FREE ESSAY ON TWO SIDED FALLACY

TWO SIDED FALLACY

Jud Van Matre
Eng 12 Honors
Period 2
November 3, 2000
The Two-Faced Citizen
The focal point of this essay is to define the life of Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the
transformation he went through in becoming Edward Hyde. Dr. Henry Jekyll is a physician
in London. He is very well respected and is currently experimenting the dual nature of
man kind. Edward Hyde is a manifestation of Dr. Jekyll's personality. He is accused of
committing evil acts throughout the novel. 
The first scene consists of Mr. Richard Enfield's and Mr. Utterson walking along a street
in London. Mr. Enfield has a recollection of a previous incident in which he witnessed an
extremely unpleasant man trampling upon a small screaming girl while this man was running
somewhere. A large crowd had gathered around and they saw the man, Edward Hyde. The crowd
forced the man to give money to this girl for trampling over her. Hyde did not run over
her for any reason. He just did it out of spite and evil. He represents all the evil in
the world. The reaction of others to him is one of horror because while looking at him,
others feel a desire to strike out at him and kill him. His physical appearance brings
out the worst evil in other people. Since Hyde represents evil, he is symbolically
represented as being much smaller than Dr. Jekyll. 
I believe Dr. Jekyll created Hyde because he had a theory that man has a good side and a
bad side. While investigating this, he developed a potion that could release the evil in
a person in the form of a totally different person. Then this person could commit any
evil act it wanted, and then drink the potion to return back to normal. The only problem
with this is the fact that he drank this potion so many times, he was no longer able to
control this process. He was unable to transform back into Dr. Jekyll. Another example of
Hyde's evil is in the killing of Sir Danvers Carew. Sir Danvers appears to have been
killed for no apparent reason. The murder of Sir Danvers was seen by a maid who was
working nearby. She states that Hyde meet with a man in the street. After the two
exchanged words, Mr. Hyde lifted his heavy walking stick and clubbed the old man to
death. This tells us the reader that Mr. Hyde has grown in fury. From trampling over a
child in the first scene, he now commits murder for no reason. I believe Hyde killed Sir
Danvers because Sir Danvers was described as being a peaceful and good man. Hyde
represents pure evil, so naturally he would hate good gentlemen. The only reason why Sir
Danvers dies, was because he was a good man. He not only killed Sir Danvers', he had to
trample over him. The goodness of Sir Danvers brings out the most intense evil in Hyde.
From the source Selves and Shadows we receive an indepth look into the novel. David Hume
asks the question, Would any man, who is walking along, tread as willingly on another's
gouty toes, whom he has no quarrel with, as on the hard flint and pavement? Well, here is
that man, and his total blindness to any feeling but his own is central to his character.
As Jekyll puts it, when he is eventually driven to attempt a choice between his two
lives. It is very obvious that no man would want to start a fight, if there is no reason
to fight. Since Mr. Hyde represents the evil in men, Dr. Jekyll releases his evil through
his other side, Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is Jekyll's way of releasing his anger. In the final
chapter called, Jekyll's Full Statement Jekyll reveals everything. He states, No one but
me knows my true nature. All these years, the public has seen only a veneer of my real
self. This is so very true due mostly to the fact that no one knew Mr. Hyde was a part of
Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll constantly emphasizes the greatness of his background. He reminds us
of his wealthy family, and great education. But he also states that man is not truly one,
but truly two. 
In conclusion, Dr. Jekyll needed something, or someone to represent the evil which has
built up inside of him. He created this through experiments, which lead to a potion. This
potion transformed him anytime he wanted. He was transformed into Mr. Hyde. I believe
evil is just a small portion of men, that is why Mr. Hyde had a dwarfish appearence. The
main point being, was that the potion took over his life, and Dr. Jekyll finally realizes
he is unable to transform back into his goodness. He attemts to commit suicide, as this
is his only way of destroying Mr. Hyde. 
Bibliography
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