Danny Cross
Reilly
ENGL 150: Writing and Research
10/2/2014
Good versus Evil
The battle between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a good representation of good versus evil, this battle between good and evil is a very complex and mysterious theme through the entire book. An important aspect of the perceived battle between good and evil is the idea of their true identities, or their identities as far as they relate to one another. This theme goes virtually unaddressed until the tenth chapter and does remain unresolved for the entire book, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions and reflect inward to find answers that were left unanswered by the book. In the battle of good versus evil, every aspect of Hyde is massively important seeing as Mr. Hyde is the incarnation of evil, representing the evil side in the battle. The readers physical interpretation of Hyde shows what they think evil truly looks like. The description of the transformations represents the physical battle between good and evil, each turning representing a battle between the two. The transformations are vividly described and portrayed in the tenth chapter also.
An important aspect of the perceived battle between good and evil is the idea of their true identities, their identities as they relate to one another. This theme goes virtually unaddressed until the tenth chapter and does remain unresolved for the entire book, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions and reflect inward to find answers that were left unanswered by the book. This following quote shows us that even Jekyll himself realizes that he now has two personas. “Hence, although I had now two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll, that incongruous compound of whose reformation and improvement I had already learned to despair. The movement was thus wholly toward the worse.” (52)
When good and evil share a single entity it becomes difficult to determine who the individual’s true inhibitor was to begin with, which of the two entities truly calls this vessel their home. Mister Hyde could be the lesser, outsourcing agent that has been created to exile and extinguish all the malic thoughts, impulses, and wishes so that this evil human’s counter-part may remain the beneficial, good, extraordinary man known as Doctor Henry Jekyll. That logic works both ways as well, it could be that Doctor Henry Jekyll is nothing but a persona that has been masquerading around, created by Henry before he was a part of the community to try to hide his embarrassing and soon criminal core. It could be that Doctor Jekyll is nothing but a distraction, a distraction that distracts himself and everyone else from the maleficent, primal humanoid beast known as Mister Hyde. The same primal beast of a person that Dr. Jekyll had been keeping subdued and sedated and swept under the carpet, and now this beast has been awoken.
This argument over the characters true identity changes how the battle between good and evil in this book is viewed, if evil was invited in, or if evil was always there one step behind and finally caught up. Another aspect to accommodate their identities is that each side has a different region of the city they each call home. Doctor Henry spends his conscience time in the higher end part of London. While Mister Hyde spends his time at the wheel in the lower end slummy area of London. Each side spends their time in two completely opposite areas of the city. One could almost say the surroundings of each, Hyde and Jekyll, represent the inter persona of each character. The surrounding of Hyde represents a crime infested, violence stricken area with an alarming resemblance to how we perceive Hyde’s mind. On the other side Doctor Jekyll spends his time in a rich, law abiding, kind area, an area that also fits his mind well.
Betwixt the battle of good and evil, how the reader sees each side is equally important to what each side does and says. Giving the reader a description of evil, every aspect of Hyde is massively important. Seeing as Mr. Hyde is the incarnation of evil, representing the evil side in the battle. The reader’s physical interpretation of Hyde reflects what the reader might think a peek at pure evil may appear as. The following quote takes place during the night that Doctor Henry realized what he was truly experimenting with by using the potion. “That night I had come to the fatal crossroads. Had I approached my discovery in a more noble spirit, had I risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or pious aspirations, all must have been otherwise, and from these agonies of death and birth, I had come forth an angel instead of a fiend.” (51) This quote also shows that at first Dr. Jekyll has no clue to the impending doom. The book constructs an atmosphere around Mr. Hyde so that whenever he is mentioned or described, it inspires the imagination of the reader.