Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde don’t represent ‘good’ and ‘evil’. The experiment described in Jekyll’s letter didn’t turn out as it was intended, which was to fully separate good and evil, with a character embodying each side. “Man is not truly one, but truly two” (70) Instead, Hyde seems to personify the pure evil side of human nature. But Jekyll on the other hand, is not of pure good nature. He represents the control one has (or not!) over primitive spontaneous passions and desires. Dr. Jekyll thus symbolizes the idea of repression in a respectable individual. Hyde is completely liberated from Jekyll’s repression through the potion. He is the boundless entity that gives in to all desires. Hyde is not purely evil either, after having ‘trampled calmly’ a little, girl, Hyde himself speaks in a sincere manner and offers compensation for his acts. In that way, both sides of Jekyll are both good and evil.
The two characters also don’t make a divide between love and hate. Hyde does seem to have self-love; he dedicates himself to his egotistic desires, and in this sense seems to fulfill his need for both love and hate. Jekyll seems more subdued, he feels both of these emotions, but has control over them. He does this in order to confirm to society: “nine-tenths a life of effort, virtue and effort” (73). One could say that the underlying basis of this duality in Jekyll is his desire to be closer to what he feels from his ‘lesser’ self. He can’t behave the way he wants to because of the risk of the loss of his high social status, one of a respectable gentleman. In the disguise of Hyde, he can lurk around Soho and other dark, red-light districts, where he can fulfill his sinister desires, without putting his important reputation at risk. Hyde has an absence of guilt, worry, remorse and compassion: “Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, while their own person and reputation sat under shelter.” (75)
In the last chapter Henry Jekyll claims to have control over Hyde. He says he can be rid of him when he chooses to. He is addicted to his other side nonetheless; it is “incredibly sweet” (72). Near the end, the reader learns that his excursions as Mr. Hyde are more and more frequent. This addiction and need to succumb to his primitive self develops into an almost complete loss of control. This is conveyed when Utterson and Enfield decide to go visit Jekyll, who has decided to close himself off completely, even from his friends and servants. Jekyll seems to be very weak at that time, reflecting his ‘weaknesses’ on controlling Hyde. He has to make his leave, because of what seems to be a ‘Hyde impulse’. He can’t control this impulse fully, so he has to hide away from his friends. Stevenson is trying to say that if one gives in to something, it is very difficult to get out of it again; in this way giving in to one’s desires and impulses, with a lack of concern.
One could also assume that the duality in Stevenson’s novel is about a curiosity of, or the need to discover one’s primitive impulsive side. If we look at Utterson’s character, there is also this need to know about Hyde. When Mr. Enfield tells about Hyde, Utterson develops on obsession in knowing more about the mysterious dark character. He goes as far as being tempted ‘to disregard the prohibition’ of reading Dr. Lanyon’s narrative, which is only meant to be read if Dr. Henry Jekyll died or disappeared. In this way he also illustrates the existence of duality in every individual. Utterson is “austere with himself” (9). He does not escape this duality; he deals with it differently than Jekyll. He restrains himself to following through his desire. Jekyll hides Hyde, rather than control him in front of his friends: (46)
The moral of this interesting story is that which many Christians recite daily: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Stevenson’s intention in this novel is to show that one should have control ever their animalistic side. One needs to be in control of their darker side of human nature, and to stop this seed of evil from growing larger. Perhaps, the moral is that we cannot control evil once unleashed. Jekyll tries to ‘use’ Hyde to give in to his temptations without damaging his social position. This spirals out of control. The cost of Jekyll’s curiosity turned out to be a deadly reversal of dominance.
