An important idea that is relevant in today’s society is that all actions have
consequences. This has been shown through making reckless decisions,
greed and hiding our problems. These things have come to be considered
“normal” in today's society, although they tend to always have dire
consequences. The novella “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”
written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886 exposes problems of the past and
that are still relevant now. “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is the story of a Doctor who
wanted to explore his desires without being judged for it or harming his
reputation as an upper-classman in Victorian society. Though, in the end he
had to face the consequences.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, this idea is essential in today’s society
because people often make impetuous decisions and then sit with the
repercussions of those decisions later. Jekyll grew up in a wealthy upper-class
family. Which means he had to live up to many expectations, this caused him
to be unable to live out his immoral desires. These desires drove him to make
a potion to transform into Hyde and commit crimes without feeling any regret
or remorse. After a while, Jekyll began to lose control of his transformations
and was left with no other choice, suicide. Jekyll knew the risks of taking the
potion and yet he still did it for his own selfish reasons. This is important
because it shows that we should be mindful of the consequences or else it
could lead to unfavourable results.
Another example of the idea that all actions have consequences is that people
in today’s society do not talk about their worries and gruelling times. After
taking the potion for the first time, Dr Jekyll had fun not having to take
responsibility for his crimes. But after a while when he was starting to lose
control of the transformations and when he began to do crimes like killing Sir
Danvers Carew, he realised that he had a grave problem. Jekyll knew that
Hyde was a dangerous and evil man, but instead of asking for help or talking
to someone about the experiment, he locked himself in his room and started
deteriorating even more. This is important because teenagers, as well as
adults, often don’t