“If I Am The Chief Of Sinners, Then I Am The Chief Of Sufferers Also Essay

In terms of this curb, I think that its rugged for me to place Jekyll as a fire sinner or a complete sufferer due to the varying influences of the other char goers, the society of the time and the drug that Jekyll uses. My opinion of him tends to fluctuate by dint ofout the book. Certainly, some of the language employ by Stevenson flowerpot be rather grotesque at times and at others, heart wrenching. As the storyline progresses, the lecturer becomes more aware of what has happened to the reputable Dr atomic number 1 Jekyll and how his vitality sits turned upside down. However, our suspicions are besides totally digested in Dr Lanyons Narrative and Henry Jekylls statement of the gaffe. Through the story, Jekyll dis admits acts of recklessness but alike kindness and surprising self-control at times. Its these episodes, mainly in his statement of the case that I will analyze in order to draw a conclusion about his character and to what extent the title quote is true.I bel ieve that the quote If I am the main(prenominal) of sinners than I am the chief of sufferers in like manner essentially refers to Jekyll transforming into Hyde. By all the pleasances in the lifestyle that this change brings, Jekyll has completely gone against G-ds will and the laws of disposition (being the chief of sinners). This leads to Jekyll also being the chief of sufferers i.e., hed neer forgive himself for the massive sin that he commits. In his eyes and also those of society, he crowd out never be redeemed. It also relates to the physical suffering that he has to endure, such as the pangs of transformation, mentioned five times throughout Jekylls avouchment of the Case.For me personally, during the time I have been studying this book, one sentence has stuck out in my mind, the truly last sentence of the bookHere then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.(Pg76, Last 3 Lines)This, moments beforehand Jekylls suicide, is his last plea for forgiveness, his last expression of suffering. I think that this crystallises any sense of suffering that has taken place and been felt by Jekyll. However, not always has Jekyll been so remorseful. Many a time he would transform to go and do all the things society wouldnt have let him do. However, twain Jekyll and our discernment for him come crashing down to earth when we learn that as Hyde, he crushed an innocent(p) little girl under foot and even perpetrate murder on the kind, peaceful Danvers Carew.These two events were the trigger offing line indication that Hydes actions were getting out of Jekylls clean control and, particularly in the case of the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, display Jekylls recognition that any(prenominal) crimes Hyde commits, will have repercussions for himAt this moment, however, the rooms bore every mark of having been recently and hurriedly loot(Pg28, Line 22)This describes the scene that greets Utterson and Inspector Newcomen of Scotland Yard as they visit the Home of Mr Hyde. Clear evidence of a rush to overturn the place and destroy Hydes chequebook containing evidence of some monetary transfer. In The Story Of The Door, during the incident of the little girl being crushed, a chequebook was also used by Dr Jekyll to provide compensation, this may be a subtle clue that Stevenson gives us in order to provide a link between the two incidents and the use of the chequebook may stand for Hydes return to Jekyll who then tries to undo what Hyde has through with money.The use of language here gives the reader a put on impression that the last occupier of this room wanted to leave very quickly ransacked is a word synonymous with quick careless desolation of a room and this is supported by it having been both hurriedly and recently. I believe therefore, at this point, Jekyll has regained his body and consciousness once again and erudite what hes through with(p), wants to escape Hydes residence as quickly possible, he realises that hes promptly the chief of sinners having commited murder. Hyde will have a warrant for his arrest, the result of which would most certainly be the death penalty, something that would clearly affect Jekyll also.I believe that Jekyll didnt want to be burdened by the majority of the problems that came with his dual personality. However he didnt have the willpower to control them, due to his dependance to the potion that he took, and the pressures of society that gave him some sort of pleasure from being able to break free from the bonds of every day life.Certainly, I dont think he was right to commit some of the atrocities that he did however, had he been in a different time or a different part of society, then some of the attractions that enticed him to Hydes life such as prostitution and violence may have been more acceptable and this sort of unpredictable transformation may not have been necessary. We, as the reader mustin ess constantly ask ourselves whether Jekyll actually has any control over his actions at any given point before we blame him directly for what he does.Our first impression of Jekyll as Hyde appears during the first chapter as Enfield describes the trampling of the little girl to Utterson. The description certainly sets us off on the wrong foot, although at the time, we arent well informed as to Hydes real identity, it gives us a certain dislike even before the story has begun to properly develop or we have the chance to discover the characters more intimatelyIt wasnt like a man it was like some damned juggernaut(Pg9, Lline 27)The first striking thing here is the use of the word damned to emphasise Enfields point. Damn, undoubtedly perceived at the time the book was written, an age without socially acceptable swearing and profanation, as a relatively strong word. at that placefore, Stevensons use of this word, in Mr Enfields description of Hyde, brings crossways a particular effi cacy of his knowings of dislike towards him. So already, we have a strong sense of shock at