Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: proportion of good and evil
Opposition of good and evil - is eternal theme. And it may be eternal question: can good get along with evil and how? In the Stevenson’s novella “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” one can trace the process of interaction of these spiritual categories.
Dr Jekyll - a honest man and respectable doctor - supposed (and not without reason) that a man contains both of these essences. He has made up his mind to check how it’s to be negative part of human nature. He explained his wish by very simple and understandable thoughts… Our world is an arena of fight of good and evil, when real opposition takes place in the heart of every man. As every man is not perfect some his qualities are not perfect too. Dr Jekyll had foibles which he didn’t want to talk about. He satisfied them but as we finally knew these passions worried him and gave psychological and moral inconveniences. Then he thought that if he could separate one part of him, good, from another, evil, it could help to resolve the moral problem and duality. And he gave the chance to his evil part to show itself. But as we could see the evil part became stronger and forced out the good one. Why?
That’s the question! And that’s the attempt to clarify this.
In order to be bad there no need in many efforts because you should think only about yourself. To be good needs more efforts: you should not only think but take care about many people. And - it’s very important - evil has momentum, good is always effort and it has counteraction from evil. If man will do nothing he’ll come to the state of absence of good. What is absence of good? - Evil. And if you decide to help evil then your attempts will be successful quite soon.
The story of Dr Jekyll certainly describes what can happen with man who tests the evil. Dr Jekyll didn’t resist to evil, moreover, he helped the evil. And failed. And Mr Hyde won.
Speaking about proportion of good and evil in man I try to imagine what we should keep in ourselves both categories for. Good is to be good; evil is to be bad. Man is creature who should develop himself. So if you want be good you have to develop good qualities. Why should you keep evil inside yourself? To resist to it inside you except of external evil, yes? I don’t think so… Good and evil have different ways and aims; they can’t get along with each other. Somebody can say that without evil there is no good, but it is delusion. Good is good, evil is absence of good. Feel the difference? So, good can exist without evil and should be without evil. Somebody can say that “ordinary” human pleasures (as to smoke, to sleep, TV watching, cards playing, free sex etc) are practically harmless and can’t bring man to state of evil. But if to look at these and only these activities (correctly speaking “de-activities”) in long term of time - to what point they bring man? I suppose it’s to spiritual death.
You shouldn’t be perfect in evil. For evil it’s enough if you stay in place where there’s no good. And on the contrary for good you should develop yourself till perfection.
So, you don’t need to include both these essences. Firstly and mainly you should develop your good side. Why?
If evil is absence of good then man should fill himself with good otherwise evil will spreads like a rust and man will be filled with some shit. And if you don’t worry about your spiritual condition and moreover give ‘condescension’ to evil it eats you like has eaten Dr Jekyll. Look at his words:
“There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul. And yet I was not alarmed; the fall seemed natural…”
The fall seemed natural! You even don’t notice how you will fall and will keep on thinking that everything is ok. And everything will be ok in comparison with people and occurrences around you - thus evil will tell you. Because your eyes will be covered by self-calming (something like “everybody does this and what?”) and self-justification (something like “it’s not me who begin this…”). At first steps. You even can do some little ‘good deeds’ for conscience’s sake. But for evil all of it is like a balm. If once you will have to make choice between good and evil, to resolve some real moral question it may happen that you can’t do it, because your spiritual state will be relaxed and weak. And evil will just smirk (it can’t smile)… Evil makes man weak, spiritually weak of course. And after that man becomes the slave of his passions and fears. If to do good deeds and bad deeds - what can this mean? - nothing; you create something and destroy something. There is no development.
So, what’s the next? What should man do to cope with destructive action of evil? Way is only one. It’s spiritual work. No self-calming, no self-justification, only joyful movement toward the good. Because every relaxation gives chance to evil to sow the seeds of doubt in our right affair! -)))) Good leads to freedom. And when you are free it becomes easier to resist to evil.
Dr Jekyll - a honest man and respectable doctor - supposed (and not without reason) that a man contains both of these essences. He has made up his mind to check how it’s to be negative part of human nature. He explained his wish by very simple and understandable thoughts… Our world is an arena of fight of good and evil, when real opposition takes place in the heart of every man. As every man is not perfect some his qualities are not perfect too. Dr Jekyll had foibles which he didn’t want to talk about. He satisfied them but as we finally knew these passions worried him and gave psychological and moral inconveniences. Then he thought that if he could separate one part of him, good, from another, evil, it could help to resolve the moral problem and duality. And he gave the chance to his evil part to show itself. But as we could see the evil part became stronger and forced out the good one. Why?
That’s the question! And that’s the attempt to clarify this.
In order to be bad there no need in many efforts because you should think only about yourself. To be good needs more efforts: you should not only think but take care about many people. And - it’s very important - evil has momentum, good is always effort and it has counteraction from evil. If man will do nothing he’ll come to the state of absence of good. What is absence of good? - Evil. And if you decide to help evil then your attempts will be successful quite soon.
The story of Dr Jekyll certainly describes what can happen with man who tests the evil. Dr Jekyll didn’t resist to evil, moreover, he helped the evil. And failed. And Mr Hyde won.
Speaking about proportion of good and evil in man I try to imagine what we should keep in ourselves both categories for. Good is to be good; evil is to be bad. Man is creature who should develop himself. So if you want be good you have to develop good qualities. Why should you keep evil inside yourself? To resist to it inside you except of external evil, yes? I don’t think so… Good and evil have different ways and aims; they can’t get along with each other. Somebody can say that without evil there is no good, but it is delusion. Good is good, evil is absence of good. Feel the difference? So, good can exist without evil and should be without evil. Somebody can say that “ordinary” human pleasures (as to smoke, to sleep, TV watching, cards playing, free sex etc) are practically harmless and can’t bring man to state of evil. But if to look at these and only these activities (correctly speaking “de-activities”) in long term of time - to what point they bring man? I suppose it’s to spiritual death.
You shouldn’t be perfect in evil. For evil it’s enough if you stay in place where there’s no good. And on the contrary for good you should develop yourself till perfection.
So, you don’t need to include both these essences. Firstly and mainly you should develop your good side. Why?
If evil is absence of good then man should fill himself with good otherwise evil will spreads like a rust and man will be filled with some shit. And if you don’t worry about your spiritual condition and moreover give ‘condescension’ to evil it eats you like has eaten Dr Jekyll. Look at his words:
“There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul. And yet I was not alarmed; the fall seemed natural…”
The fall seemed natural! You even don’t notice how you will fall and will keep on thinking that everything is ok. And everything will be ok in comparison with people and occurrences around you - thus evil will tell you. Because your eyes will be covered by self-calming (something like “everybody does this and what?”) and self-justification (something like “it’s not me who begin this…”). At first steps. You even can do some little ‘good deeds’ for conscience’s sake. But for evil all of it is like a balm. If once you will have to make choice between good and evil, to resolve some real moral question it may happen that you can’t do it, because your spiritual state will be relaxed and weak. And evil will just smirk (it can’t smile)… Evil makes man weak, spiritually weak of course. And after that man becomes the slave of his passions and fears. If to do good deeds and bad deeds - what can this mean? - nothing; you create something and destroy something. There is no development.
So, what’s the next? What should man do to cope with destructive action of evil? Way is only one. It’s spiritual work. No self-calming, no self-justification, only joyful movement toward the good. Because every relaxation gives chance to evil to sow the seeds of doubt in our right affair! -)))) Good leads to freedom. And when you are free it becomes easier to resist to evil.