1983. From a novel or play of literary merit, select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the nature of the character's villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
What is the root of evil? It seems like the answer should be simple. If the question went up on Spruz, people would probably answer with Chris Walter. But we’d also get a lot of other random responses. The reason behind the question’s ability to be answered in so many ways is its generality, evil is different in everyone. The nature of Mr. Hyde’s villainy is pure humanity, and it enforces the meaning of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by starting to illustrate Stevenson’s idea of humanity and evil.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson really investigates humanity, evil and how they intertwine. The premise of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is that Dr. Jekyll, a scientist, makes a drink that turns him into another part of himself. This other part of himself is evil and goes by the name Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde looks different than Dr. Jekyll, because he is basically a different person. He is described as very ugly, as though he has an obvious deformity, but it’s all internal. He really is evil, he murdered people in cold blood, and tried to take Dr. Jekyll over. As Dr. Jekyll makes sure we understand, he himself isn’t pure good while Mr. Hyde is pure evil, it’s about a 90 to 10% ratio, which shows us how no man is purely evil, but it also shows us that no human is flawlessly good.
Mr. Hyde is not your typical villain; he doesn’t have some sob story about his childhood that made him the way he is, unlike most super villains. Part of the reason that he doesn’t have said sob story is because Mr. Hyde came into being suddenly, he didn’t have a childhood to attach a sob story to. Without having a traumatic past to draw from, the reason that Mr. Hyde can be so horrible is, quite simply, that he’s human. More people than there should be in the world are murderers, and those people have the same ratio as you and I of good and evil (assuming that Jekyll is right about his good vs. evil ratio), they just succumb to the 10% of badness. Now multiply that human dispassion by 9 and just try to imagine the result. Imagining that someone could be like that all of the time is frightening, but Stevenson imagines it anyway. He uses it to show us how horrible humans could be, to warn us away from being evil.
Jekyll in the end starts getting taken over by Hyde even without the draught; Hyde just inherits his body and wreaks havoc on London. Jekyll fights Hyde, but to no avail, he simply can’t overpower the evil inside him. And that’s the point that Stevenson uses to get his meaning across, that if we allow evil to thrive, even if only for a very short period of time it will overtake us. The evil will continue to thrive unbidden and cause us the people we love harm. Why? Because we are merely human, and humans aren’t strong enough to stop what we start. So the nature of Mr. Hyde’s evil, that being his humanity, is how Stevenson gives us the meaning of the novel.
Your intro thesis need's to change. The last part, "The nature of Mr. Hyde's..." is good. Add above that in a way that will mean something to the people who will be grading your essay.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what does the idea of humanity have to do with the idea of evil?
You answer it well within your body paragraphs.
"No human is flawlessly good," (Paragraph one, concluding sentence).
"He uses it to show us how horrible humans could be, to warn us away from being evil," (Paragraph two, concluding sentence).
"So the nature of Mr. Hyde's evil, that being his humanity, is how Stevenson gives us the meaning of the novel," (paragraph 3, concluding sentence.
Your third paragraph to me is the strongest because it doesn't include a ton of plot summary and it tells how and says why it makes sense to your point.
I "lol'd" when I read your intro, the Chris bit is so true. Your thesis is good but you need to exchange meaning with the actual meaning.
ReplyDeleteYou do a great deal of plot summary, about half of it needs to be cut out, especially since this is such a well know story.
Your points are very well articulated though and make a lot of sense, you definitely answer the question that you started out with.