The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novel that starts as Mr. Enfield recalls a story where Mr. Hyde tramples a girl and flees into a building. They agree not to bring it up again, however, it just so happened that Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Utterson’s friend, and client, had written a will to give everything in his possession to Mr. Hyde. Puzzled he continues to investigate. After a year passes, a girl then witnesses Dr. Hyde beating up an old man. Dr. Jekyll found a way to separate the good side(Dr. Jekyll) from the bad side(Mr. Hyde). But he soon found himself turning automatically into Mr. Hyde. One day, he could not resist turning into Mr. Hyde and ran into his laboratory drinking potions to turn him back into Dr. Jekyll, but then ran out of potions. He then wrote the letter and committed suicide.
Human nature desires to commit evil deeds rather than to do good things. The only barrier blocking us from committing evil is our morality and self-control, yet even so, it is a challenge to exercise self-control. In the story, different characters deal with self-control in unique ways. Mr. Utterson exercises self-control daily, becoming a habit over time. On the contrary, Dr. Jekyll does not want to control his evil desire and eventually succumbs to temptation. He decides to use a drug to change his identity from Dr.Jekyll to Mr.Hyde to commit evil under a cover. It is difficult to do good and easy to do evil, and while our morality tells us what is right, there is always another voice that guides us down another path. Because of this, self-control has to step in to stop us from walking down the wrong path and to change our direction to a brighter future.
Science isn’t always used for good; it can also be used for evil. In the story, Dr. Jekyll has dark impulses and wishes to commit evil, but if he is discovered committing these things, he would have to face execution and the judgment of others. With this problem, he finds a solution; to create a drug that can change his identity from Dr.Jekyll to Mr.Hyde on command, using science as an accomplice to commit evil. We often witness the dark side of science in our society today. With the invention of despicable drugs, some get addicted to substances, such as cocaine and marijuana. While these drugs can let some escape from reality and forget morality, in the end, these drugs impact our health greatly and cause more harm than good. With the expansion of science, it is not hard to imagine and sad to see how evil the dark side of science can get.
A supernaturalist believes in supernatural things, such as resurrection, ghosts, demons, angels, and gods. In the story, Dr.Jekyll creates a potion that transforms him into an evil, cruel, person named Hyde and another potion that transforms him back into Dr.Jekyll. This potion would be considered supernatural because a drug can't change someone’s identity and personality. Another supernatural thing in the story is Mr.Hyde himself. For one to be that exceedingly evil seems like a villain right out of a fairy tale. It is almost impossible for one to be that deformed, and ugly and take joy out of killing others without guilt. He is also a product of an experiment, contributing to his supernatural essence.
In conclusion, The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde is a novella that weaves the dark side of human nature and self-control throughout the story. Self-control is an important idea that helps us create a better society and stops us from succumbing to our darker impulses. Without it, our society would collapse because of the crime and evil circulating. It is also human nature to do bad rather than good things, such as laziness instead of productivity, hate instead of love, and unhealthy rather than healthy. Not all scientific discoveries are also good, like tobacco and drugs. Some are evil and should remain unfound.
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