Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

                                                     Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

                 Lazy afternoon, but had to work – to get that job done. Wanted to clean the attic as it was in a bad shape for quite some time. I sat down to clean and dust my books, which had accumulated on the cover and the room had caught a little mold, which gave a little stink probably because of the fungus that had grown all around it. I began dusting books one after the other , and the dust exposed many favorite stories of my childhood. While cleaning the attic, the heaviest stack of books just fell down in front of me and on the top of the books was the book that flashed like a jet through my memory and the book was “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.

         This book had one character who had different shades – a good person and a bad character. There was the good Doctor Jekyll, who was this good doctor who did his work of treating patients and also lived a good life, was a Catholic fulfilling all his duties and the other character to come into his life was a more sinister person, evil to the gut . Along with his work, he was battling with evil urges that he wanted to do , and these were not befitting to a person of his nature.

    Years ago, I read this as a story and went through it, as a story. But now, after receiving and understanding the Catholic faith, things are a little different in the way I would see the story. You see,

Dr Jekyll is like the Catholic who strives for purity in life, and to keep himself in Christ. However there are temptations that influence a person to sin, and give up the robe of purity. In the case of Dr Jekyll, the devil increases his attack on pure souls who are continuously striving for chastity.

During his research, Dr Jekyll creates a serum as in a casual manner is his way of wanting to walk on the wild side and to express an animalistic behavior , but also to stay within the boundaries of civilized society, as he had a reputation to maintain being a highly esteemed doctor. Also was the theory that he believed that man had two sides – the good side and the bad side, like the soul and original sin, which we are bound by – the original sin that keeps dragging us back to the pit of evil and the soul pulling us towards God and Dr Jekyll wanted to separate the two sides and rid the world from evil.

Dr Jekyll speaks to the medical community about his theory and asks for a willing volunteer, but is refused by the Community. Dr Jekyll was experimenting with animals to see – if anything would happen but is left disappointed. He tries different options , one of them asking for a volunteer from an asylum, but is denied again. Finally, left with no option, he only has one person left to inject- himself and that is the only way for him to find out.

    So he prepares himself- the cotton swab rubbed with alcohol on the arm , and the needle pierces his vein releasing the serum into his body. As the serum circulates in the network of veins, Dr Jekyll waits …

anticipating the result. What would happen? He wondered. As the minutes passed by, the lights dimmed before his eyes and he blacked out.

  He regained consciousness after some time , and this time he felt a little weak and dizzy and got up to walk  and as he stood up, he saw the mirror in front of him where he saw a short dwarf of a man, with very ugly features and a hunch on his back. He screamed in fright, afraid who this man was and his fright gradually turned to delight, as he saw that he had discovered his evil side. Though he sweated a lot and was weak with trembling hands, and fell quite often.

So why was this so? Evil being so weak. This is not what we hear most of the time , as evil is promoted as a very strong force. So why the weakness?? The reason being that Dr Jekyll being a person of good upbringing and doing good deeds all his life had weakened the evil inside him. Just like Saints weakened the evil inside them by practicing prayer and good deeds. That is the reason a good Spiritual life is required. It is a weapon against the devil and the flesh.

Now that Mr. Hyde was let out, and he had got a hand in the world, and also as Dr. Jekyll knew this was an outlet for him to express his vile desires, he encouraged Hyde and supported him . Hyde goes around town committing all the bad things- gambling, robbing, fighting and sleeping with prostitutes. In the process, Jekyll enjoys his bad side as he sees all his desires being fulfilled. Things he desired to do in his life. When we give in to sin, it starts growing within us and starts consuming us like worms that eat on meat left decaying, the decaying being our carnal desires and the worms eating it up to get the nutrition to make them strong.

Hyde grew in strength from the evil he did and progressed to different shades of evil – each one darker than the next. Jekyll participated with him, but was able to control him with the serum as he turned back  to himself. But as time passed by, Hyde begin to transform on his own, and quite frequently.

Such is the nature of evil !!!  Evil habits and addictions take control of your soul, and start chewing on the strength of good. Dr. Jekyll got tangled in the web of evil as Hyde gained strength and started becoming the spider crawling around him. At first Jekyll enjoyed the desires , but with the passing of time started to lose his spirit for the things as he wanted a taste of bad things, but now he had come to a point where he was made to eat the whole dish, and he did not want it.

The same things that happen to sinners, as they fall into Depression, and resort to alcohol and drug to get rid of their depression. However, it leads them to further complications as these are temporary remedies. How many times have we come across rich men who have got everything in life, had done everything and still have an emptiness in their heart !!

Hyde was getting all he wanted, but still had despair in his heart as the evil was overcoming him. And the serum was the only thing that was stopping Hyde from taking over. There was a fight between two people now, to take over, and Dr Jekyll also discovered that the batch of serum had finished , and he had to order a new batch of serum which did not work, which meant that Jekyll could stay transformed as Mr. Hyde.

Could this serum be called Grace, in a kind of way? Because the serum that turned him to Hyde also turned him back to Jekyll. Grace is what we lose when we sink into evil , and are pulled slowly in the quicksand which takes us far away from the light, for God can try to save us, but if we don’t try back we go down … slowly towards the pit.

  But there is always forgiveness and Mercy of  God the Father, as he waits for every single child of his to join him in the Kingdom, with his son Jesus and Mother Mary and the Saints. The Mercy of God is infinite, where if a person jumping to his death repents could be delivered in nanoseconds to Heaven.

Poor Dr. Jekyll in his despair to avoid Hyde from taking over his body killed himself. Could he have repented in that time? Could he have received deliverance. Only God Knows.