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 ball club of morality, respectability and religion. It was believed that progress could only be made if every cardinal was self-disciplined and moralistic. Authors such(prenominal)(prenominal) as Samuel Smiles wrote Self-Help guides. All this was aimed to help the rich survive richer and the poor get poorer. In an age of stern, industrious hypocrites, respect was everything to the upper and middle anatomyes. muckle denied themselves alcohol, gambling and prostitution to gain the respect of others. Jekyll refers to these denied as pleasures. People lived without these pleasures only if soon began to wonder what they were missing. This brought about the slum adventurers. These were middle and upper class men who wanted to keep the respect of their society but, through anonymity, good-tempered screw 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 disposition. It is noticed that though he enjoyed the theatre, he had not crossed the doors of one in twenty years. It is this vicariousness that helps him solve the causal agent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Utterson is the opposite of Jekyll in the way that Utterson keeps the respectability of the strait-laced society, whereas Jekyll rebels.The rebellious nature of Jekyll leads him to discover 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 pseudoscientific balderdash.In the beginning it is difficult for us to feel agreement for Dr. Jekyll he is operateing by his own conscience. At this current stage, he is in no way addicted to Mr. Hyde. Even the line of battle of Mr. Hyde ghastly and dwarfish who gave the impression of deformity but with no nameable malformatio n, concord to Mr. Utterson, who had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight, should flummox forced Jekyll to recognise that Hyde was evil.It is very difficult to feel understanding for Jekyll after we are told about when Hyde trampled calmly over a preadolescent girls body. Normally after this until todayt anyone else would have ceased his shifting into Hyde. But Jekyll starts to work 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 big enough deterrent Hyde brutally mangles Sir Danvers Carew. Jekyll, knowing what had happened, easily accepts it and shifts the satanic to Hyde. He shows this in Dr Jekylls full statement of the case, it was Hyde, after all, and Hyde unaccompanied that is guilty.The ease at which he accepts this and shifts the blame could almost be inhuman. But after he discovers that he begins to change into Hyde spontaneously, without the drug we con he is very self centred and selfish, I must(prenominal) have stared upon it half(prenominal) a minuteI rushed to the mirror my blood was more or lessthing all right thin and icy. Even though Jekyll is selfish about this, not mentioning what a terrible thing that he made now controls. We cigaret feel some sympathy for knowing that he is trapped and at anytime Hyde might 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 litigate as soon as possible. But he continued to adjoin his need for the pleasures which otherwise eluded him.It is also very difficult to feel aristocratical for someone who knows and remembers what happens, but does not take action to prevent it. My both natures had memory in common. Surely the memories of the girl and Carew should be harmful enough to force any sane and humane person to empower a stop to Hydes actions. Hyde goes into hiding after Ca rews murder in fear of being hung, should he be caught. This removes a serve of the sympathy we may otherwise feel towards Jekyll at this point, as til now again he shows signs of being selfish and putting himself before everyone else. some(prenominal) of this sympathy is regained when he is in hiding, he begins to show genuine self-reproach for Carews death.In the statement of the case, Jekyll finally admits to Hydes evil by saying 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 exhausting to put a stop to Hyde. Finally Jekyll commits suicide to publish the knowledge domain from the terror and evil Hyde could unleash. This gains him the greatest respect and sympathy. He took his life to save others from the extreme evil he had inadvertently created. He finally takes eventual(prenominal) responsibility and puts a stop to Hyde.In conclusion I hazard that Jekyll was a victim of Victorian society where respect was everything. In some parts it is hard to offer our sympathy but his final act was one that one must respect and offer sympathy for the bruise Jekyll went through. As we have seen restricting things from people can only perplex 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.