The Supernatural and Its Discontents in Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde David J. Goosenberg College

Dr. Jekyll and Victor Frankenstein decided to push the boundaries of science and take the supernatural into their own hands. Both of the scientists’ experiments yielded creations that got out of control, but the men had very different intentions in mind when creating these monstrosities, as well as having opposite reactions to the fruits of their labor. Jekyll created Hyde, his evil alter-ego, because it allowed him to live out his repressed indecent desires without feeling guilty about it, and this gave him the sense of youth and power that he lacked while living respectably as Dr. Jekyll. Victor Frankenstein had no intentions of creating an evil being, and was horrified immediately after doing so. Dr. Jekyll planned to create evil, and was delighted to live a portion of his waking life as the wild and remorseless Hyde, hardly feeling guilty in retrospect. Frankenstein was simply trying to bring an inanimate object to life, and was not ready to act as the creature’s guardian when he succeeded, causing it to violently lash out in hopes of revenge.

The skilled scientists both pushed the limits of biological science, but for different reasons. Victor’s mother passed away due to scarlet fever, and this greatly upset Victor, likely...