People,
the human being with different aspects of life and living conditions that makes
them value the different things; and the things that they values may change
overtime depend on their desire. One may value education, career, and financial
security during his young age, but may value health and respect when he gets
older. In the novella, Strange Case of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson described how Dr. Jekyll
changed what he values through different stages that he ultimately ended in
suicide when he values peaceful from his evil-self. In the story, Dr. Jekyll
believed that human has two natures, the good and the evil; it led to his
scientific experiment to bring out his evil nature. He first enjoyed how his
miracle experiment gave him different experiences of the other side of his
nature, the dark side. However, by transforming to Mr. Hyde he had changed from
valuing the social acceptance, respect, personal achievements to valuing
freedom, power, and peace.
A lifetime achievement of knowledge
and reputation of Dr. Jekyll shows that he valued achievement, respect, and social
acceptance. According to the novel, Henry Jekyll was a wealthy upper class man
in the late 1800s in London; he achieved many titles in his career such as
M.D., D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.S., that bring his highly reputation and respect from
his fellows ( 12-13). This suggests that he devoted his whole life to gain a
good reputation based on his knowledge. He was a man who wants to achieve great
quantities of award from society and wanted other people to respect him as he
described himself as a man “fond of the respect of the wise and good among his
fellow-men”( Sanford, 29). Dr. Jekyll was described as “a large, well-made,
smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish cast perhaps, but every
mark of capacity and kindness” (19). He appeared so good in the public opinion
of a man of all good from physically to mentally. He had formed a high rank in
the social for what he has done in the pass because reputation is very
important during the Victorian Era, “A reputation for bad manners, immorality
or lax character, or a poor work ethic at your employer would slam shut the
doors of both society and business” (Brett & Kate McKay).
However, a life time of built-up was destroyed when Dr. Jekyll decided to bring
out his evil nature, Mr. Hyde.
The appearance of Mr. Hyde suggests
that Dr. Jekyll has changed his value from respect to independence and freedom.
During the Victorian Era, there were three main classes, which the men in upper
class appear to be gentle by following many social rules. Dr. Jekyll said, “But
such as I found hard to reconcile with my imperious desire to carry my head
high, and wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public” (48).
He was tired of maintaining a good reputation, so since he knows that there was
other evil side of him, he despite the risk of failure experiment to bring out
his evil-self. He was so excited when he transformed to a wild and young Hyde
with full of energy and pure evil, “very novelty, incredibly sweet,” “I felt
younger, lighter, happier in body” “alone in the rank of mankind, was pure evil
(50-51). He liked the Hyde evil personality, “I think I was glad to know it; I
think I was terrors of the scaffold,” because Hyde gave him a chance to live
freely from the law of society that he would never have done with Jekyll. He
said, “Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, which their own
person and reputation sat under shelter” (52). He was happy about his new body
as well as the pure evil of Hyde. He
could do whatever he wanted with Hyde and take no responsibility as Jekyll “It
was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty” (53). As being force to
live in the high class reputation of the society that gave too much pressure on
him, and Hyde was the solution for him to become freedom from the entire rules
that he had been followed. “Edward Hyde would pass away like the stain of
breath upon a mirror; and there in his stead, quietly at home, trimming the
midnight lamp in his study, a man who could laugh at suspicion, would be Henry
Jekyll” (53). Being able to live freedom from the society with all the evil
things he could do with Hyde was the great experiences for Jekyll that make him
feel so excited about. However, the feeling of excitement for freedom didn’t
last so long in him since he realized that Hyde was appear event he didn’t take
the drug by conscious, “Yes, I had gone to bed as Henry Jekyll, I had awakened
Edward Hyde. How was this explained?” He aware of the danger of Hyde evil, but
he didn’t want to stop his evil nature instead of empower himself to control
it.
Dr. Jekyll changed to value the
power of controlling his evil nature. He didn’t really want Hyde to disappear
completely, but he knew that Hyde was out of his control. So, he tried to
control Hyde by doing good things again.
According to John A. Sanford, Dr. Jekyll renewed his old life, becomes
more dedicated than ever to doing good works, and also, for the first time,
become devoted to religion as well. (31) The fact that Jekyll renewed himself
was not to avoid Hyde, but he want to empower his spirit to fight against his
evil. He would like to be able to control Hyde and make him appear whenever he
wanted. He said, “Yes, I preferred the elderly and discontented doctor,
surrounded by friends and cherishing honest hopes; and bade a resolute farewell
to the liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping pulses and
secret pleasures, that I had enjoyed in the disguise of Hyde”(55). This showed
that he knew that Hyde was evil and may take control over his origin, but he
didn’t want to give up the dark side of him since it profited him with many
good thing as Jekyll would never had done it. On one hand, he fear the evil of
Hyde and the power of Hyde growing stronger over time demanding taking control
of the body “ Hyde struggling after freedom”, on the other hand, he liked how
he felt when become Hyde with all the
freedom and energy he earned.
However, at the end, when he knew
that there was no chance for him to control Hyde and continue to live his life
with both good and evil, he chose to escape from Hyde by killing himself with
the hope that Hyde would never be able appear. It showed that he valued peace.
He didn’t want to deal with all the pain from the body and the conflict with
his evil personality that he said, “ I became , in my own person, a creature
eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely
occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self” (60). Being unable to
control himself, “there come an end to all thing; the most capacious measure is
filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the
balance of my soul,” Jekyll decided to end his experience and bring back the
peace for himself, “ I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end”
(58). He didn’t want Hyde to be outrage and dominate his body and all his
works; “ Hence the apelike tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own
hand blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning the letters and destroying
the portrait of my father ... to involve me in the ruin. He feared the evil of
Hyde. He feared the power of Hyde tanking control of him; “ this, then, is the
last time, short of miracle, that Henry Jekyll can think his own thoughts or
see his own face”(61). He wanted peace at last when he knew that there was no
other way that Hyde would disappear from his life;“I know how he fears my power
to cut him off by suicide, I find it in my heart to pity him” (61). He chose to
end his life with all the goodness that he had spent life time to achieve to
escape from his evil nature that he first wanted to bring it out.
In conclusion, Henry Jekyll didn’t
fault to bring out his evil nature because that was what he valued for his
scientific experiment. He desired to do the thing that he wanted to do and he
had done it. I think he was brave to challenge himself. He knew what he was
doing and at last he was taking responsible for that. He happy for the first
time that he was able to meet his evil shadow and the freedom of doing thing
that only evil-self could do, but he was fear that his shadow overpowered and
took control of him. He empowered himself to gain control and defined the
position of origin, but he struggle with the powerful evil shadow of him that
he decided to end his life one and for all. As we can see, he changed from valuing
respect, social acceptance, and knowledge to freedom, power, and lastly peace.
It suggested that people’s desires never end. Even as a high social position
likes Jekyll, it is still not an exception. Human changes from time to time no
matter what situation or position they are, for better, or for worse.
Works
Cited
Mckay,
Brett & Kate. "Manly Honor: Part III — The Victorian Era and the
Development of the Stoic-Christian Code of Honor." Art of Manliness.
06 10 2012: n. page. Web. 3 Jun. 2013.
Sanford,
John A.. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." “Meeting The Shadow.”
39-34. Print.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case Of Dr.
Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. Norton Critical. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc,
2003. Print.
