scary story.

Hello everyone,

I've just finished reading Dr. jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and of course I enjoyed it.
But what astonished me was that Evil wins at the end. Not directly, but through Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll ( the Good) dies and Hyde remains... not completely of course seeing as Mr. utterson kills him. ( oh, by the way, does anyone know how Mr. hyde dies? I didn't fully understand how he just fell on the floor and died.)
I think that what scared readers at the time of Stevenson was the fact that evil overpowered good and not the the scientific experiment because Dr. Jekyll's division of personality could just be an allegory of the conflict between good and evil in humans.

A great story isn't it? Try the rest of Stevenson's stories (if you haven't already)..they are great too ;)
I am afraid that i don't remember the particulars, to answer your question..it's been so many years since i read it (and if i think too hard now my head will explode :goof: ).
As for the deeper meaning of the story i think you got it right, although i try not to find deeper meanings in stories like these..spoils my reading :p

Dr. Jekyll killed himself while he was still in control of his mind and body. Upon death, his body went back to the form to which it had most become accustomed, i.e. Mr. Hyde.

It's not that Evil wins in the end, because they both died. The story isn't just a battle over good and evil, b/c the struggle is all internal. The story is about his struggle against himself. Jekyll sought to find an outlet for his troubling desires. However, in doing so, he opened the floodgates and could no longer control himself. This text was written during the tale end of the Victorian age, which was a very decorous and repressed time. Jekyll appeared to be having trouble coping with the restrictions on his emotions and rather than continue to live as a proper gentleman, he chose to risk his life (time and again) to be bad just a little while longer. Until finally, he was no longer remove himself from the actions of Hyde, as he eventually realized that they are the same man.

Actually, it's unclear whether Jekyll killed himself or if Hyde did it. Jekyll planned to do it, but did he have the strength to carry out his plan? Hyde, not Jekyll, had the destructive impulse--witness Carew's murder. Also, he was on the verge of being caught. Wouldn't Hyde do anything to escape imprisonment? And wouldn't it be the ultimate revenge on Jekyll--the man who created him and who deformed him?

I believe Jekyll committed suicide cloaked in Hyde's bestial flesh. As Utterson and Poole prepare to break into Jekyll's cabinet, they concur as to the man locked in seclusion. "'That's not Jekyll's voice--it's Hyde's!' cried Utterson (33)." And upon entering the room, "Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer (33)."

But the question remains: which self? Although Hyde in form, Jekyll maintains an influence--even if that influence continues to weaken under Hyde's growing power. For example, with a dwindling supply of salt Jekyll continually requests a renewal from London, as he recounts in his Full Statement of the Case (54). Although the salt provides Hyde with the ability to evade prosecution, it provides Jekyll with the hope of regaining strength.

But as Jekyll finishes his Full Statement of the Case, he "brings the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end (54)." However Jekyll's end would only finish the dignified life of Henry Jekyll. Hyde's consciousness is still connected with Jekyll, and Hyde "fears [Jekyll's] power to cut him off by suicide (54)." Because of Hyde's fear, Jekyll's realization that his life is at an end, and Utterson's confirmation that Hyde was behind the door before the suicide; I believe Jekyll's fleeting influence seized its last opportunity and destroyed the "child of Hell (52)."

Actually, Mr. Hyde commits suicide by drinking poison.