The Prosecution of Mr.Hyde and Dr.Jekyll

                I am strongly for the prosecution of Sir Edward Hyde and Sir Henry Jekyll. To begin with, there is plenty of proof saying that he murdered this poor man. A woman witnessed him beating the man cruelly to his death.  After that, Mr. Utterson visited the house of Hyde and found the other half of the weapon. This all shows that Mr. Hyde murdered the man and should be fully blamed for doing so.  I do believe that although Mr. Hyde was “the one” who committed the crime, he wasn`t at total fault for it. Dr.Jeklly was the one who created him, and Mr. Hyde is Dr.Jekyll “evil side”. If he didn`t have the urges of doing wrong, this wouldn’t have been a problem. I feel that Dr.Jekyll is irresponsible since he knew there would ramifications for drinking this potion and he did not take the necessary precautions to prevent the events that followed by drinking the unknown substance.  Had he taken these precautions and had an assistant perhaps there would have been one less murder. Even if we put away Mr. Hyde, how do we know that Dr.Jekyll will not become evil himself one day and commit such an act. After hearing Dr.Jekyll's statement,we learn that we cannot just put one away without another. Mr.Hyde could come out whenever he pleases and we do not want to have to address this situation at a future date. Therefore, the only solution is to put Mr.Hyde and Dr. Jekyll in jail together.

Dr.Jekyll

    In “The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, the character I am most drawn to by far is Dr.Jekyll. The reason why is because he is very mysterious and gives a twist to the story. His character gives away a different feel then the others. He often hides away in his home, staying distant from the ones he is close with.  Dr.Jekyll has many mood changes throughout different times in the story. For example, he becomes friendly and sociable again and has many dinner parties while having a great time. Dr. Jekyll began a new fresh life after the disappearance of Mr.Hyde, but that only lasted for more than two months. After that Dr. Jekyll refused to see anyone again.  There are many other ways his mood has changed. He would be the happiest person in the world and then other times he would be mysterious and rude. I believe that Stevensen is trying to say people’s mood changes when science increases, and also others can be scared of one another’s friends.

"Story of the Door"

                Throughout the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, numerous moments give the readers an idea what they will be experiencing the rest of the book.  One moment that stood out to me when reading the chapter, "Story of the Door" was when Enfield is telling his story about the door to Mr. Utterson. He explained the man hard to describe and deformed I relate to that from reading Mental Illnesses in the 19^th Century as my pre-reading.

            I remember reading the chapter while Enfield explains his rare story he encountered. I keep in mind thinking how strange it was for people, including an 8 year old to be out at 3am. But people looked at the man weird because he bumped into the little girl. I can connect to this part of the story because I have judged many people before. Even though it`s not my place to judge how people act or dress, I still do. One thing I have judged before is, if I am out in public and I see a baby or a toddler out of control, I immediately assume their parents don’t take care of them right. I know this is wrong but it taught me a lesson on this first chapter. It shows that manners are very important in this time period, because all anyone cared about is how this man treated this little girl. Not that they were out at an outrageous time of morning.

Mental Illness in the 19th Century

            The article that I read was “Mental Illness in the 19^th Century” by Carrie Hughes. This article talks about how people first blamed witchcraft and demonic possession for starting mental illness. This caused people to be put into jail, sent to alms houses, or to remain home without any treatment. During the late eighteenth century “moral treatment” had become the common treatment in the United States. This treatment showed that insanity caused brain damage on the soft and fragile brain. After realizing this, doctors started removing patients to suitable areas where they could become healthier. Awhile after that, overcrowded hospitals caused treatments to be put on hold, where the ill continued to get worse.

            The central point of this article was to show you how doctors today treat patients differently then back in the day. It explained the difference of cures that they were lacking to cure the ill. Lastly, it showed the lack of care that humans had against the mentally ill.

            The reaction that I had against this article was, I felt bad for the people who had this mental illness. I also felt bad because many methods of the treatment did not do anything to the ill. In the earlier day, they would lock the sick up for doing nothing wrong but being in poor health. My other reaction was, I felt that doctors had no care for their patient which is wrong. Your patients should always come first, no matter how hard your day was.