this character, simply from the strong language used to describe him. The use of the Juggernaut description is an effective example of personification. One thinks of a braggart(a) Romanesque ship, famous for using a large pole at the bow to ram the antagonist ship and sink it. The context in which this quote is used certainly is appropriate to that. It describes how, who we now know to be Hyde, trampled over a young girl, as if in a trance or rammed into her as a Juggernaut does.The above quote, relating to the trampling event certainly lowers the kernel of humanity the informed reader would feel for Jekyll, this is relatively early on in the book, before, as far as we are aware, that Hyde has started to take control over Jekylls actions. Therefore, we can lead that what has taken place has been mainly caused by Jekylls consciousness as opposed to Hydes. Jekylls neediness of remorse, un til he has been threatened with losing his reputation certainly loses him sympathy from the reader and the event in general doesnt make Hyde holdm any more angelic at any rate.For the uninformed reader, its difficult to state whether we feel sympathy due to our apparent lack of knowledge of the story. However, whoever or whatever this monster is, again, we certainly dont feel sympathy for him.The fact that Hyde is described as not like a man also dehumanises him. We see, throughout the book, many instances of Hyde being dehumanised, compared to monkeys and other animalsHence the ape-like tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning the letters and destroying the portrait of my father(Pg75, Lline 11)This has a heavy(p) effect on the readers cognition of him as we begin to think that he isnt civilised at all, the laws of society do not apply to him and therefore he is subhuman, no reform than the dirt on our shoe and certain ly, we should be glad for him to have any misfortune. It would be unthinkable at the time to write blasphemies in the pages of a sacred scripture and from Jekylls sentimental point of view, to destroy his letters and his fathers portrait would be a massive sin, certainly one that hurts him all the more because he knows that the only reason Hyde does these things is to cause even more misery and fear for Jekyll acts which gain sympathy from the reader for Jekyll and increase our abomination towards Edward Hyde.Early on in the book again, during the chapter Search For Mr Hyde the reader is introduced to Hyde, the language Stevenson uses to describe him shapes our responseMr Hyde was nauseous and dwarfish the man seems hardly human(Pg19, 2nd Paragraph)The description of somebody as pale and dwarfish could good be interpreted as one of somebody who is weak however we know Hyde possesses superhuman strength. In this instance, the description is more benighted than deprecating, it b rings to mind an evil hunched being which as a first impression makes the reader feel fear or hatred towards him, no sympathy. We also hear Hyde speak to the first time and react to this. An informed reader would become frustrated with Uttersons inability to see the link between Hyde and Jekyll, which intrigues us further. Whatever we know, this description of Hyde certainly isnt that of a man you would particularly like to meet in a dark alleyway.A somewhat twisted and gruesome specimen, again, as I have said, Stevenson dehumanises him as he does throughout the book. In this particular instance, he uses Uttersons impression of Hyde to get the message across the man seems hardly human. Stevenson often uses the narrative of other characters in order to describe Jekyll or Hyde. At this stage in the book, it is still difficult for us to tell whether we feel sympathy for Dr Jekyll due to us knowing very little information. However, a connection between Jekyll and Hyde is now forming in our head, the mind runs rampage.By the third chapter, Dr Jekyll Was Quite at Ease, we are getting our suspicions of Dr Jekyll having a connection with Mr Hyde confirmed. Still the other characters in the book cant see this though. We are now getting the impression of Hyde as Jekylls apprentice, a man who is well thought of by the doctor. However, Jekyll is not particularly willing to conversation about HydeI do not care to hear more, said he. This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop.(Pg22, 3rd Paragraph)This rather soon chapter describes a party, hosted by Dr Jekyll in which Mr Utterson brings up the topic of Jekylls will. Jekyll is extremely quick to dismiss the topic as taboo approximately. This does a split up to advance the suspicions of the reader as to the secret dealings between Jekyll and Hyde, still we dont have enough information to understand the entire story however, behind it is leading us to the correct conclusion, it is merely a matter of time (i.e. the rest of the book) until the would-be detectives discover this conclusion as well. We are certainly suspicious at this point however, not well informed enough to draw a conclusion in terms of sympathy for Jekyll.The chapter The Carew Murder Case describes the wildcat murder of Sir Danvers Carew, a man held in high regard by those who knew him. What makes this event even more shocking is that it is witnessed by a rather innocent young maid and its discovered that the perpetrator is Mr Edward Hyde, a piece of evidence is found linking Hyde directly to JekyllMr Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde but when the nog was laid before him presented many years before to Henry Jekyll(Pg26, 6th Paragraph)Using the information known from the previous chapters, the reader is source to build up a picture of what is going on here. A connection with Jekyll, a murder, were feeling a serious lack of sympathy for Jekyll here, one of his associates has committed murder. The more informe d reader realises that this is in fact Jekyll in his Hyde guise, in which case even less sympathy is felt, Jekyll has reached a new low in his alter-ego form.As we learn later on, the original objectives of Dr Jekyll were to separate