The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Essay by jj_big_domeHigh School, 12th gradeC, April 2010

download word file, 7 pages 5.0

Downloaded 22 times

�PAGE �

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In the story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde science brought out the darker side of human nature and dominated over all compassion. Dr. Jekyll uses a scientific potion which Jekyll has created in order to transform himself into an another person in order to experience an alternate life. However, later on in the story as Jekyll gets more and more dependent on the potion it becomes harder for him to remain as the "good" Dr. Jekyll and the "evil" side of Mr. Hyde starts to take him over. After Hyde the evil side starts to dominate the good side Jekyll finds that he needs the potion to stay as Jekyll and when he runs out he kills himself in order to protect people from the terror of Hyde.

Dr. Jekyll lived a life of science and seclusion he hardly left his lab and was always expiramenting with ways to improve life or understand traits such as bad and good.

Eventually one day when he was expiramenting with different chemicals he found a way to transform himself into a completely different identity which he gave the name Mr. Hyde. Hyde was everything Jekyll was not yet desired to be and while in this alternate identity Jekyll felt free. Until the end of the story, the two personas seem completely different, the respectable doctor and the hideous, depraved Hyde are almost opposite in appearance and personality. Stevenson uses to make his point: that every human being contains two sides within him or her, an alternate ego that hides behind their polite side. To fully understand Jekyll and Hyde one must know that they are the same person just different sides. Alone neither Jekyll or Hyde...