Notesale: Turn your study into money

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How far does Stevenson persuade you to feel sympathy for Dr Jekyll?
The main way Stevenson creates sympathy for Jekyll is to describe how controlling and repressive
the society in which he lives is
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Jekyll is also pressured to try to become all good even though he understands that "man is not truly
one but truly two" showing he accepts the bad side of humanity yet feels the need to eradicate it
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This is shown as when Utterson learns about the story if the door he goes home and looks at the
will he already has showing that he does not want to damage Jekyll's reputation even though he
believes he is being blackmailed
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This is clearly shown by how Utterson drinks "gin to mortify a taste in vintages"
which he likes but believes to be an excessive thing
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This lets the reader understand why Jekyll did this and thus gives
them a greater understanding of what Jekyll thought was right showing that he did not intend to become Hyde
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This gives the reader some sympathy as Jekyll had good intentions when he began
showing to the reader that in many ways he was trying to do good
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Stevenson however manages to continue the sympathy for Jekyll in someway by showing how
Hyde slowly gains more and more control over Jekyll until a point where Jekyll falls asleep as Jekyll but when he wakes he looks down upon his hand and sees "the hand of Edward Hyde" showing how he now does not have to take the elixir to become Hyde and now needs it to turn back into
Jekyll
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However this can be seen as being Jekyll's fault as in the beginning Hyde could only be
created by taking the elixir but over time grew stronger because Jekyll enjoyed becoming Hyde
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The final way in which Stevenson makes the reader sympathetic towards Jekyll is by showing how
Jekyll killed himself to kill Hyde before he lost control
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However this can be seen as
Jekyll jut not wishing to lose control over Hyde who he believes to be "primitive" and thinking that if
he dies, as when Hyde gets full control he will never turn back to Jekyll, Hyde, his creation, should
die with him
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This demonstrates to the reader
that in some way Jekyll was an unwitting victim as he is unhappy, although this could be seen as
an unhappiness with losing control
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However Jekyll says that "it was Hyde, after all, and
Hyde alone that was guilty" which in many ways negates all the sympathy toward him on the basis
of him being repentant
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This metamorphosis is described in the structure
of a list which emphasises how many different things were hurting him
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This added emphatic
power to the last clause shows how it is not just a physical pain but how it is also hurting him spiritually which may be seen as a form of repentance as his soul is suffering
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To conclude I think that through out the book Stevenson builds sympathy for Jekyll as the reader
first of all thinks him to be a victim of the evil Hyde
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Then any remaining sympathy is destroyed by Jekyll not showing
any remorse for his actions as he says that "it was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone that was guilty"
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To begin with this works well to make the reader think about the problems of their society as it can be seen to be the cause of the evil, then Stevenson uses the lack of
repentance to show how man is in many ways truly evil and has to strive hard, like Utterson does,
to not be evil

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