Jekyll and Hyde Response 1

Author’s Note:
After reading the first chapter of Jekyll and Hyde, I was inspired to write about how people are very much unknown, and there is a side to people that remains unseen. It raises the question about how much do we truly know about people and their personalities, and how much remains hidden under the surface.

How much do we truly know about the people that we see every day? Sure, we think we know everything about our friends, but how can we be sure? The first chapter of Jekyll and Hyde makes you realize that we can be very easily deceived, and we can easily misinterpret a person’s true personality. Utterson has convinced himself that he loves Jekyll, but he has also convinced himself that he hates Hyde. How can this be if they are really the same person? This is the question Stevenson wants us to ask. We may know and become friends with what we think to be a person, but in truth it is only one side of that person that we have come to like. They may be hiding a whole other side that shows a completely different person.

It’s amazing how easily people can hide their true personality. Jekyll’s friends, such as Utterson, only know one side of the man who they call their friend. Jekyll comes across as a very kind and smart gentlemen, yet he is the same man as the cold-hearted, horrifying Hyde. The scary thing is, is that he is able to hold this double identity without allowing anybody to know. This represents all of humanity. Obviously, at least I hope, nobody is actually two people, but what is being shown is that everybody has two sides to them, and many times one side goes unseen, even though it strongly exists within that person.