Character/Theme

The character I find myself most drawn to from the novel, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" would be Mr. Hyde himself. His unique, bizarre nature is what consummates his entire character and personality, which I find in my opinion, to be truly captivating. The man suffers from a multiple personality disorder, deriving him into the savage, psychotic beast at completely haphazard moments throughout the day. He's committed numerous unspeakable and repulsive acts such as trampling over an eight to ten year old girl without even assisting her and beating an old man to a bloody pulp with a heavy, wooden cane. However, none of this is entirely his fault as mentioned previously, is due to the fact of his disease and that he alone cannot overcome it with his own will, but instead succumbs to it and brings about treacherous deeds. He draws a mysterious connection to Dr. Jekyll, which leads me to complex thoughts, such as if they're actually the same person. Curiosity draws my attention to him, and with out a doubt, Mr. Hyde is one of the more thought driven and conceptive characters in the book.

Frequent themes occur throughout the story, but one of the more essential ones Stevenson might have been trying to covey would be the concept of Good and Evil. Mr. Hyde is a prime example of this, as he constantly switches his persona and struggles to fight between the battle of both opposing forces. The author was likely showing the reader through his character that if one of these entities becomes dominant over the other, it can lead to corrupting it's victim altogether. In this case, Evil is the dominating force and corrupts Mr. Hyde, which leads him to commit such vigorous acts of atrocity. This, I believe, plays a key factor in the main conflict of " Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "

"Story of the Door" Reaction

Think of a memorable moment from the chapter "Story of the Door" in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  What does this moment make you think about?  What connections can you make to some of the information you have read about in the prereading articles?  What themes are potentially implied through this moment in the text? 

One particular moment that I believe was memorable from the chapter " Story of the Door " in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was of Mr. Enfield's strange story when he and Mr. Utterson approached a rather peculiar, distained door. His story and how Stevenson described it left me abashed, flustered in my own thoughts as I continuously read over it to fully grasp it's meaning. Pursuing deeper into the context, I suddenly came in realization that certain parts of Enfield's tale connected with articles from the prereading assignment, as well as potential themes that managed to confine itself within the text.

From Mr. Enfield's explanation, he began to unravel the scene he supposedly witnessed, " All at once, I saw two figures; one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground. It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. " He further identified the perpetrator, in his perspective, as " ...some damned Juggernaut. " I stopped myself at that scene and began to contemplate my thoughts, reviewing over what had just happened in this moment. This made me think about the savage and heedless nature of most people in our world, our society to this point. In reality, if such an event occurred, the most reasonable thing to do were to assist the wounded child and move on, rather than to leave them on the ground in tears and ignore it entirely. As I advanced further into the text, Enfield mentioned the term, Sawbones which honestly alluded me into thinking it was a particular group of people. When looking back at the paragraphs before and after it, I developed a sense that the Sawbones were the injured girl's family, presumably seeking revenge to the man who committed the act in the first place. After rereading and picking out key components in the story, I finally deciphered the whole theme, meaning behind what the author intended, including connections to the articles assigned in the prereading section.

Referring back to the articles, the " Good and Evil " one specifically caught my attention during Mr. Enfield's strange tale. “Whether something is good or evil is determined by society and whether society has made that decision correctly or incorrectly...”This evidently portrays the incident pertaining to the man and young girl, seeing as his actions toward the girl were harsh, unforgivable, society's judgment would be correct in believing that the deed committed was presumed, Evil. The main theme prominent in this selection is in reality, equality is enforced upon society and all should be treated as such, regardless of age, sex, race, and so on.

The Good and Evil

After reading about the article on, " The Philosophy of Good and Evil in Humanity ", I've learned that evil itself is an existing entity, a force that cannot be removed from society entirely. Good is as well, an existing entity much like it's counterpart, evil, which both compliment each other in the nature of society and humanity. These two premature forces have always existed over the course of time and have remained alongside humans, due to their actions and deeds committed in society.  Rules created by society reflect on these aspects of good and evil, determining whether the action a person did corresponded with the respective force.  Free will of people also plays an important part in good and evil, with the rules created by society in further assisting the judgment and identification of the said person committing the act. Without these rules/laws, the shift in the two existing forces would constantly change, depending entirely on the person and deed.
In my own personal opinion, I whole heartily agree with the concept of good and evil existing in our society, in humanity as a whole. Further in the article, the author explains the necessity for evil, how it affects us and how it reveals the attributes of good from within. " ... and without the presence of evil in society, the good would never be seen. " Good deeds wouldn't be recognized without an evil force leading up to the achievement of those deeds. Basically, good can't exist without evil and evil can't exist without good, there always has to be a  balance between the two, otherwise they cease to exist.