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The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde And Heart Of Darkness

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Jasmine Ngo Period 4 AP English IV Thesis: In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Heart of Darkness both Kurtz and Dr. Jekyll demonstrate the ambition for a higher calling from society by crossing the boundary of limitations to exercise the impulses that society restricts. Both Kurtz and Dr. Jekyll reject the rules of society to pursue a life of savagery. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll desires to relive his past events that are considered unfit of society, creating Mr. Hyde to do so without getting caught and losing his high reputation. Dr. Jekyll allows his evil side develop as “his temptation of a discovery so singular and profound, at last overcame the suggestions of alarm” (44). Dr. Jekyll lets his curiosity take over his moral judgments by creating a potion that allows him to switch bodies from himself to Mr. Hyde. The emphasis on his temptations being his only and most important ambition gives him reason to create another persona to satisfy his desires. Consequently though, Jekyll acknowledges that “a current of disordered sensual images running like a mill-race in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul” will be the cost of breaking the rules of society (44). His decision alludes to chaos through the imagery of disorder when being free from responsibilities, but he sees the disorder as something positive and enjoyable. For him, it may be a way to get out of his

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