Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
People’s choices and actions are always guaranteed to affect others and themselves in a positive or negative way. Mr. Jekyll, a prominent doctor, is well respected and has a good reputation in society. He is also guaranteed an “honourable and distinguished future”, however, as the book progresses, it is discovered that Mr. Jekyll’s unpredictable past is dark and mysterious. His past contains a mixture of good and evil, however the power of evil slowly begins to dominate the good in Mr. Jekyll. This leads to crime and suspicion, which affects Mr. Jekyll’s choices. In the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, despite his good reputation, Dr. Jekyll’s choices greatly affect others as well as himself. The choices that Mr. Jekyll makes greatly affect the people around him. After he finds out that everyone has a dual personality, he begins to experiment with the good and evil that’s inside of him. While experimenting, he creates a “drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy” (48). This leads to the murder of Sir Danvers. “…he was trampling his victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows…” (16) As time goes by, his power of darkness begins to take over Mr. Jekyll. Without the ability to control his dark side, he murders Sir Danvers. Mr. Jekyll’s sordid and exorbitant desire for evil pleasure leads to his incapability of controlling himself. This shows how his choice for evil causes the death of Sir Danvers. Another example of how Mr. Jekyll’s choices affect others is when he decides to show Dr. Lanyon his true identity. After being instructed to retrieve a drug from a cabinet, Mr. Lanyon awaits for the arrival of the mysterious person. After the mysterious person, Mr. Hyde, receives the drug, he then reveals his identity. Showing Dr. Lanyon his dark secret leads him to a state of being “pale and shaken and half fainting” (45), which causes his death due to a mental shock. Revealing his true identity was a great mistake. Not only does Lanyon know the secret transformation and annotates it in his notes, however he literally dies from a shock. Dr. Jekyll’s choice of revealing his true form leads to the death of Lanyon. Not only does Dr. Jekyll’s choice affect other people, however it also affects himself as well. After “murdering” Sir Danvers and returning back to his original form, he “was sitting down, with a darkened brow, to make a feint of breakfast” (53). After this incident, he swears to never transform back to Hyde again, which