Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Questions

This question calls for your opinion or personal experience, there is no right or wrong answer.

Good versus evil is a theme of this novel in the sense that Dr. Jekyll’s obsession with the duality of man’s nature was about the combination of good and evil that exists in all man’s natures. Dr. Jekyll recognized the duality of his own personality and wanted to find a way to separate those qualities into two separate pieces. When he did this, he created Mr. Hyde, the embodiment of his own evil nature.

As Dr. Jekyll’s experiment begins to show success, he finds himself drawn to Mr. Hyde. The freedom from inhibitions that Dr. Jekyll feels when he is Mr. Hyde is exhilarating. It leaves Dr. Jekyll feeling as though he can do almost anything. However, when Mr. Hyde commits murder, Dr. Jekyll begins to recognize the downside to having an uninhibited personality. Dr. Jekyll tries to stop transforming into Mr. Hyde, but finds himself drawn to him.

In the end, Mr. Hyde commits suicide. Dr. Jekyll has transformed into Mr. Hyde and cannot recreate the elixir that allows him to change back. For this reason, Dr. Jekyll has decided to kill himself, and Mr. Hyde, in order to protect the world from evil. At the same time, Dr. Jekyll leaves behind his story and admits that he was disappointed in the fact that he was never really able to divide the two natures of his own personality, he was only able to extract one part of it. This seems to suggest to the reader that evil cannot exist without good, just as good cannot exist without evil.