Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Vs the Holy Bible: Mysticism and Prevalence of Evil in Humans
When thinking of the fall from grace one would immediately reference Adam and Eve. A classic story in the book of genesis that tells how man came to be and how man messed things up. But let’s take it back a little further; back to a time before earth was created by God. In the Heavens, god is all supreme ruler over His angels. He is alpha and omega, beginning and end. This being of ultimate power and control was loved and adored by all his creations; all except for Lucifer. Lucifer, God’s closest and most powerful angel, was jealous of Gods’ power and so he plotted to overtake Him. And of course he did not win and was cast out of Heaven. Now this, is a fall from grace. A creation that was “the son of the dawn” (Isaiah 14:12) was sent from glory all because of a hunger that plagues all of humanity to this day: control. In this essay, the question whether the author used mysticism and the prevalence of evil in order to support the theory that there humans are destined for evil, shall be compared through the analysis of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Stevenson and the Holy Bible; with excerpts from Elliot Sobers’ “Core Questions in Philosophy.”
Mysticism is in more or less words the prime element of the story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As defined by dictionary.com it is “a doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding, or of a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy.” Basically this novel was taking a step into the supernatural, and it is much needed to add a whole new dimension to the plot. Believing the unbelievable, such as God or Satan, is the necessary (and most commonly rejected) concept that leaves room for the introduction of Evil. Mr. Hyde is a character that depicts the description of evil. No one in the town could conjure a reasonable explanation as to why Mr. Hyde was such an unpleasant man except that “He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why” (ch.1). This sort of sixth sense that everyone is having about this good looking devil is a mystic trait. The presence of evil could be detected and therefore physically felt by the characters and even the reader. This awareness can also be compared with what is said in the Bible
The prevalence of Evil: The Argument of Evil as said in the Sober text is the theory that if evil exists in the world, then there cannot be an all-powerful, all-kind, all-good (all-PKG for short) being that exists. This was the arguments most basic form and it left out several factors that are extremely relevant to the prevalence of evil on earth such as: human evil and natural evil, and soul-building evils. In Stevenson’s work we find that Dr. Jekyll is constantly in a battle with his own human evil. He is incapable of being a good person with the evil in his heart. However, this story takes a step further by personifying the evil of Dr. Jekyll through his experimentation with Mr. Hyde. The evil of Mr. Hyde resonated within Dr. Jekyll, so when he is still experiencing turmoil from an evil presence in himself this shows us that there is nothing to be done. He is naturally evil, and this is how the monster of Mr. Hyde begins to take over.
Continuing into the inevitable doom of humans and their incapability to do what is right and good. Free will.
