The Duality of Human Nature in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Research Paper Example

Just like any other man, Dr. Jekyll had also thoughts and utterances of evil and the character was afraid of acting it out because of the prevailing social norms. Dr. Jekyll was situated during the Victorian era where propriety and social demeanor are highly stressed. The difference between Dr. Jekyll and a regular person who have the same tendency is that Dr. Jekyll went as far as using his intellect and profession by creating a drug that would unleash the evil in him without the control and restraint of his good conscious self.

The drug created Mr. Edward Hyde who is a representative of pure and adulterated evil which contains Dr. Jekyll’s evil side. Mr. Hyde is amoral and this was manifested in his physique that he looked despicable, grotesque and deformed (Singh and Chakrabarti 221). Dr. Jekyll thought that he could experience the pleasure of his both good and evil side with the creation of Mr. Hyde. He thought that Mr. Hyde would consummate his evil desires that longed to be release. Mr. Hyde indeed acted out Dr.

Jekyll’s evil side only that Mr. Hyde evoked feeling of disdain among Dr. Jekyll’s friends who asked him earnestly to severe his relationship with Mr. Hyde. It is obvious in the novel that Dr. Jekyll did not give up Mr. Hyde or his evil side. This resulted to the growing power of Mr. Hyde that eventually overpowered Dr. Jekyll leading to a series of murders and grotesque events. The novel is more than the transformation of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde which has a grotesque and despicable appearance.

It is in fact an analysis of the duality of the self against the social backdrop of Victorian setting which highlighted the personal, physical and social ambivalence of man and his surroundings that shaped him. The novel discussed the anxiety of the self as it relates to the world that produced a variety of stimuli that is often externalized in