good from evil, it could bring fame and fortune and do a lot of good for humanity, very innocent aims make with a good heart, every person across the planet could show simply their good side to others and the world may at last be at peace. It was due to his selfishness and I use the term selfishness loosely however, that led to his demise. Some may argue that Jekyll was simply an addict and that he was hooked onto whatever this potion was and yes, this is easy to see, as with any drug that gets you high, he experienced feelings of pleasure, happiness and freedom.Personally I think we can sympathise with Dr Jekyll in a lot of respects, however, things did go out of hand for him. Once murders were being committed, it did sink in that perhaps the transfo rmations should stop, he managed this for a while, returning to his old self, he notice it and his friends noticed it. However, despite deep and utter resentment, it wasnt long though until his hunger for what he had once experienced returned, and he gave in to his desires. Jekyll was addicted and in an act of extreme selfishness carried on fetching his doses of potion. He recognised as soon as he took the potion, that he had given in to his addiction and that there was now no going back for himThe pangs of transformation had not done savage him, before Henry Jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse, had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to G-d(Pg 70, thirteenth Line)Jekyll doesnt strike me as a particularly religious person, by the very nature of the experiments he was conducting and the results he was hoping to get through, he was going against every moral value of the church, however, he even tried praying for forgiveness to try and make up for w hat he had done on a spiritual level, what he had done obviously bothered him so much.This act of prayer casts Jekyll in a completely different light to that of the crazed scientist looking for an impossible cure to an as impossible problem. This is quite a milestone in the book because it is because of this act that the reader realises the desperation of Henry Jekyll and the fact that he is now trying to, through any means possible, prepare himself for anything he might come up against. He isnt by any means justifying what hes done but he now knows that he will never again be able to stop himself from taking the potion. It is the catalyst to his eventual demise. Certainly pangs and tearing make this seem like an extremely painful and distressing event, the use of onomatopoeia (tearing) sends a shiver down the spine of the reader and makes us feel sympathy for what Jekyll is going through, it is worse than any injury we could ever have.Eventually, as the potion begins to consume Je kyll, taking over his consciousness, it is realised that he is truly on a slippery slope as predicted from the last quotation. However, there is a point where the potion becomes too weak for his use and the analogy with common modern day drugs continuesOnce, very early in my career, it the potion had totally failed me since then I had been obliged on more than one occasion to double and once, with infinite risk of death, to treble the amount(Pg 68, 4th Line)He increased his dose, even with risk to his own life, so that the concoction would still be effective. At this point the reader pities Jekyll for the situation that hes got himself in. The hardest thing for any addict is to give up their drug and although its a different situation here, with enough willpower, Henry Jekyll could have summoned up the courage to try and banish Hyde invariably however he refused to, taking larger doses of potion and sealing his fate instead. This loses him a lot of sympathy with the reader because of his lack of courage and strength, instead resigning to the fact that he will never escape Hyde and so he better learn to enjoy his alter ego.The last chapter, Henry Jekylls Full Statement of the Case gives us the greatest insight into the how the mind of Dr Jekyll works and last-placely gives the reader the full story so that we can finally find out for ourselves what events took place and we can piece together the chain reaction that resulted in the deaths of Dr Jekyll, Dr Lanyon and Sir Danvers Carew. We can also see the changing moods of Dr Jekyll as events unfold from the narrative that he gives us, after all, this chapter is meant to be a letter written by the man himself, one of the rare times we can get an insight into what he did and the fully detailed results of his actions.The fluctuating consciousness of Dr Jekyll while he is Hyde, i.e. the change in control that he has over his actions can easily be seen to change as time goes on from the comments that he makes about his experiences. At the beginning, when he starts taking the potion for the first few, experimental times, he is unsure what to expect.There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet.(Pg 62, 3rd Paragraph)These were the first experiences of Jekyll in the form of Mr Hyde. It was as if it was something completely surreal and, he likes it At this point hes completely oblivious of what is about to happen in the future and as far as he knows, hes made a scientific breakthrough, hes changed his persona into something completely different. At this point the reader can celebrate with Jekyll we can wonder in amazement at his achievement, we can join him in his happiness and elation. This all gives us a sense of support, that we are following Jekylls progress with a keen eye and certainly wish him well. Certainly we, as the reader, dont want anything bad to come out of this, no side effects, no evil being taking over his bodyTherefore, when we eventually realise the true identity of Hyde, and the problems he has caused Jekyll, it is worse than our greatest nightmares, no one could wish this kind of pain upon anybody, even our greatest enemy. But as I have said, the reader wants Jekyll to succeed in what hes doing, his intentions are great so, a setback of this scale to put it mildly makes us