I think one of the most prevailing themes in literature is the idea of good and evil. As a human race we have created mythologies and belief systems centered on this innate desire to know what it means to be good or bad. Many of our origin stories center on the idea of good and evil, in a Christian society we are introduced with this idea through the famous Adam and Eve and the tree of knowledge. This story has created a shared representation of evil to christians, the serpent and the apple. We have folktales about good and evil, like Red Riding Hood, the sweet and innocent girl on a trip to visit her grandmother and is stalked by the Big Bad Wolf. There are fables with moral purpose like the boy who cried wolf, which warns children against lying and paints the horror that would happen when you become a liar. There are even stories like Hansel and Gretel which is a tale of innocence being taken advantage of by evil veiled under the guise of something sweet.
Our folk tales of old tend to make the answer pretty simple, innocence vs. evil. As we have gotten more complicated as a society so too has our ideas of good and evil. There are no more burning bushes or the direct wrath of God sending you locusts to eat your crops that tell you if you are doing the right or wrong thing. Philosophers have written on the subject, questioning the nature of man and whether he is intrinsically good or bad. There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer to these questions and now our literature reflects that. One of the modern stories that poses this question is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This story represents one of the shifts in the struggle of good and evil because the answer there isn’t exactly simple.
Dr. Jekyll is not strictly good because Mr. Hyde is an extension of his own evil that lies within. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shows what it means to be a real person with real motivations that aren’t as simple as following the word of God or Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder as your moral compass. Sometimes people can’t explain why they commit evil and as we have changed over time we have to find a way to rationalize our evils.
I don’t think we’ll ever stop questioning the nature of our existence or let go of the desire to figure out good and evil. Our stories will continue to ask the question that may never get answered: Who will win in the end, Good or Evil?
Brit Lit 2020 