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. "