As I was reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are portrayed as polar opposites. I know this was intentional because if they weren’t polar opposites there would be no story. In the text, Dr. Jekyll is depicted as a kind, handsome, and well-respected scientist. While Mr. Hyde is depicted as a rude, wicked-looking and not well respected person. Based on their description and from what I know, Dr. Jekyll is supposed to symbolize the light while Mr. Hyde symbolizes the darkness.

Dr. Jekyll represents the good parts of humanity. He represents love, kindness, trust and the warmth of being alive. He is also the person that almost everyone aspires to be action-wise. I say this because we almost always try to do the right thing and we think about our actions and the consequences of them. Mr. Hyde represents the bad parts of humanity. He represents hate, cruelness, suffering and fear. He is the person that people shy away from becoming. He is the other personality that some people don’t want to show or become.

I personally admire Dr. Jekyll because he knew that he had this dark side, and he chose to bring out his ‘second’ nature. Even though he chose to bring out this side in the end he ended up fearing it. I know many of us would be just like him. We scared to bring out this other side because it would mean that we would have to give up control. Maybe instead of fearing that other side we should learn to embrace it because “Every human being is a mixture of light and darkness, trust and fear, love and hate”-Jean Vanier.