Mr. Hyde is
the dark side of Dr. Jekyll; he is part of the same man, and the two share a body. In death,
then, only one body is found.
The darker side of Dr. Jekyll eventually takes
over and the man completely becomes Mr. Hyde. This is why in the end the dead body of Hyde is
discovered wearing the clothes of Dr. Jekyll.
Earlier in the novel, Dr.
Jekyll develops a chemical mixture that allows him to separate his moral nature from his immoral
one because he has wondered if he could indulge his dark side without the pangs of conscience.
However, what Dr. Jekyll has not figured is the fact that with each action, the darker side
develops, and soon the evil grows inside Mr. Hyde until he commits a murder. Then, when he
attempts to return to his better self, he finds that he cannot. Desperate for more of his
potion, in the persona of Mr. Hyde, he has Dr. Lanyon procure the drugs from his laboratory.
When Hyde takes the potion and begins to transform right before Dr. Lanyon, Lanyon is horribly
shocked. He dies shortly thereafter.
The horror, then, in this tale of the
secret of Jekyll and Hyde is that both parts of this man are trapped; they each fight for
dominance over the other.
This brief condescension to my
evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul...
writes
Jekyll in a letter. This is why Hyde/Jekyll dies when the good side tries to rid itself of the
evil side.
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