The Common Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Henry Jekyll is an old English doctor who leads a respectable life among his friends and patients. Edward Hyde is a villainous criminal, who is wanted for murder and whose countenance strikes horror into all who meet him. Shockingly, despite their incongruous qualities, Jekyll and Hyde are the same man. The events of Robert Louis Stevenson 's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are fictitiously uncommon. But though the situation Stevenson presents is “strange”, the uncertainties of human nature that he explores are thoughtfully familiar. How can one reconcile the human inclinations to do good and evil? Stevenson makes an effort to explain this enigma in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
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Jekyll finds himself “committed to a profound duplicity” (Stevenson 77) in his lifestyle. He bore a status of venerable charity and honesty before those who knew him, but alone he was disposed towards the carnal and brutal. Many would excuse it as hypocrisy. But Stevenson was not satisfied with this explanation. He decided that people have two natures, one given to good, the other entirely to evil. He wrote that both sides of a person 's reasoning function separately, and that both are at all times completely in earnest (77). In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he attempts to convey an idea of what these dual natures would look like if they could be separated. Naturally, such polar opposite regimes cannot cohabit the same body without a great deal of conflict. After presuming human dichotomy, Dr. Jekyll 's mission was to separate these two natures. He thought that if they could be isolated, the constant inner turmoil and guilt he experienced would go away. Through Dr. Jekyll 's narrative, Stevenson puts it this …show more content…
Dr. Jekyll laments that this “doom and burthen of our life is bound forever on man 's shoulders” (78). That is not the case. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (KJV). Without God 's forgiveness and salvation for people 's sin against Himself, the result of one 's sin would be death and eternal separation from Him. This doom can be cast off fully and eternally by repenting of one 's sin and relying on God for salvation from unrighteousness and its consequences. Once saved, the total righteousness of God 's holy Son, Jesus Christ is placed to a person 's account. God gives that saved person the ability to do good. Only once a person is saved is there a fight to do good instead of evil. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde finishes with the words, “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end” (92). Such is the common case of many people. They end their life unhappy and despairing, without ever accepting God 's offer to redeem them from their abject lives. The strange case is the person who turns to God and then possesses the ability to live righteously. And one day that person will be changed into a new person with a new body. But through the power of God it will not be a wicked Mr. Hyde, but a perfect specimen of
Jekyll finds himself “committed to a profound duplicity” (Stevenson 77) in his lifestyle. He bore a status of venerable charity and honesty before those who knew him, but alone he was disposed towards the carnal and brutal. Many would excuse it as hypocrisy. But Stevenson was not satisfied with this explanation. He decided that people have two natures, one given to good, the other entirely to evil. He wrote that both sides of a person 's reasoning function separately, and that both are at all times completely in earnest (77). In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he attempts to convey an idea of what these dual natures would look like if they could be separated. Naturally, such polar opposite regimes cannot cohabit the same body without a great deal of conflict. After presuming human dichotomy, Dr. Jekyll 's mission was to separate these two natures. He thought that if they could be isolated, the constant inner turmoil and guilt he experienced would go away. Through Dr. Jekyll 's narrative, Stevenson puts it this …show more content…
Dr. Jekyll laments that this “doom and burthen of our life is bound forever on man 's shoulders” (78). That is not the case. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (KJV). Without God 's forgiveness and salvation for people 's sin against Himself, the result of one 's sin would be death and eternal separation from Him. This doom can be cast off fully and eternally by repenting of one 's sin and relying on God for salvation from unrighteousness and its consequences. Once saved, the total righteousness of God 's holy Son, Jesus Christ is placed to a person 's account. God gives that saved person the ability to do good. Only once a person is saved is there a fight to do good instead of evil. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde finishes with the words, “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end” (92). Such is the common case of many people. They end their life unhappy and despairing, without ever accepting God 's offer to redeem them from their abject lives. The strange case is the person who turns to God and then possesses the ability to live righteously. And one day that person will be changed into a new person with a new body. But through the power of God it will not be a wicked Mr. Hyde, but a perfect specimen of