International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology
MenuISSN ONLINE(2319-8753)PRINT(2347-6710)
ISSN ONLINE(2319-8753)PRINT(2347-6710)
| JEMIMA DANIEL Lecturer In English, Department Of English, Bharath University, India |
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This present article deals about the duality of human nature. Asserting the duality of human nature means, despite its complexity has two fundamental aspects. Some people believe that every human being has a good side and an evil side. ‘The Strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde’ is a classical story that illustrates and explains this view.
INTRODUCTION |
| This story is a probe into human mind and what psychologists call the split-personality. We should remember that Stevenson wrote the story entirely out of his imagination and it was a time when the study of the human mind had not advanced as it has in these days. The novel is an interesting document in the exploration of human consciousness. |
| The story of the novel` DR.Jekyll andMr.Hyde’ tells of the split personality of human beings,good and the bad. The good is represented by Dr.Jekyll. He is a good respected doctor and good among fellow men. |
| Dr.Jekyll gave a dinner to a group of old men, all intellectuals. The lawer,Utterson was one of the invitees. The others left the place after dinner. Utterson stayed back. Dr.Jekyll was fifty, he sat opposite to the fire. He was well dressed and stylish,but reticent. Dr.Jekyll was a man interested in science and in making experiments. More than a doctor he was a psychologist. His studies were not confined to the theory but he experimented the same on himself. |
| It was thus that he happened to probe into his own dual personality and did explorations. He pursued it with the detached interest of a man of science without giving much thought to the personal inconveniences, it might cause,or the moral implications. He went to the extent of undergoing great sufferings for the sake of proving his theory. |
| The agony he experienced while changing himself from Dr.Jekyll to Hyde and vice versa had been narrated both by himself and the eye witness Dr.Lanyon. |
| Dr.Jekyll`s awareness of the evil Hyde,lurking inside him and his confession are things worth admiration. One sympathies with the doctor to find what he started as an experiment going beyond his control and Hyde asserting himself in him outside the good natured Jekyll. As Dr.Jekyll,he had been loved and respected by Utterson,Lanyon and others. His genorsity was boundless and his last will bequeathing everything to Utterson shows it. He had no enmity against Lanyon but only a professional contempt for the latter`s refusal to believe his theories about dual personality. |
| In another incident Jekyll`s dual personality reveals clearly . One day Poole,Jekyll`sservent visited Utterson,in great alarm. He looked terribly frightened. He said that the doctor has been shutting himself up in the laboratory for more than a week and he suspected some foul play. |
| He wanted Utterson to come and see for himself. That same day Poole found the voice he heard from inside the laboratory was not his master`s. He suspected that his master had been murdered eight days berfor and it was the murderer who was inside then. |
| The man inside the laboratory has been crying night and day for some sort of medicine that he needed. He had been sent to every chemist in town but the stuff was asked to be returned as it was not pure. One day Poole suddenly entered the laboratory, as the door was not locked as usual. He saw a man with a mask over his head working with his bootle. On seeing Poole,he gave a cry and ran into his study. This man was unlike his master and was like a dwarf. He was sure that it was not his master. |
| Utterson and Poole decided to break open the door. Standing outside the door, Utterson warned Jekyll that they were going to break the door open. Then they heared a voice imploring Utterson to have mercy. Uttersonrecongnisedit as the voice of Hyde. They broke open the door. They heared a dismal scream. They found the body of a man with his face to the floor. They saw the face of Edward Hyde. |
| Lanyon brought the drawer from Dr.Jekyll`s house as requested by him. The Drawer contained some powders and a bottle half full of a blood-red liquid. There was a book containing a series of dates written in it. Exactly at 12 o`clock,an oddly dressed man and with a disgusting look came and asked for the drawer. He looked very relieved on seeing the contents. |
| The man asked for a measuring glass which he got. He mixed a few drops of the red liquid and one of the powders. He asked Lanyon whether he wished to see the effects of the drug. On Lanyon`s consent,he drank the liquid. To Lanyon`s surprise, the man was transformed to Dr.Jekyll. The man who entered was Hyde and he had been changed to Dr.Jekyll. |
| Utterson found that the man lying dead on the floor to be Hyde. He held a blue bottle in his hand and a sharp smell was in the air around the body. Then Utterson guessed that the man must have destroyed himself by taking some drug. |
| Even after a through search, they could not find Dr.Jekyll anywhere in the laboratory. When Utterson saw Dr.Jekyll`s will he wondered why Hyde had not destroyed it,though the doctor had left his property to Utterson. He was further confused when he saw that the brief note addressed to him was dated that day itself. All this caused doubt whether Hyde had destroyed himself. |
| There they found a large envelope on the business table with Utterson`s name written on it. There were many papers inside it. The first one was a will in which Dr.Jekyll had left his property to Utterson himself. The second paper was a brief note. In that note Dr.Jekyll wanted Utterson to read the letter of Lanyon. There was another envelope, sealed in many places,which contained Jekyll`s confession. |
| Lanyon`s letter explained the contents of a letter he received from Dr.Jekyll. He wanted him to go straight to his house and take the fourth drawer in the cupboard of his room and carry it to Cavendish Square. He should give the drawer to a man sent by him. He requested Lanyon to do this and save his life. |
| Jekyll managed to produce a drug by which the evil powers within him took complete control of his mind. But it had a marked effect upon his body and his outward from became changed beyond recognition. |
| Dr.Jekyll had two sides to his nature. At times he was completely bad and at other times, he wished only to do what was good and right. He considered the possibility of separating these two elements so each could be set free to go its own way. |
II.CONCLUSION |
| The evil side of Dr.Jekyll was less developed than the good because his life had been full of goodness and control. The evil had been much less exercised. Because of this Edward Hyde was much smaller in body and looked much younger. It is only a metamorphosis of Dr.Jekyll. |
| This novel is said to be nightmare and Stevenson wrote what is contained in the nightmare. Throughout the character of Dr.Jekyll we can realise every human beings have their own dual personalities. This article deals with dual nature of man. It is a sort of coexistence between good and evil. |
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