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Thesis themes for dr jekyll and mr hyde
Thesis themes for dr jekyll and mr hyde
How is the theme of mystery and suspense jekyll and hyde
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Interests in math and science. Mr Hyde had developed a potion that allowed him to turn into Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll found a way to separate his good side from his darker side, by transforming himself into a monster free of consciences. But he later found that he was turning into more and more into Mr Hyde. He started turning into Mr. Hyde in random places, the transformations got worse and worse.
During the course of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stephenson duality is the central theme, as all the actions that take place revolve around it. The duality that takes place is the 2 sided nature that exist in all humans and the desire to live 2 lives: a life that is burdened onto people by society and are expected to live, and life in which humans desire to fulfill their darker desires. Jekyll and Hyde show sharp contrast of human nature as the qualities of good and evil. Duality is revealed in Jekyll and Hyde through the use 2 separate, opposite aspects of human nature that exist as one character. Dr. Jekyll can be viewed as a good natured, respectable, and upstanding man in the narrative.
Two months later, after days of longing to be Hyde, Jekyll decides to take the transformative potion. Jekyll turns into Hyde and then beats Sir Danvers Carew to a death. Horrified of his actions, Hyde breaks into Jekyll’s lab, takes the potion, and resumes a life as Jekyll. As the story goes on, he runs out of potions and Hyde grows more powerful and ultimately defeats Jekyll. This is explained brilliantly by the quote, “Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end”
In those who are themselves human, compassionate and thoughtful, Hyde raises some red flags. Even Jekyll fairly quickly recognizes the nature of Hyde: “Instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me [Jekyll] and raged… My devil [Hyde]… came out roaring” (Stevenson 84). However unlike Utterson and Enfield, Jekyll is taken by the “lust for evil.” Even a man as good as Jekyll can be swayed by the dark side.
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson uses weak diction, juxtaposition, and characterization to argue that man’s evil psyche will often overpower the good in a fight for control. Stevenson uses weak diction to illustrate the increase of Evil’s power and the decrease of Good’s control overtime. The first hint of Jekyll’s loss of control is shown when he “broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing [his] cane, and carrying on… like a madman” at his meeting with Carew (Stevenson 17). Before Hyde’s bout of anger, he and Carew were speaking “in a manner of politeness”; just a few moments later, Carew was dead on the ground. The maid witnessing the murder described Hyde as a “madman”, implying that
Throughout the novella Jekyll would struggle to keep Mr. Hyde from “escaping” and taking over. This being said all of these things balance each other out to keep good and evil balanced. The first way that good and evil exists in all humans is like yin and yang. By balancing each other out it keeps both sides to work equally. The novella starts off when Mr. Hyde tramples a little girl—at night— and acts like it was no big deal, but when Dr. Jekyll wakes up he does not remember anything. “… and brought him back to where there was already quite a group about the screaming child.
The repression of homicidal desires, as shown by Dr.Jekyll, forges a plight for himself when he creates a distinctive criminal persona, such as Mr.Hyde. As Hyde’s immoral deeds of Jekyll’s desires continue, Jekyll is persistent of that these deeds where not of his own, but Hyde’s, “It was Hyde after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty… he would even make haste where it was possible, to undo the evil done by Hyde” and also that, “Henry Jekyll stood at times aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde”(46). As Jekyll stood unaccountable in his eyes for the despicable actions of Mr.Hyde, he would also do his best to undo the wrong done. When Dr.Jekyll began to repress his manic desire for death, Mr. Hyde, Jekyll’s persona was made to become his criminal
Likewise, being Hyde is an undoubtable power trip for Jekyll. This is best emphasized in his exclamation before transforming before Dr. Lanyon’s very eyes. “Not only are these words spoken as if by Jekyll but their melodramatic intensity offers a glimpse of the pride and ambition, as well as the desire for irresponsible pleasure, that went into the making of Edward Hyde, and that live in him as well.” (Garrett 193) The success of his transcendental experiment shows a marvelous new control over the human form and the human mind, after all.
“Hyde” is just Jekyll, having transformed his body into something unrecognizable". Jekyll does not make the potion to take away all evil away from himself. He created a potion that would allow himself to express his feelings without feeling guilt and facing any consequences effecting his respectable self. Dr. Jekyll in the novella is a respected professor and well known around the town. While Hyde on the other hand is almost the complete opposite.
Robert Stevenson uses his protagonist’s, Dr. Jekyll, person versus self conflict to illustrate this point. Throughout the text, the reader learns that Dr. Jekyll was born into good fortune and was well-respected in society. However, the reader learns that it was not enough for him. He craves irregularities and he seeks a way to experience both sides of his identity without harming his reputation, which leads him to immoral experiments that bring out Hyde. To be specific, Jekyll states the following, “Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame” (Stevenson 55).
Dr. Jekyll is seemingly good, kind, and benevolent; while is not purely good he is a moral gentleman. He started his experiment so he could totally separate the bad and the good in himself into two separate beings. He did not succeed, however, for Dr. Jekyll is plagued by the feeling that he wants to become evil again, thus he wants to become Mr. Hyde. It is important to note that Mr. Hyde is completely evil; he has no goodness in him, in contrast to Dr. Jekyll who was a troubled mix. Mr. Hyde feels no remorse for any evil he has done and actually feels elated when he does commit a moral sin.
In Cohen’s \ perspective, the respectable Dr Jekyll could entertain thoughts as a man living a forbidden life and full of vices. However, he is held in check by his superego’s moral restraints. Consequently, we see Jekyll gradually transforming his moral and physical self into another being, Hyde, a diabolical man that comes to recognize his
The quote is important to the overall meaning of duality in human nature. The author of shows this through Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Through Dr. Jekyll the author shows the good side of human nature. On the other hand, Mr. Hyde is used to bring light to the evil side. Dr. Jekyll’s failed experiments show that duality is human nature and it can not be altered.
Dr Jekyll, a respectable gentleman of the Victorian life, honest and hardworking associating himself with Mr Hyde who signifies the violent evil side. Although Dr Jekyll may seem nice and good in his physical appearance, yet still he is a mixture of evil. He says “If I'm the chief of sinners, I'm the chief of sufferers too”.
This exact nature of their relationship premises the novel as Stevenson’s critique of the 19th century Victorian society, its hypocrisies and its anxieties. It is noteworthy that although Stevenson presents a particularly dichotomic nature of things, upon deeper analysis, he also suggests that human nature is multiplex and the many layers are permeable and so is the social realm despite all our efforts at dichotomic fragmentation. Jekyll and Hyde represent a collusion between two seemingly separate sense of selves, each fulfilling its own assigned role. J.R.
