Can’t hide from Hyde

At one point in the classic Robert Lewis Stevenson Gothic novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry Jekyll quotes from this week’s Epistle reading. The first time Jekyll takes the potion and finds himself becoming Hyde he says, “I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life to be more wicked—tenfold more wicked—sold as a slave to sin.”

In Romans 7, St. Paul talks about two selves, in a sense, warring within. An inner conflict between good and evil. “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave to sin.” (7:14) That’s the passage Jekyll quotes.

Despite its being 137 years old, the story is incredibly engaging and chilling. It prompts the reader to ask fundamental questions about human nature in general, and their own nature in particular. The answer we get in the story (confirmed in Romans 7) is that Stevenson is right in his pessimistic view of human nature—we can’t hide from Hyde—but that’s where the story of Jekyll ends, leaving the reader bereft of hope. Stevenson stops just a few verses too early. He accurately diagnoses the problem, but misses the solution.