This week in class was obviously different from our previous ones, our interactions were virtual and we only read one writing, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson is unlike our other readings in class. In this class I notice we mostly read poems, short stories, ballads, or other lyrical text, but this story, called a Gothic novel, was very detailed and rich, and focused on mystery and horror. In this blog post I decided to compare Dr. Jekyll to his alter ego, Mr. Hyde.
Dr. Jekyll is the “good” side of the two natures. He is handsome, kind, respected, moralistic, and intelligent; a true gentleman and brilliant scientist. Mr. Hyde is the “bad” side of the two natures. He is ugly, deformed, and is the essence of pure evil. Mr. Hyde hurts and kills people without regret.
Although Dr. Jekyll is supposed to be the “good” side, he is not purely good as Mr. Hyde is purely evil. He wanted to separate his evilness from himself, but ended up created a wicked monster, Mr. Hyde, that overtook his original self, Dr. Jekyll, who was a mixture of goodness and flaws.
Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll are not evenly matched in strength. Dr. Jekyll had more control over Mr. Hyde when he first conducted the experiment, but as time went on Mr. Hyde could overpower Dr. Jekyll. This battle went on and on, but in the end it was Mr. Hyde who won.
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Hyde may have managed to gain permanence, but he did not ‘win’ in a complete sense. Hyde won in the way that Hyde would, that is, in a purely material way; Hyde succeeded in overcoming Jekyll, but failed to gain anything from it. Jekyll, through his written account of events, managed to gain something akin to absolution and accepted his end, something Hyde was unable to do.
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Hi Isabelle!
I agree with you! Dr. Jekyll was the “good” person and Mr. Hyde was the “bad” person. I think it’s interesting how a person can willingly try to bring out the “dark” side of them. I also have to agree with you, they are not always at equal strength. At first Dr.Jekyll had some sort of control over Mr. Hyde but towards the very end that control ended. I don’t really think that either of them really won in the end. I say this because both of them died and all that they left was a story about a man who had an alter ego .
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Hello Isabelle! I agree with everything that you said in your post. Dr Jekyll displayed the “good” person whereas Hyde was the “evil” person. I found it very intriguing that Dr.Jekyll tried to separate two parts of himself. At first it seemed that he succeeded, but as you mentioned in your post he just ended up creating a monster. I believe it ended so badly because no one can truly separate parts of themselves. I also agree with you, they are not equal in strength. Dr.Jekyll eventually lost control of his “evil” side and because of that his ended.
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