feel very sympathetic for Jekyll, he will never be able to achieve his dreams.Dr Jekyll eventually began to realise that perhaps this new found freedom comes with a side effectI felt younger, lighter, happier in body within I was conscious of a heady recklessness(Pg 62, 3rd Paragraph)He feels youth again however, feels along with the physical ease of youth, a sort of care-free human beings in which anything is ok. Gradually this freedom gives Jekyll a desire to exploit it, he doesnt understand it however and he finds it particularly welcoming. When the informed reader takes this quote into account, we start t o lose some of our sympathy for Jekyll because he is describing that despite the fact that he feels a lot better than before he took the potion, he knows that he is also feeling somewhat mischievous. Despite knowing that problems may occur for him or others, he decides that this potion is something he is going to want a lot more of in the future. It can be argued however, that he couldnt possibly know the extent of the mischief that he would get up to yet, in his particular society, any misbehavior would be frowned upon, if only he had the common sense to realise the potential of his freedom and stopped himself at this early stage.I knew myself, at the first glimmer 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(Pg 62, 3rd Paragraph Pg 63)At this point, a lot of the elation and respect we might have had for Jekyll practically disappear, what is this, he enjoys feeling e vil inside him, he welcomes it? The key phrase here is that he is sold a slave to his original evil it is like selling his soul to the devil, as if he almost recognises the path that he is taking from there on. I think we lose a lot of sympathy that we may have in the future because of this, he can see that things may go sour but is willing to take the risk and go ahead with his experiments purely because he is enjoying it, it is as if postcode else matters to him.If the reader was at all confused before the final chapter as to the fact that Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde could possibly have been the same person, the murder of Danvers Carew gave more than enough clues to confirm this theorywhen the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer broken and battered as it was, he recognised it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll(Pg 26, 5th Paragraph)This is referring to the weapon used to murder Sir Danvers, a stick that had been brought upon Carews bo dy with such force, it had split in two. It was one that Mr Utterson had presented to Dr Jekyll many years before and was evidence, if we hadnt already guessed that Henry Jekyll had an obvious affiliation with Mr Hyde. Once again, sympathy levels for Jekyll drop however, we have to bear in mind, that by this point, Hyde may have been in control of Jekylls actions more than he knew, it might not have been possible for Jekyll to stop this murder taking place but the reader is still shocked and excite by what has taken place. However, as we can see from Jekylls statement of the case, he was disgusted by what had taken place and he realised now that this had to stop once and for all. It was either that or to face the scaffold for the crime that had been committed, there was a witness to it who could identify Hyde as the murderer.Jekyll realises that murder is the final straw, finally his common sense kicks inThe problem of my conduct was solved. Hyde was thenceforth impossible whether I would or not, I was now confined to the better part of my existence and O, how I rejoiced to think it With what willing humility, I embraced anew the restrictions of natural life With what sincere renunciation, I locked the door by which I had so often gone and come, and acres the key under my heel(Pg 70, 27th Line)Once and for all, Jekyll had given up enough Hyde, although he hated having to return to his mundane old self, he simply couldnt risk ever becoming Hyde again, it was too dangerous. As Jekyll says, becoming Hyde would never again be possible, he hated it but he would have to remain as Jekyll for ever more. With extreme displeasure, he locked the door to his laboratory and ground the key under his feet. This surely would stop him ever wanting to transform again. Now the reader feels proud of his good will, his commitment to giving up his addiction and once again feels sympathy for his situation, at least hes making a conscious effort to redeem himself. However, this mo mentary peaceful existence does not continue, Jekyll misses the freedom he experienced too much and gives in to his pang of desire.As himself, I dont think Dr Jekyll meant to cause the constipation that he did, but under the influence of Hyde, he caused great evil, his apparent lack of self control makes him accountable for all the actions that he carried out, it requires a large degree of naivety to stretch on with what he was doing, knowing full well that his actions were likely to be more and more serious, even, as the book says, beginning to long for more disruption, more evil to be caused.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 to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless(Pg 68, 2nd Paragraph)I think a certain amount of sympathy can be felt for Jekyll and his impossible situation, he was faced wi th a huge decision, he enjoyed being Hyde so much, he was addicted to it however, if he was to carry on transforming, eventually, there would be no way to reverse the effect, slowly, by this point, Hyde was taking over his mind and body. Either he stopped being Hyde forever and lives a somewhat disturbed life with a constant longing to turn into his alter-ego or, stop being Jekyll and run a life of evil, with no friends and hatred all around him. He chose to continue giving in to his desires until the last traces of the once prominent gentleman Henry Jekyll had disappeared and in an extremely sad final paragraph, in a tone of extreme despair finally recognises that his life is slipping beyond his grasp.