Duality of Man in Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson is a very elusive writer in that he both hints and broadly tells you that he believes that all man has a double side. This is self evident in the generally evil Mr. Edward Hyde and the antonym Dr. Henry Jekyll. He was not secretive in informing the reader of this dual side as seen by the physical acts and attitudes of both Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll, and there are also the expressions of Dr. Jekyll in his explanation of the series of events about Mr. Hyde’s origin.

Mr. Hyde is often portrayed as a squat, gruesome younger man who invokes fear into the individuals that look upon him at an instant. He is a care free individual who thinks nothing of trampling a little girl returning home from the doctor with medicine for her ailing father. He then proceeds to pay the family for their daughter’s pain in order to keep them from going to the police and turning him in for the dirty deed. Dr Jekyll on the other hand, is an individual that is a tall and strikingly good looking, older gentleman who was a very prominent socialite who is very active in social surroundings and in charities. He would never be seen running over a little girl nor would he even think about paying off the family to keep quiet.

Then the most hideous thing ever done by Mr. Hyde was the killing of Sir Danvers Carew. They approached each other one late evening and after a short discussion, Mr. Hyde proceeded to beat Carew to death. This expresses the free will of the “beast” that Jekyll unleashed upon the world, and it is when he also realized the full extent of the evil that Mr. Hyde was capable of. From that moment forward Jekyll vowed to never let Hyde be released again. It was later to be found out that Mr. Hyde could not be kept from reaching the physical world any longer.

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