The archetypal theme that good and evil exists in everyone is what I would say as the main theme in the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson with the characters in the story having a good side mainly but have an evil side also. The main character Dr. Jekyll is a good example of this being the case because he is the epitome of being both good and evil. His normal identity Dr. Jekyll has a mostly good side with good intentions and thoughts. His other side, Mr. Hyde is pure evil with no conscience and no moral compass. The identities of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde show that good and evil exists in everybody and that we struggle with what side we are throughout our lives.
The archetypal theme that good and …show more content…
Jekyll is his regular identity. His does however have some evil side in his standard identity where Mr. Hyde is completely evil. The first example of Dr. Jekyll acknowledging that he was good was when he was talking about his life in a letter, “It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” (104). What he means in this quote is that he thinks that man has two sides, a good side and a bad side. He also realizes that he has learned this through personal experience. Another example was also in the letter when he was assessing Hyde and his regular self, “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” (109). In this quote Jekyll acknowledges that the Hyde part of his is complete evil and the regular part of him is normal which is that he is both good and evil. The last example is when Jekyll was describing a time of his life in the letter that he felt he needed to change to become a better person, “I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. You know yourself how earnestly, in the last months of the last year, I labored to relieve suffering; you know that much was done for others, and that the days passed quietly, almost happily for myself” (117). Jekyll recalls a time in his life that he did bad things with regret and sorrow. He set out to make a change for the better and says that he feels proud of himself because he accomplished his
The archetypal theme that good and …show more content…
Jekyll is his regular identity. His does however have some evil side in his standard identity where Mr. Hyde is completely evil. The first example of Dr. Jekyll acknowledging that he was good was when he was talking about his life in a letter, “It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” (104). What he means in this quote is that he thinks that man has two sides, a good side and a bad side. He also realizes that he has learned this through personal experience. Another example was also in the letter when he was assessing Hyde and his regular self, “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” (109). In this quote Jekyll acknowledges that the Hyde part of his is complete evil and the regular part of him is normal which is that he is both good and evil. The last example is when Jekyll was describing a time of his life in the letter that he felt he needed to change to become a better person, “I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. You know yourself how earnestly, in the last months of the last year, I labored to relieve suffering; you know that much was done for others, and that the days passed quietly, almost happily for myself” (117). Jekyll recalls a time in his life that he did bad things with regret and sorrow. He set out to make a change for the better and says that he feels proud of himself because he accomplished his