Control Reversal Of Jekyll To Hyde

Control Reversal Of Jekyll To Hyde

Show how and why the control reversal of Jekyll to Hyde Intensifies through the novella.

  At the beginning of the novella, Dr.jekyll is in full control over Hyde, yet at the end, Hyde is in control of Jekyll.   This reversal of control is owed to many different things, one is that Jekyll is a respectable man; people go to him for help as defined by his profession. He was a gentleman and had high moral codes   "I am painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking." Jekyll is trying to stay in control but cannot yet divulge this information to his friend Utterson, Jekyll is still trying to sound professional about the situation but as we progress we see that Jekylls moral foundation is shattered as he becomes more and more desperate. We also feel a sense of irony towards this whole section as Jekyll is a doctor but is unable to save himself. Through all this we see that Jekyll does want to help others, on one hand, he is pursuing science for the benefit of society...on the other hand, his search for duality of man has selfish motivations ; "It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date . . . I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements."   Jekyll is summarizing his theory of humanity’s dual nature, which states that human beings are half virtuous and half criminal, half moral and half amoral. Jekyll’s goal in his experiments is to separate these two elements, creating a being of pure good and a being of pure evil. In this way he seeks to free his good side from dark urges while liberating his wicked side from the pangs of conscience. Ultimately, however, Jekyll...