The human condition is an important part of our understanding of literature. Literary critics often label a piece of writing as literature- and not messy fiction- if it tries to describe the human condition. The discussion of the human condition is basically about the fundamental issues of human existence. Are we selfish or altruistic? Are we naturally social beings or are we individuals at first? Are we naturally evil or good?
These issues are described a lot in literary texts; some authors will merely describe these issues, while others will provide their particular perspective and beliefs. Robert Louis Stevensons’ ‘The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ provides and describes several perspectives and beliefs, but most of all it portrays the human condition while dealing with universal dilemmas. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde centre upon a conception of human duality, they are easily viewed as an allegory about the good and evil rages within the individual. The question isn’t which one of them is superior, the question is whether or not good can be separated from evil, or whether the two are forever intertwined.
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Jekyll is the angel in the novel, he’s the person that tried to tame the inner animal and the veneer that civilization imposes. Most hum beings believe in ‘pure goodness’ that the unattainable perfection exists in this society and if ‘good’ people like Dr. Jekyll exist, the world would be at peace. In a world without evil you wouldn’t know what good is, we human beings, fail to understand that good and evil coexist together, and if you get rid of one, then the other ceases to exist as