The Phenomenon of Evil Minds - Case Study Example

Evil Minds The human mind is developed through our experiences in life along with the natural and basic instincts that we are born with. One example for nature making decisions for us is that it has given us a stomach which is hungry. Our instinctive reaction to our hunger is to eat and look for food. Through the complex process of making a decision of what to eat how to satisfy that need our minds based on our experiences can either tell us to pluck an apple from a tree or to kill a cow for steak. Whereas eating an apple may be looked upon as having our desires under control so that we may not harm someone else and having a steak may be considered as our desires to be out of control where we end someone’s life to gain satisfaction. Of course, if we do not know how to kill a cow we cannot have steak and furthermore, if we do not know how to climb a tree, we may just b stuck with leftovers from someone else’s meal- and be left dissatisfied. Most of the things that we as humans do are to satisfy our instincts. Demonic knowledge and demonic identity exist parallel to each other and any one of them cannot be evaluated individually. In the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we learn how our instincts to satisfy our needs and wants develop our identities. With increased levels of satisfaction follows the extent to which we will go to satisfy our instincts. Pleasure and pain both can be the basis of happiness. Dr. Jekyll sets out on a quest, which can be perceived as holy and good for society, to separate the good from evil. He starts off as a nobly to satisfy a need for doing the good- pleasing his friends, colleagues and making a good name for his community as a scientist. But along the way he develops a demonic identity that is taken over by basic instincts of survival and satisfaction and turns into a monster, which can be stated as an evil being- ruthless in killing and driving pleasure through scaring women (Stevenson, 2003). This demonic identity could not have come into existence if Dr. Jekyll had not been an expert chemist and a scientist. In this case his demonic knowledge gave birth to the demonic identity which attributes goodness to the self only and defies all values of society. Finding the easiest way of survival would be to dominate everyone else, and to do that would be a lust for power, wealth and superiority. Hyde is the uncontrolled fear of Jekyll and not just Jekyll, but of the general Victorian era the story is set in. Hyde is strong, wealthy thorough Jekyll, and superior as he knows no limits of values. That gives him his demonic identity as he uses to his advantages the ways and methods that normally people would refrain and fear from and unexposed to. For the reasons that the society limits its actions around superficial values we can only find the true repercussions of our actions only after we have indulged in such an endeavour. We have limited knowledge to what our capabilities are and how much we can affect someone else’s life (Brooks, 1984). Demonic knowledge can be any action whose result can be unpredictable and uncertain. Whose affect would make the feelings of guilt consume our inner self and make us unacceptable to peers and society in general. Dr. Jekyll lost his friends and one even died when he came to know that infact Hyde was Jekyll. This amalgamated with the atrocities committed by Hyde towards the society consumed Jekyll and even eventually the demonic identity as well. The same has been elaborated in the story- Imp of the Perverse. The Demonic knowledge in this case was a memory of the man who remembered how a perfect murder was done a long time ago and how it could be replicated (Thomas & Jackson, 1987). That gave birth to the demonic identity that lead the man to commit that perfect murder and ease all proof of him doing it. Yet again, as with Hyde, the demonic identity was consumed by the guilt and fear and eventually the man confessed himself only to get rid of the guilt that killed his weaker side (Stevenson, 2003). Demonic knowledge is shown to be the cause to the birth of a demonic identity and the relationship to the one causing the other is strong in the sense that had Jekyll not been the chemist and had the will to use his knowledge for the unforeseen he would not had developed the identity of Hyde- the opposite of Jekyll. It may be strongly applied that the existence of a demonic identity cannot exist without demonic knowledge (Brooks, 1984). One gives birth to the other, yet it starts with demonic knowledge. The identity can then again ascertain more knowledge and the cycle can repeat again to have multiple identities exist at the same time. Unfortunately, only one may dominate among them and as in the text, the weakness of fear and guilt consumes the good and the evil both. The demonic identity may cause a conflict in the mind and be interpreted as two or more than two trying to think and act through one brain at the same time and through the same body (Brooks, 1984). It may lead to partial madness as talking to his self and trying to justify ones actions over the other. Unable to come up with a rational reasoning and failure to come over guilt, lead Jekyll to make Lenyon witness his transformation at his lab. He wanted his close friend to come and see what madness had done to him. He wanted to be at peace once again and after Lenyon’s failure to bring Jekyll any hope, he killed himself and his demonic identity as well. Why suicide was the only option left? The answer to the question may be that Jekyll and even Hyde had lost all reasoning in a rational state of mind and the demonic knowledge once again incanted, leading to the death of all identities- good and evil. Hyde’s personality will give an interesting insight to the conflict within the mind as well. The demonic identity once created believed in strength rather than be controlled. The control the hidden identity has over Jekyll can be seen in the way it made Jekyll will his estate to Hyde (Stevenson, 2003). Furthermore, initially it made him turn away form the truth that Hyde had actually killed and tortured people around him. The demonic identity grew stronger and stronger as an uncontrolled instinct for Jekyll that it made him lock himself up in his laboratory since he could not find a way to stop it. Even the potions that he made remained ineffective. Hyde always striving to be unleashed back into freedom of his will eventually took over completely what was left of the personality of Jekyll and then for the shame of being captured killed itself too. As it may be inferred from the story, the demonic identity killed or replaced Jekyll and eventually became so strong that it did not even stop at suicide. It would have been possible for the demonic identity to be string if demonic knowledge was not available first. Einstein gave an amazing and valuable concept of creating mass into energy. Today, on one hand we have cheaper electricity that has jumped humanity ahead and on the other hand we have the atomic bomb- which can at any moment send millions back to the cave ages. Again, demonic knowledge as in Jekyll and Hyde prevails demonic identity. Little has been seen from the past that the demonic identity be controlled or tamed. Nature and nurture may seem to have found a way to work in extremes, giving less room for the middle ground (Brooks, 1984). The need to mate goes to the extent where it turns into rape. Hunger turns to cannibalism. Will to live turns into exercising occult religion and looking for immortality. Getting a better job leads us to cheat and so on. The demonic identities are present in us all and are only active to the limit of our demonic knowledge. The less the demonic knowledge we have the weaker our demonic identity is. Only the absence of demonic knowledge can be the absence of demonic identity but since knowledge is there though may be weak the identity is born- usually among us all. Works Cited Brooks, Peter. Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative. Knopf, 1984. Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Imp of the Perverse”. 1845. The EServer. Iowa State University. 2007 Stevenson, Robert Louis. “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror. Penguin Classics, 2003. Thomas, Dwight and David Jackson. The Poe Log. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987. Word Count: 1,527 Read More