do things mostly to benefit themselves. These people seem very selfish, or evil.
In the story Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mr.Hyde was an awful person. Mr.Hyde was evil, rude, unfriendly, and unkind. Mr. Hyde was the opposite of kind and caring. He didn't care about people nor their feelings. He had no friends at all.
Within every individual resides a complex interplay of good and evil, known as the duality of man. The novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, explores this interesting dynamic with the character of Dr. Henry Jekyll, who wishes to bring out his so-called ‘second nature’ by meddling in the darker side of science. In the novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson argues that every person has a good and evil side, if one favors one side more than the other it becomes unbalanced causing one to get out of hand. Chapter 3 shows the internal struggle of Jekyll through word choice, emotion, and self-control. When Utterson mentions Hyde to Jekyll, Jekyll’s facial expressions change, “The large
“was much in the open air” “his face seemed to open and brighten, as if with an inward consciousness of service; and for more than two months, the doctor was at peace” (Stevenson 29). Words like peace and bright describe Dr.Jekyll as being good and represent the good in mankind. Jekyll decides to stop turning into Mr. Hyde because he wants to bring peace and happiness to himself and those around him and does not want Mr. Hyde to hurt more
Good Vs. Evil or Good and Evil Would it be ideal if every choice someone made was considered to be good? Imagine a world without rules. A society without a moral compass. What would it be like?
The novella Jekyll and Hyde tells the tragic story of a battle between good and evil, a battle for total control over the mind and soul. The clash between the pure and impure sides of man: a fight to the finish. It explores the aspect of a person’s good and bad side; holy and unholy, the one who bathes himself in God’s light and the one whom plays with The Devil’s fire. The battle between the good-willed Dr. Jekyll, and his evil persona: the murderous Mr. Hyde. The author, Stevenson, presents this in numerous ways and describes the two conflicting sides well.
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.
In the novel, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson explores the complexity of human nature. He uses characters and events in the novel to present his stance on the major theme: “man is not truly one, but truly two” (125). Branching from this major theme are many more specific views on the idea that human nature is divided into good and evil. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are two very different people who occupy the same body. Human beings struggle with good and evil and Stevenson goes to the extreme to to show this relationship.
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.
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is a horror story written by Robert Louis Stevenson that falls into the horror genre. Horror stories are stereotyped to mostly have monsters such as vampires or zombies. But there is more to the horror genre than horrifying monsters. The elements that are contained in the horror stories cause them to be placed in the horror genre. “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” falls into the horror genre because it contains many elements of horror including the supernatural, promises, and turning points.
Does Dr Jekyll, in attempting to separate man from evil, die as a cause of violating the natural psyche that God divinely proposed? A mouthful of a question indeed, and so I should decipher the question and provide a well-rounded answer. What to you is evil? Is evil a phrase synonymous to the villains of children’s books, or a dark aggressive train of thought? I mean the concept of evil is subjective to the individual, a concept psychoanalytically discussed for the past hundred years.
“Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was published on January 5, 1886. It is a science fiction drama and thriller. The work of Jekyll and Hyde depicts the story of a doctor having a distinct split personality, good and evil. He does everything humanly possible to keep his second identity unknown. He goes as far as to formulating a chemical mixture.
