Henry Jekyll, a highly regarded doctor, struggles to repress his darker side. In Robert Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll is faced with the archetypal theme of struggling between the two forces of good and evil. From early on in his life he chooses the former, but his mind is still tempted by dark urges. It’s this suppression of his second nature that causes him to go to extremes to escape the life he feels trapped in. Despite this, he is still internally torn between the two archetypal forces of good and evil throughout.
The archetypal theme of the struggle between good and evil is apparent in Jekyll’s life before the events of this story even begin, this is significant because it is the cause of the events that occur later on in the book. From a young age, he was torn between the two natures; this is considered the cause of his “Hence it came …show more content…
At the end of his life, Jekyll comes to the realization that he must stop his ‘relationship’ with Mr. Hyde after he involuntarily switches into his form in the middle of the night: “He had now seen the full deformity of that creature that shared with him some of the phenomena of consciousness, and was co-heir with him to death: and beyond these links of community, which in themselves made the most poignant part of his distress, he thought of Hyde, for all his energy of life, as of something not only hellish but inorganic” (93). Jekyll finally accepts that the awfulness of Hyde and his actions is not worth the pain and effort it brings to him and those around him. Although Jekyll did everything to attempt to overcome the conflict, his indecision between the two characters destroyed him in the end. This shows that no matter how hard we may try to evade human nature, it is impossible to eliminate what is inherent and intangible. Our moral choices are something we cannot
The archetypal theme of the struggle between good and evil is apparent in Jekyll’s life before the events of this story even begin, this is significant because it is the cause of the events that occur later on in the book. From a young age, he was torn between the two natures; this is considered the cause of his “Hence it came …show more content…
At the end of his life, Jekyll comes to the realization that he must stop his ‘relationship’ with Mr. Hyde after he involuntarily switches into his form in the middle of the night: “He had now seen the full deformity of that creature that shared with him some of the phenomena of consciousness, and was co-heir with him to death: and beyond these links of community, which in themselves made the most poignant part of his distress, he thought of Hyde, for all his energy of life, as of something not only hellish but inorganic” (93). Jekyll finally accepts that the awfulness of Hyde and his actions is not worth the pain and effort it brings to him and those around him. Although Jekyll did everything to attempt to overcome the conflict, his indecision between the two characters destroyed him in the end. This shows that no matter how hard we may try to evade human nature, it is impossible to eliminate what is inherent and intangible. Our moral choices are something we cannot