We are in our humanity so inherently
sinful. It is a constant struggle then: the human condition playing the
wickedness of the heart against an opposing desire to be good. If we are
Christ-lovers, we daily renew ourselves against the struggle so that we may
rise above our sin. What if, for a short time, we allowed our sin to lead our
behavior? What if a man could free his inner-monster and just let it run amuck
without remorse, without conscience, without regrets, without consequences? If
he did, could he control it? Turn it off and on at will and in essence live as
if two lives separate from each other? Could a person accomplish this?
These questions Robert Louis Stevenson
answers by way of a fantastic character named Dr. Henry Jekyll. The literary
classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a
poignant tale about a man’s struggle: good or evil? Dr. Jekyll believes that choosing to be good
or evil is more than simply a matter of choice as his friends argue: Choosing to be good means always being good.
Jekyll revels in the possibility that the sides of one’s personality are closer
together than contemporary psychology allows and that there is only a matter of
finding the transcendental key to unlock the door that lies between the sides.
He could control which side of his personality would show. He could choose, if
he had the key.
The good Dr. Jekyll is an upstanding,
responsible, and in all counts by his peers a trustworthy and noble individual.
But Jekyll has long held a secret desire to behave maliciously and he is weary,
even bored, with the effort of squashing it. He wants to cast off his mask of
respectability and shed his polite kindness to society. Yet, he abhors the idea
of losing his comfortable standing in society. He wants to play at being bad,
but he doesn’t want to lose anything for it; to be free of his conscience, but
not enough to construct the change for himself and then live with the results
of his change.
Jekyll is a scientist by hobby and
dedicates himself to the point of obsession to concoct a chemical formula that
may open his psyche thereby granting him the ability to manipulate his
personality. He accomplishes this feat and so believes he has control, the key,
to commanding the change. Ironically, the control Jekyll celebrates through the
course of his scientific experiments proves to be an illusion. By unlocking and
freeing his inner-monster, he ultimately loses control of his life as his
monster consumes him.
