2 minute read
o Key Ideas
from one person to another, one verity persists - it is impossible to obtain a purely angelic essence or a totally evil soul.
Beyond Good and Evil
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Dr. Travis Langley26 assumes that it is difficult nowadays to recognize good people from evil people; defects are evident in heroes, as are righteous traits in some villains.
Duality cannot last forever, and as in the novel, either good or evil will dominate. That being the case, white and black no longer symbolize good and evil; there is a grey area in-between. Good and evil will incessantly exchange victory.
KEY IDEAS
- What determines character is one’s capacity to synergize these opposing forces within one’s self. - If we split the dual nature of man right down the middle, might it not produce a creature that embodies all that is evil unchecked by anything that is good; in short, a monster? - It is impossible to liberate only the most upright version of human beings. - “Between these two, I now felt I had to choose. My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally shared between them. Jekyll (who was composite) now with the most sensitive apprehensions, now with a greedy gusto, projected and shared in the pleasures and adventures of Hyde; but Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll, or but remembered him as the mountain bandit remembers the cavern in which he conceals himself from pursuit. Jekyll had more than a father's interest; Hyde had more than a son's indifference. To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it in with Hyde, was
26 Dr. Travis Langley, distinguished professor at Henderson State University, is a psychologist best known as the author of the book "Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight”
to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless.” (10.16)
Choosing between good and evil comes with many consequences.
“There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul. And yet I was not alarmed; the fall seemed natural, like a return to the old days before I had made my discovery.”
Both good and evil are fighting side-by-side in Jekyll’s psyche. Any semblance of balance is destroyed here in this passage.
“But if all men must learn wisdom tomorrow from violence today, then who can expect there will be a tomorrow?”27 - No amount of scientific advancement can ever change the fact that good and evil are “polar twins”.
27 Retrieved from the 1968 Canadian-American TV film based on the 1886 novella Strange. (1:57:49)
