The Nature of Duality in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay

The Nature of Duality in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeIt has long been debated that there ar two sides to the man mind.Many philosophers have stressed on the fact that human beings aredual creatures. There is the wave-particle duality of good and evil, in effect(p) andwrong, joy and despair. There everlastingly is the desire to do somethingwhich is against the society, against the laws, although this variesfrom person to person. Robert Stevenson brings the possibility ofanother self in one person to life in his creation of Dr. Jekyll andMr. Hyde. His falsehood is a rich tale of the duality of mankind. We anyhave a interrupt personality in a sense, we have two sides to us rightand wrong. There is a Mr. Hyde in exclusively of us anger, frustration,murderous thoughts all prevail in us although we have evolved so much.Morals, education, helping and philanthropy are the Jekyll side ofus. Stevenson believed that people knew they had a bad side, but theyall refuse to acce pt the truth, as the dark side is so unpleasant.The novel demonstrates how innocent curiosity about the darkerelements of our nature can soon originate out of hand, how the evil triumphsover good if let out of control. Stevenson portrays duality in almostall of his characters, mainly Dr. Henry Jekyll. The symbols used, thenarrative viewpoints and the run-in use by Stevenson also putsforward the dual nature of man. The philosophic context of thenovella also is another factor which Stevenson cleverly uses.Stevenson creates a novel of gothic genre, which was extremely popularat the time of release. And the dawn line of the novel is toentertain the reader. The nature of duality, the philosophicalcontext, the scientific context, symbolism, and hy... ...onality. Darwins theory of evolution and Freuds creation ofpsychoanalysis are substantially portrayed in this novel. Overall, Stevensonclearly implies that humans are a mix of good and evil andchallenges the human perfectibility, wh ich was presumed for theupper class at the time.I particularly enjoyed this novel as it was exploring various themesat the same time. bingle interesting point is that, when Jekyll made upthe transforming draught, it never was think to turn him evil. Itwas just his desires which propelled him to being Hyde. The potionjust acted as a atom smasher and in the end it was Jekyll who destroyedhimself. We had discussed this in class and it struck me as it wasntan evil potion. This also shows that Jekyll wanted to break throughthe twee laws and meet his inner desires, which leads us back tothe nature of duality.