He wants to punish this son, but at the same time, he recognizes that Hyde is an intimate part of himself. Ultimately, when Jekyll commits suicide in order to get rid of Hyde suicide is an evil act in the eyes of the church , this allows Hyde to become the dominant evil figure, and the dying Jekyll becomes Hyde in the final death throes.
Previous Dr. Henry Harry Jekyll. Next Gabriel John Utterson. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks? My Preferences My Reading List. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson. Home Literature Notes Dr. Today, Hyde still controls me.
And he despises me. He fears the gallows and so he must dash back into Jekyll's body for safety, but he does so resentfully, and he takes out his raging hate by scribbling blasphemies in the margins of my books. He even destroyed the portrait of my father. But how can I kill Hyde? He loves his freedom so. I no longer have the old powders for the potion. Poole has been unable to obtain any that are effective. Whatever I used originally must have had an unknown impurity that allowed me to release Hyde.
Thus, I now must end my narrative — as Jekyll. Yet if while writing this, Hyde surfaces, he will tear it to pieces. Hopefully, I can finish and save it for you, Utterson, so that you can begin to understand my strange history. Will Hyde die on the gallows?
I no longer have the power to control or foresee either my own destiny or Hyde's. This is truly my hour of death! In Chapter 8, Henry Jekyll referred to his document which constitutes the entirety of Chapter 10 as "the confession of your unworthy and unhappy friend — Henry Jekyll," yet this final Chapter refers to the.
In giving us his background, Jekyll constantly emphasizes the excellence of his background which commands the respect of all; his honorable conduct is exemplary to the world, when contrasted with the "blazon irregularities" which he hid with a morbid sense of shame.
Thus, early in Jekyll's life, he recognized a "profound duplicity of life so profound a double dealer. Note here that many critics are not content to interpret the novel as a conflict between good Jekyll and evil Hyde , but, instead, the novel points out, according to them, that evil represented by Hyde is only a small portion of man, a portion represented by Hyde's diminutive and dwarfish size. Certainly, Dr. Jekyll implies this when he theorizes that "man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous, and independent denizens" — that is, evil and good and many other qualities will ultimately be found to make up the entire man.
However, Jekyll and his experiments can only prove at the present moment that man's existence has two parts — one good and one evil. Jekyll's experiment, which Lanyon found so horrifying, was an attempt to separate the two components, and when he discovered the correct formula and drank it, Jekyll was approaching a robust fifty years of age; yet after his transformation into Edward Hyde, he felt younger, lighter, and more sensual.
He knew from the beginning that he was "tenfold more wicked [and] evil. As often noted in the above commentaries, after the transformation to Hyde, Jekyll "had lost in stature. Hyde, therefore, as the evil part of man, is less than the total man, but he is nevertheless an important part of the total man. This is represented in the scene when Hyde looks in the mirror and sees himself as "natural and human": He was "conscious of no repugnance, rather a leap of welcome.
And yet, from Chapter 1 onward, everyone who encounters Hyde is utterly horrified and repulsed by his pure evil. Ultimately, Jekyll himself will come to look upon Hyde as his "errant son" who must be punished. As Hyde, then, all sorts of pleasures were indulged in. It is never mentioned what the exact nature of all the secret, depraved, disreputable acts was, but most people perhaps because of the movie versions of this novel consider these "vulgar" acts to have something to do with sex.
In the minds of the late Victorians late nineteenth century , evil and sex were synonymous, and certainly to such a highly respectable and eminent man as Dr. Jekyll, it would have been extremely disgraceful if he were to have been discovered in some sort of illicit sex. Of course, we know that, as Hyde, he did murder Sir Danvers without provocation, but no other crimes were ever attributed to him; after the murder, however, all sorts of tales surfaced concerning his disreputable life and his vile actions.
Therefore, since he was never charged with any other specific crime, most readers do assume that his vileness, vulgarity, and villainy were associated with sexual matters — matters which a dignified and respectable scientist could not be associated with, but activities which he, as Jekyll, had pursued in his early youth and now could once more enjoy in the person of Hyde, while the respectable Jekyll remained perfectly safe from detection.
Even after the murder of Sir Danvers, and Jekyll vows to give up the "liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping impulses, and secret pleasures that I had enjoyed in the disguise of Hyde," the extreme enjoyment he receives as Hyde is ultimately why Jekyll cannot put Hyde aside.
Jekyll thoroughly enjoys, vicariously, the multifarious, decadent activities performed by his double. Thus, Jekyll's enjoyment of Hyde's activities allows Hyde to grow in stature, and of the two men, Hyde is slowly gaining the ascendancy over Jekyll.
The mere fact that Jekyll never gave up the house in Soho rented for Hyde nor destroyed Hyde's clothes is proof to us that the vow he made to Utterson in Chapter 5, after the murder of Sir Danvers "I swear to God I will never set eyes on him again.
I bind my honor to you that I am done with him" , was indeed a hypocritical or empty vow. Even though Jekyll did try for two months to lead a "life of such severity," the Hyde in Jekyll was constantly struggling for release. Repressed for so long, when Hyde emerged, he "came out roaring. Hyde is not to be denied because, secretly, Jekyll still desires his presence and his activities. But he also knows that if he lets "Hyde peep out an instant.
However, when Jekyll is sitting peacefully one day in Regent's Park, in broad daylight, he feels all of the symptoms of Hyde emerging without the aid of the chemical potion. Hyde appears because Jekyll, who has so long tried to deny and suppress him, subconsciously desires that he appear again. Lanyon, who has so often ridiculed Dr. Jekyll and has refused to even contemplate the possibility of an evil side of his nature existing.
Jekyll hates Hyde for the ascendancy that Hyde has over him, and Hyde hates Jekyll both because of Jekyll's hatred, but more importantly because Hyde knows that Jekyll can destroy him Hyde by committing suicide as Jekyll.
The final irony is that Jekyll is the one who commits suicide the evil Hyde, of course, would never do this , but during the act of Jekyll's dying, Hyde regains the ascendancy so that Utterson and Poole find not the body of Jekyll, but that of Hyde. Previous Chapter 9. Next Dr. Henry Harry Jekyll. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks?
My Preferences My Reading List. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson. Home Literature Notes Dr. Hyde seems to possess a force more powerful than Jekyll originally believed. It is as if Hyde, but no comparable virtuous essence, was lying in wait. This dominance of Hyde—first as a latent force within Jekyll, then as a tyrannical external force subverting Jekyll—holds various implications for our understanding of human nature.
Moreover, the novel suggests that once those bonds are broken, it becomes impossible to reestablish them; the genie cannot be put back into the bottle, and eventually Hyde will permanently replace Jekyll—as he finally does. Even in Victorian England—which considered itself the height of Western civilization—Stevenson suggests that the dark, instinctual side of man remains strong enough to devour anyone who, like Jekyll, proves foolish enough to unleash it.
SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Character List Dr. Hyde Mr. Gabriel John Utterson Dr. Hastie Lanyon. Themes Motifs Symbols. Henry Jekyll Dr.
Hastie Lanyon Mr.
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