Dr Jekyll: Character Analysis

Addressing Dr. Jekyll’s need to separate his good side from his darker impulses that ultimately led to his painful death, the reader should not feel bad for Jekyll. Indeed, it is clear from the story and from Jekyll’s testament that Dr. Jekyll was desperate for his moral freedom and only discovered the transformation to satisfy his quest to separate his good side from his dark impulses (Stevenson 100-108). Unfortunately, the transformation to Hyde turned involuntary and fatal when it started consuming the lives of his close associates. It seems that Dr. Jekyll was running away from his conscience and did not deserve to die from a process that he lost control over time. However, Dr. Jekyll sought to live a secret life free from any conscience and moral standards, which was seemingly inhuman.

It is a pity that Dr. Jekyll started the process of seeking his good side from his darker impulses under his own volition (Stevenson 4-7). As such, the reader can only be fair to hold him accountable for any liabilities that may result from the process he started. Having suffered from the adverse effects of the transformation, the reader cannot sympathize with him since he ought to have assessed the possible demerits of the transformation. Indeed, as a laboratory technician and a researcher, he was privy to all the details that relate to the involuntary transformation that he discovered. Indeed, he was initially delighted to transform to Hyde and rejoiced in the moral freedom that Hyde enjoyed. He was actually happy in taking a potion after the transformation to metamorphose into Dr. Jekyll (Stevenson 36-40). With enough knowledge in medicine and biology, Jekyll had a leeway to control the adverse effects of the transformation, as he would have stocked the potion to meet his needs.

After struggling with the good and evil feelings within him, Dr. Jekyll would have adopted other ways of dealing with his dual personalities rather than creating a serum with an aim of masking his hidden evil within his good personality. As an elite, the transformation was a strange way of dealing with a personal challenge. Most of all, Dr. Jekyll was aware that his intentional way of concealing his personality was affecting society in very adverse ways. Indeed, he gave the police and his close friends a hard time trying to figure out his strange behavior. He did his things in a secret manner and his secrecy led to the health deterioration and subsequent death of Lanyon (Stevenson 78-82). Subject these aspects, the reader should not feel bad for Dr. Jekyll as the later had no concern for morality or humanity.

Most assuredly, Dr. Jekyll’s actions led to the premature deaths of various people. Notably, upon his transformation to Hyde, Dr. Jekyll violently murdered Sir Danvers Carew (Stevenson 92-96). Such an act does not warrant the reader to feel bad for Dr. Jekyll. In fact, he even carried the secrets of his inhumane acts to his death. This was not fair to anyone as his quest to gain moral freedom affected others and himself in a bad way. As such, although Dr. Jekyll tried and failed to control the involuntary transformation, which caused more societal harm, the reader should not feel bad for Dr. Jekyll since he intentionally started the process. Moreover, he had other options in dealing with his personality than creating a potion to instigate metamorphosis.

Works Cited:

Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Texas: Fernando Colindres, 2003. Print.