Reading Log #6

Reading log #6
Title: The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Text type: Novella
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a Gothic Novella which was published in 1886. The main characters are Dr Henry Jekyll and and Mr Edward Hyde. These two characters are infact the same people. Dr Jekyll is seen as a well respected man of the Victorian society. He struggled with his inner demons, and some type of guilt. He decided to create a potion that separates his good self from his bad self. The name he gave to his bad self was Mr Edward Hyde. Now Mr Edward Hyde is described as having a "Strong feeling of deformity", and has no guilt what so ever for any of his actions.

This Novella amazed me with the strong message it conveyed about the 'Duality of human nature'. Stevenson showed us this with the two characters Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He believed that "man is not truly one, but truly two". I think that this quote means that we all have two sides to us a good side and a bad side. Some of us struggle to hide our bad side so we resort to using other options to contain our true self, just like how Dr Jekyll resorted to using a potion to separate his to personalities . This makes annoyed and upset that we feel like we have to do this because if we are seen as anything other than what is up to  'society's standards' we are frowned upon.

Jekyll believes that 'Both sides of me were in good earnst", this was him explaining how good and evil exists equally in himself. Eventually Hyde took control over Jekyll. Dr Jekyll states that " This brief condescension to evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul". I believe that this is Stevenson again trying to convey the message that good and evil exist in all of us but our true self will always over power the other.  Hyde eventually over powers the little good that was left in Jekyll and could then no longer control when he transformed into Hyde.This shows us that Jekyll although he came across to be your "well respected upstanding man of the Victorian society' his true personality is the complete opposite, or in other words the personality of Hyde. This shocks me because it shows that although one can come across so pleasant and polite they really could be your worst nightmare. With Hyde constantly taking over Dr Jekyll it lead him to kill himself. "  Here, then, as i lay down the pen, and proceed to seal up my confession i bring the life that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end". I believe that we never know how much one is suffering by just looking at them. Just like Dr Jekyll no one could see that he was getting driven to madness that would be the leading cause of his death.