Dr. Henry Jekyll (and Mr.Hyde) was born in to a society of morality, respectability and religion Essay

Dr. Henry Jekyll was born in to a fellowship of morality, respectability and religion. It was believed that progress could only be made if every bingle was self-disciplined and moralistic. Authors such as Samuel Smiles wrote Self-Help guides. All this was aimed to help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In an age of stern, industrious hypocrites, respect was every sensitiveg to the upper and middle classes. People denied themselves alcohol, romp and prostitution to gain the respect of others. Jekyll refers to these denied as pleasures. People lived with turn out these pleasures but short began to wonder what they were missing. This brought about the slum adventurers. These were middle and upper class manpower who wanted to keep the respect of their society but, through anonymity, still mess up in the pleasures the poor slums had to offer. They would work by day in their offices and at night would journey down to the alleys of the slums.A person such as Mr Utterson, a London lawyer who does not wish to indulge in pleasures is of a vicarious nature. It is noticed that though he enjoyed the theatre, he had not go through the doors of one in twenty years. It is this vicariousness that helps him solve the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Utterson is the contrary of Jekyll in the way that Utterson keeps the respectability of the Victorian society, whereas Jekyll rebels.The rebellious nature of Jekyll leads him to divulge how to transform his appearance. Dr. Lanyon, a respectable conventional doctor of Victorian society frowns on Jekyll mostly secret work, which he refers to as unscientific piffle.In the beginning it is difficult for us to retrieve kind-heartedness for Dr. Jekyll he is acting by his own conscience. At this current stage, he is in no way addicted to Mr. Hyde. Even the sight of Mr. Hyde pale and dwarfish who gave the impression of deformity but with no nameable malformation, according to Mr. Utterson, who had interpreted a loathin g to my gentleman at first sight, should ingest forced Jekyll to recognise that Hyde was evil.It is very difficult to feel philanthropy for Jekyll later we are told about when Hyde trampled calmly over a young misfires body. Normally afterward this event anyone else would have ceased his transformation into Hyde. notwithstanding Jekyll starts to become addicted to taking the drugs (as with modern addictions) and continues to turn into Hyde even after trampling the girl. As if trampling the girl was not a large-scale sufficiency deterrent Hyde brutally murders Sir Danvers Carew. Jekyll, k immediatelying what had happened, easily accepts it and shifts the blame to Hyde. He shows this in Dr Jekylls full statement of the case, it was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone that is culpable.The ease at which he accepts this and shifts the blame could almost be inhuman. exactly after he discovers that he begins to change into Hyde spontaneously, without the drug we see he is very self ce ntred and selfish, I must have stared upon it half a minuteI rushed to the mirror my blood was something exquisitely thin and icy. Even though Jekyll is selfish about this, not mentioning what a terrible thing that he made now controls. We can feel some humanity for knowing that he is trapped and at anytime Hyde efficiency emerge over which Jekyll has no control. Alternatively we can have sympathy for a man that failed to have foreseen what would happen and stopped the process as soon as possible. But he continued to satisfy his requisite for the pleasures which otherwise eluded him.It is also very difficult to feel sorry for someone who knows and remembers what happens, but does not fill action to prevent it. My two natures had retrospect in common. Surely the memories of the girl and Carew should be painful enough to force any sane and humane person to impersonate a stop to Hydes actions. Hyde goes into hiding after Carews murder in fear of being hung, should he be caught. This removes a lot of the sympathy we may otherwise feel towards Jekyll at this point, as yet over again he shows signs of being selfish and putting himself before everyone else. Some of this sympathy is regained when he is in hiding, he begins to show genuine remorse for Carews death.In the statement of the case, Jekyll eventually admits to Hydes evil by aspect It was no longer the fear of the gallows, it was the horror of being Hyde that racked me. This shows that Jekyll has become altruistic. Jekyll has now begun to put himself after everyone. He now excepts the he must not let Hyde free again for fear of him committing more evil. It is now we finally begin to feel sympathy and start to respect Jekyll for trying to put a stop to Hyde. Finally Jekyll commits suicide to save the world from the misgiving and evil Hyde could unleash. This gains him the greatest respect and sympathy. He took his life to save others from the natural evil he had inadvertently created. He finally ta kes ultimate responsibility and puts a stop to Hyde.In conclusion I think that Jekyll was a victim of Victorian society where respect was everything. In some split it is hard to offer our sympathy but his final act was one that one must respect and offer sympathy for the pain Jekyll went through. As we have seen restricting things from people can only bring out the bad side of them, as Jekyll explains, My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring. Personal freedom is one of our greatest assets and one we take very much for granted.