Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Guilty of Manslaughter

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson. Sir Danvers Carew was a distinguished and honorable member of parliament, an upstanding citizen, and a decent man. His death was a tragedy. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Your honor and ladies and gentleman of the jury, we as the representation for the defendant Dr. Henry Jekyll, are here today to prove that Dr. Henry Jekyll was guilty of the manslaughter, not the murder, of Sir Danvers Carew far beyond a reasonable doubt. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The evidence shows that Dr. Jekyll created a potion that separated his most animalistic desires from his moral and righteous self. That new persona was witnessed by a serving maid murdering Sir Danvers Carew with an animalistic intensity. We intend to prove through evidence that Dr. Henry Jekyll could not have been able to predict the effects of his actions in turning into Mr. Hyde and that Dr. Jekyll as well as the separate persona of Mr. Hyde was insane and unable to determine right from wrong or consider the legality of his actions.

Dr. Henry Jekyll was in an insane mindset even when he began his experimentations that led to his creation of the potion. His ex-colleague, Dr. Lanyon stated that Dr. Jekyll "became too fanciful . . . wrong in mind." when he began his studies into "two natures that contended in the field of [his own] consciousness" and the possible ability to separate them with a chemical (p.77). Jekyll exhibited his own obsession and insanity when he began experimenting on himself with untested and dangerous chemicals; especially with the express goal of separating his own natural psyches. More importantly he demonstrated that his insanity lead to a loss of knowledge of the consequences of his own actions. He acted with reckless abandon in order to achieve the goal of separating the righteous and moral from the animalistic.

When Dr. Jekyll finally succeeded in creating an effective potion and then drank it himself, all of his values and qualities of righteousness and morality were completely suppressed. The result was an entire new persona named Mr. Edward Hyde. According to Jekyll's discovery, every man has two battling psyches, the righteous and moral, and the animalistic. Since Mr. Hyde only has one of these essential qualities of the mind, he lacks the abilities of a normal sane man. His actions are completely driven by a search for individual pleasure. Any virtues, morals, or compassions for the well being of others are completely suppressed by the potion. The concept of right and wrong is nonexistent within the mind of Mr. Hyde and the consequences of his actions in search of his own pleasure are not important. Edward Hyde's mind is the definition of criminally insane. He completely lacks the power to think in terms of legality or morality much less the power to act in accordance with either of the two. The eye witness' account to the killing of Sir Danvers Carew evidences the qualities of Hyde's insanity. The servant maid states that Mr. Hyde had acted like a "madman" and "with ape-like fury, was trampling his victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered" (p.46) completely unprovoked and without motive besides personal sadistic pleasure.

Noting that Dr. Jekyll himself compared his situation to one of a "drunkard" (p. 84), we may also look a past court ruling in the great land of England under the rule of her Majesty Queen Victoria. In 1887, Justice Stephen ruled in the case, Regina vs. Doherty, that "the intention of the party committing. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The facts of this case will show us that Dr. Jekyll, in an insane mindset, drank a potion which gave birth to an even more insane Mr. Hyde. Tragically, this persona killed Sir Danvers Carew. Any logical person will realize that Dr. Jekyll's actions led to the death of this great Member of Parliament. The evidence and the law will tell us that Dr. Henry Jekyll did not intend to kill Sir Danvers Carew nor can be held responsible for the insane decisions his mind made when drinking the potion, or the insane decisions of Mr. Hyde. Dr. Henry Jekyll thus is guilty of the manslaughter of Sir Danvers Carew but innocent of the murder of that man.