Dr. Jekyll should be held responsible for the crimes of Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll made the decision to separate out the two sides of himself, the moral self from the pleasure-seeking, reckless self. Dr. Jekyll’s experiment led to the development of two personalities fighting within him.
“He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statute of limitations.” Page: 11. Jekyll was unguided when young but in the law of God there is no time limit for all crimes that are not punishable by death. This quote means Jekyll was not taught manners when young and Utterson thinks Jekyll is getting blackmailed by Hyde because of something he did in the past. Laws are necessary for our general safety, and also protects others.
On the other hand, Dr. Jekyll is a prosperous physician that loves his friend Mr. Utterson (Buzzwell par 1). However, both the bestial Mr. Hyde and well-respected Dr.Jekyll both share a common desire: evil (Duality of Human Nature par 1). Mr.Utterson cries out on page thirteen that Dr. Jekyll was no saint as a youth, in fact, he was wild and Mr. Hyde could possibly be the ghost a sacred sin (Stevenson 13). In continuation, Dr. Jekyll admits in a letter that he created Mr. Hyde to seek freedoms that he as a respectable man would not be able to (Stevenson
However, Jekyll’s good psyche was quick to act and regain control of their mind. Months later, when Utterson is reading the full statement of the case, he discovered that “[t]he power of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll” (Stevenson 62). Jekyll has become sick literally and metaphorically from Hyde. The actions of Hyde in the murder caused Jekyll to become mentally ill from the constant fear of Hyde’s power. Jekyll is also “sick” with himself for creating the monster Hyde has become.
Before he created Hyde, he was not able to satisfy most of his dark urges, which causes him unhappiness. There is a small imbalance of nature before, and that causes him to be curious about separating his nature to satisfy his dark apetite. Hyde helped him satisfy the bad urges without destroying his good appearance. But, Hyde’s evil power becomes extremely strong that it pulled all the joy out of being the good-natured Dr. Jekyll. When a person falls into any kind of slavery, they have no power to choose their fate.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” because the story takes place in Victorian England we see that the characters have no room for expression of emotions or violence. Everything they do is secret, so the more Dr Jekyll is repressed, the more he wants to be Mr Hyde. The original characteristics of Henry Jekyll are reflected as “...life of effort, virtue, and control” (pg. 172) because, most of his life his vice activities were maintained a secret. According to Jekyll, when evil is separated into one body, one will not know right from wrong because there is no conscious in a being of complete evil which was Hyde for
One of the reasons I personally believe Jekyll creates Hyde is to not face the consequences of murdering someone. As most know, Jekyll is a well-respected man and has a good reputation. The man he creates "Hyde" is almost the opposite. Hyde murders a man named Sir Danvers Carew in the novella. Hyde then has an awful reputation after trampling a girl, and murdering
Dr. Jekyll is viewed as a smart man with a lot of knowledge, however, due to Jekyll not being satisfied with his life, he is determined to get more out of his live and is willing to do anything to fulfill his determination. Dr. Jekyll expresses this when he states, “[A] grinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly to subside… [t]here was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in body within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul.” (Stevenson 57).
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.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are different in their behaviors. Mr. Hyde can break out into a great flame of anger. This is evident because while a maid servant was getting ready for bed, she was staring out her window and saw what Mr. Hyde had done. Mr. Hyde was talking with someone and he was listening with an “ill-contained impatience,” and out of nowhere, Mr. Hyde broke out into a great flame of anger, stamping his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on, The maid servant described him as a madman. He then proceeded to break all of his victim’s bones and ended up killing him.
This in itself is answered and directly bought up by Jekyll in the book, with the quote: I believe that this quote explains that Dr. Jekyll feels that although Hyde is pure evil, he knows that there is also an evil side to Jekyll – he allowed Hyde to exist, fully well knowing that Hyde would be dangerous. Alongside the titular Hyde and Jekyll is Utterson – Jekyll’s best friend who is only trying to find the truth and bring righteous justice – compared to his colleagues, he is a lot less judgmental of bad actions; and will only choose to judge when he has answers. Throughout the story, Utterson is trying to find out the truth about Hyde – who he is, and where he came from, et cetera – as well as Jekyll, wanting to know information like why he entrusted his fortune to such an unknown and shady person such as Hyde – as shown in the
Jekyll wanted to release his inner self, but in doing so, he released a madman that murdered Sir Danver Carew. Hyde also indirectly caused another death in the novel; when Dr. Lanyon seen the transfiguration in the park and Hyde insisted that he go retrieve the ingredients for the potion to turn him back to Jekyll, he was traumatized by the whole incident. Not only did the appearance of Hyde begin to consume Jekyll, but also Jekyll began to grow weak and sick while Hyde grew stronger (Moss). Jekyll knew that Hyde was bad, but in the end, the power of Hyde and the overwhelming guilt from Hyde’s choices was too
After drinking a potion, he could change into Hyde, a person with no conscience. Soon, Jekyll is metamorphosing without taking the potion. Hyde later kills Sir Daniels Carew by beating him to death. Hyde continues to struggle with Jekyll and Jekyll continues to struggle with Hyde. In the end Dr. Jekyll must decide if he should take the life of both he and Mr. Hyde or if he should face the consequences for the evil that HE ultimately has committed.
Through the character of Dr Jekyll character, we can see an unwillingness of entering the social order, which is made evident by Mr. Hyde, his direct opposite. At first he drinks the drug in order to enter into a realm that has no social mores, no laws from the father to follow. He assumes a Mr. Hyde, the new identity so as to test those boundaries. Through the “monster culture” we can establish that Dr Jekylls unconscious desire is personified in Mr. Hyde, and this will enable us to see Dr Jekyll as the illusion of reality and he was not whosever he claimed to be. He possessed unconscious desires which he had to let out.
The door of my green Focus latches. The cool autumn air fills my lungs as I stand staring. The gravel underneath my suede boots crunches as I hesitantly march across the driveway. As I walk up the steps I used to run up as a child, I turn to my left and I see her through the window. It had been months.
