Jekyll and Hyde Oral.

Jekyll and Hyde Oral

Dr. Jekyll's medical studies had begun to increasingly, interest him. He believed that man had a 'dual nature' and that he can split the two personalities of man 'man is not truly one, but truly two.' Hyde called his evil side the 'Darker side.' Jekyll starts to work on his theory of splitting up the good side and the evil side. He creates a potion, 'drug that is potently controlled and shocks the very fortress of identity' which releases his darker side. His next aim was to erase the sadness and dejection that is present in the 'darker self'.

Dr Jekyll believes in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and that humans had evolved from apes. This is probably because when Jekyll becomes Hyde he becomes unnoticed as Jekyll. Dr. Lanyon is a friend of Jekyll in the book. Unlike Dr. Jekyll, Dr Lanyon and many other doctors did not agree with Darwin's. Many middle-classes, respectful people also disagreed with Darwin because all of the doctors and middle-class people were Christian and strongly believed in God. Dr. Lanyon and his friends had no interest in Jekyll's experiments to explore Darwin's theory in more detail.

When Jekyll thinks he has perfected the potion to erase evil he takes it and metamorphoses 'sold a slave to my original evil' and it goes horribly wrong. His features begin to change and he becomes unrecognisable as Jekyll. He looks frightful and monstrous and his features turn Ape like. Jekyll realises that he has become pure evil as Hyde and takes the potion to turn back to normal. Dr. Jekyll is astonished at his results and finds turning into Hyde, exciting and a 'rush.' Jekyll describes it as, 'The most racking pangs succeeded; a grinding in the bones.' Although he describes it as painful he still take pleasure from being Hyde. He then goes on to say, 'A grinding in the bones, deadly nausea' because he feels sick as he is changing. 'And a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death.' This shows just how frightful it was changing in to Hyde. Jekyll was willing to go through this though because when he became Hyde he could release his anger.

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In the book Hyde rents out a place in Soho, 'I took and furnished that house in Soho.' This is a place that he can go and retreat to. Soho is suitable for his personality because it is dark, run-down, cheap and nasty. One evening on October 18, a maid-servant living alone in a house had gone upstairs to bed about eleven. She sat down upon her box and 'fell into a dream of musing'. As she sat she became aware of an aged gentleman walking in the moonlight and a small gentleman who she paid less attention to. As the men came closer she recognised the small man to be Mr. Hyde. Suddenly Mr. Hyde 'broke out in a great flame of anger, and stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on like a madman.' Mr. Hyde started to 'club the man to earth' and stamp on him with 'ape-like fury.' This is one of the most violent and barbaric scenes in the book, with great contrast from the scene starting very quite and peaceful then savage and fierce. Stevenson makes the contrast more powerful when he uses the language well. He does this by starting the scene with very romantic and calm words like, 'romantically given', 'fell into a dream of musing', 'Never had she felt more at peace' and 'very pretty manor of politeness.' He builds up the horror of this scene by using enraged and barbarous words like, 'hailing down a storm of blows', 'bones were audibly shattered', 'insensate cruelty' and 'incredibly mangled.' As the story progresses Hyde's language becomes even more appalling and horrific as he grows angrier both physically and mentally. Part of the reason for Hyde becoming more evil, as we go through the story, is because Jekyll has become more evil and releasing his anger when he is Hyde wheras before he did not intend to be mean. The man that Hyde kills is called, 'Sir Danvers Carew'. Jekyll understands that he must stop taking the potion after this event, as the evil that comes out when he is Hyde is to forceful and brutal. Jekyll is now unrestrained as Hyde.

In an attempt to stop turning into Hyde, Jekyll leaves his studies for a couple of months and stays well away from the potion. However, one morning he unexpectedly changed in to Hyde, 'I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened as Edward Hyde.' Jekyll has now lost on self-control from changing into Hyde. Jekyll has realised that Hyde has started to conquer his body: evil is taking over. Jekyll has no idea what to do as he has no control over what is happening to him. He could change in to Hyde at any time without warning. He continues to unexpectedly change in to Hyde without taking the potion.

One night Jekyll suddenly turned into Hyde whilst in his laboratory. Dr Lanyon walks into see Jekyll and is stunned when he is faced with Hyde. He does not know what to do so just stands there speechless. Hyde sees Lanyon and takes the potion to turn himself back into Jekyll. As he begins to change, Lanyon is watching and is so overcome with what he is seeing that he can't overcome it and therefor dies.

Jekyll was born in to a wealthy family; he had a good education and was respected by all of the people who knew him. His future looked promising and there was nothing people could really criticise about him. Dr. Henry Jekyll is described as a prominent middle-age doctor. Throughout the novel, he is physically described as both tall and handsome. He is also extremely wealthy, having a fortune well over two million dollars in 19th century money (a significant sum in this time). People admired his light-hearted good nature but this annoyed him 'but personally, I was annoyed by it'. Preferably he would have liked to be seen more serious, 'I preferred to present an unchanging seriousness to the public.' He realises that all the people that know him don't actually know him 'know one but me knows my true nature.' It was almost like he lived a second life and he had done things which were degrading and shameful, but deep down he had enjoyed them, 'which I must say in all honesty, I enjoyed very much'. By all that know him, he is described as well respected. This, however, was a not always true, as throughout the novel we witness his hypocritical behavior, something that Stevenson claimed was Jekyll¹s fatal flaw. Jekyll found it hard to maintain his coolness and his upper class image, because he was constantly in fear of Hyde. He was aware that the evil side of him could come out of him at anytime and take over him as Hyde.