Dr. Henry Jekyll: Genius AND Fiend

Within the final two chapters of "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" we are enlightened to the specific circumstances of Dr. Henry Jekyll's case. I believe that two of those circumstances are of noteworthy acclaim.

1. Dr. Jekyll created his "potion" to help himself separate, what he believed, to be the two sides of himself.

As he said:
"I for my part, from the nature of my life, advanced infallibly in one direction and in one direction only. It was on the moral side and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both..." (Pg. 53)

This need to separate himself, is what I believe, to be his motivation for performing the experiment in the first place. In his thought process, Jekyll was trying to give himself freedom of guilt in any experiments that he performed in the future, seeing as one's 'evil' side is one that is not bound by the moral upstanding of the 'good' side.

2. Dr. Jekyll was in complete control of his actions when he took the form of Mr. Hyde.

This fact itself shocked me. I was under the impression that Mr. Hyde had his own persona, even if he did share the same body with Dr. Jekyll. This fact in and of itself makes me think of Dr. Jekyll as a fiend. In point of fact, he even admitted to committing crimes just because he could! Take this for example:

"Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, while their own person and reputation sat under shelter. I was the first that ever did so for his pleasures. I was the first that could thus plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty." (Pg. 56)

To sum it up:
The fact that Dr. Henry Jekyll was able to concoct a potion to separate the two essential sides of one's self, 'good' and 'evil,' is a feat that would not and should not be taken lightly. In that sense alone, Dr. Jekyll is a genius. But, if we look at what he did with that power, committing crimes, even to the point of murder, just because he could and would be able to get away with them, shows that Dr. Jekyll is a fiend; Dr. Jekyll should be locked up and never allowed to see the light of day again for as long as he lives. And this is why I say Dr. Henry Jekyll is both genius, and fiend.