Essay on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Dr. Jekyll

Submitted By rachelfreed
Words: 571
Pages: 3

Good or Evil People picture a certain image of what they want to be, but not everyone can do what they want to in life. If you want to do something that seems impossible, you have to work for it. Dr. Jekyll from the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and the speaker of the poem “A Song in the Front Yard,” by Gwendolyn Brooks both picture a totally different life they would like to live. The personalities of Dr. Jekyll and the speaker of the poem are very similar. They both do the right thing, even though their minds tell them to do something different. Dr. Jekyll was born, “fond of the respect of the wise and good among my fellow-men” (Stevenson 78). Jekyll was a good friend of many including Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Utterson. He was prosperous and always did the right thing. The speaker of the poem has always done the right thing in her life as well, but she wants to do the opposite. The speaker of the poem says, “I want a peek at the back” (Brooks). To her, the back is the most wonderful place. The back is where, “it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows” (Brooks). In the poem, they are comparing the front yard to tamed life. Normally, people keep their front yards very neat and organized because that is the first thing people see when going to your house. She has only been introduced to the front yard where there are roses and everything is nice. The backside is compared to the dirtier and mysterious side, which is what the speaker of the poem wants to live in. Jekyll also wants to see this “back side.” Jekyll has seen the back side, but not as himself. His darker half, Mr. Hyde, is violent and cruel. He is the total opposite of Dr. Jekyll, yet they are the same person. Jekyll lives out his contained evil through Hyde. The speaker of the poem wants to go to the back because she wants to do something different in her life. She wants to go