Quotation: “The most racking pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly to subside, and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness. There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but innocent freedom of the soul. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine.” (Stevenson, Chapter 10)

Comment/Connection: This passage is taken from chapter ten during one of Jekyll’s transformations. Jekyll describes how he felt as he turns into Hyde, specifically how he felt the burdens of morality lift from his shoulders. This narration, personally, makes me think that Hyde isn’t a different person as much as the novel insinuates he is. Jekyll, I feel, almost creates Hyde as a scapegoat to justify his newfound feelings of immorality. Hyde represents Jekyll’s innermost desires to go against the social order and morals. Jekyll realizes that he can’t act immorally as himself because he still fears social rejection, which brings about the “creation” of Hyde. Hyde is Jekyll’s outlet to act in the way he truly wants to. 

Questions: I wonder how the story would be affected if Hyde wasn’t introduced as part of an experiment. What would happen if Hyde was kept as a secret until close to the end of the book?