Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Life of Dr. Henry JekyllThe focal point of this essay is to define the life of Dr. Henry Jekyll,and the transformation he went through in becoming Edward Hyde. Dr. Henry Jekyllis a physician in London.
He is very well respected and is currentlyexperimenting the dual nature of man kind. Edward Hyde is a manifestation of Dr. Jekyll’s personality. He is accused of committing evil acts throughout the novel. The first scene consists of Mr. Richard Enfield’s and Mr.
Uttersonwalking along a street in London. Mr. Enfield has a recollection of a previousincident in which he witnessed an extremely unpleasant man trampling upon asmall screaming girl while this man was running somewhere. A large crowd hadgathered around and they saw the man, Edward Hyde.
The crowd forced the man togive money to this girl for trampling over her. Hyde did not run over her forany reason. He just did it out of spite and evil. He represents all the evil inthe world.
The reaction of others to him is one of horror because while lookingat him, others feel a desire to strike out at him and kill him. His physicalappearance brings out the worst evil in other people. Since Hyde represents evil,he is symbolically represented as being much smaller than Dr. Jekyll. I believe Dr. Jekyll created Hyde because he had a theory that man has agood side and a bad side.
While investigating this, he developed a potion thatcould release the evil in a person in the form of a totally different person. Then this person could commit any evil act it wanted, and then drink the potionto return back to normal. The only problem with this is the fact that he drankthis potion so many times, he was no longer able to control this process. He wasunable to transform back into Dr. Jekyll. Another example of Hyde’s evil is in the killing of Sir Danvers Carew.
Sir Danvers appears to have been killed for no apparent reason. The murder ofSir Danvers was seen by a maid who was working nearby. She states that Hyde meetwith a man in the street. After the two exchanged words, Mr. Hyde lifted hisheavy walking stick and clubbed the old man to death. This tells us the readerthat Mr.
Hyde has grown in fury. From trampling over a child in the first scene,he now commits murder for no reason. I believe Hyde killed Sir Danvers becauseSir Danvers was described as being a peaceful and good man. Hyde represents pureevil, so naturally he would hate good gentlemen.
The only reason why Sir Danversdies, was because he was a good man. He not only killed Sir Danvers’, he had totrample over him. The goodness of Sir Danvers brings out the most intense evilin Hyde. From the source “Selves and Shadows” we receive an indepth look into thenovel.
David Hume asks the question, “Would any man, who is walking along, treadas willingly on another’s gouty toes, whom he has no quarrel with, as on thehard flint and pavement? Well, here is that man, and his total blindness to anyfeeling but his own is central to his character. As Jekyll puts it, when he iseventually driven to attempt a choice between his two lives. ” It is very obviousthat no man would want to start a fight, if there is no reason to fight. SinceMr.
Hyde represents the evil in men, Dr. Jekyll releases his evil through hisother side, Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is Jekyll’s way of releasing his anger.
In the final chapter called, “Jekyll’s Full Statement” Jekyll revealseverything. He states, “No one but me knows my true nature. All these years, thepublic has seen only a veneer of my real self. ” This is so very true due mostlyto the fact that no one knew Mr.
Hyde was a part of Dr. Jekyll. Jekyllconstantly emphasizes the greatness of his background. He reminds us of hiswealthy family, and great education.
But he also states “that man is not trulyone, but truly two. “In conclusion, Dr. Jekyll needed something, or someone to represent theevil which has built up inside of him. He created this through experiments,which lead to a potion. This potion transformed him anytime he wanted. He wastransformed into Mr.
Hyde. I believe evil is just a small portion of men, thatis why Mr. Hyde had a dwarfish appearence. The main point being, was that thepotion took over his life, and Dr.
Jekyll finally realizes he is unable totransform back into his goodness. He attemts to commit suicide, as this is hisonly way of destroying Mr. Hyde. English
