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b'Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Themes"As we think in our hearts, so are we."(Proverbs, 23.7)\\ufeffThe TwinsMost cultures have a fascination with the phenomenon of twins. Jekyll and Hyde can be understood to be a strange type of twin.\\xa0Castor and Pollux were twins in Classical Mythology, both had the same mother (as would be expected): Leda, but each had a different father. Castor\\u2019s father was Leda\\u2019s mortal husband and was thus mortal, while Pollux was the son of Zeus, and thus an immortal. When push came to shove and Castor was killed, Pollux shared half his immortality with his twin.\\xa0We see in Tolkien, the half-elf brothers Elrond and Elros choose their kindred, Elrond to be an elf and thus immortal and Elros to be human and thus to die. In fact the symbol of the twins runs through our culture: Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus, Osiris and Set.\\xa0Very often one is bad and the other good. Most often, stories about twins involve a moral choice.\\xa0The psychologist Carl Jung felt this motif revealed an archetype in human nature itself.\\xa0Jung (Collected Works XX, 217n) mentions the old apocryphal legend that Jesus (the believer) was twin to Thomas (the doubter).\\xa0Chevalier and Gheerbrant (trans. John Buchanan-Brown) in their Dictionary of Symbols (1994, p1047) talk about different pairings of twins; one dark, the other light, one good, the other evil, and they say that they represent the contradictions in a person\\u2019s nature and his or her moral struggle to overcome them.\\xa0Stevenson\\u2019s discussion of this theme addresses the morality, but as well as being philosophical, he manages to demonstrate it through its human and dramatic aspect and show the suffering that such a struggle within a person\\u2019s nature can bring.It is not so simple as good fighting against\\xa0bad. Jekyll wants to be both evil and good at the same time and to enjoy his evil with no penalty. His solution is to create, or more correctly, liberate Mr Hyde. Jekyll gets away with his guilty, but tempting pleasures while he can, but when he fears that Hyde will cause him to be punished, he tries to do away with Hyde, but he has fed the beast too much and it has grown too strong, and in the end, it is Hyde\\u2019s evil that proves the stronger. Rather than sharing his immortality as Pollux does for Castor, Jekyll chooses to share his death with Hyde, killing himself and thus killing them both.The idea is that in each of us is a mortal and an immortal part. They are always together but never completely one. We see this in Castor and Pollux but also in Jesus and the Christ, who were both man and god in the same body. We see a version of it where Jekyll is the mixed man, very mortal, fond of both his sensual pleasures and his pious reputation, and Hyde who is uncombined, younger, more vital, his senses sharper, but wholly made of shadow.\\xa0The ElixirStevenson\\u2019s Tincture that changes colour and foams and bubbles has been portrayed many times on the television and movie screens. You can even get your own alcoholic version in The Alchemist bar in Manchester and now elsewhere.It does seem to link back to the Elixir of Life of the Medieval and Renaissance alchemists, which they also called a \\u2019tincture\\u2019 in that it is transformative. The Elixir of the alchemists could reputedly turn lead into gold, bring that which was dead alive once more and transform man into god.Jekyll\\u2019s elixir turns man into monster.\\xa0It is also interesting that in an old Irish story, the druids gave the great warrior C\\xfa Chulainn an elixir of forgetfulness so he would forget his love for a woman who was not his wife and therefore not fall into sin. In a sense, Jekyll\\u2019s elixir allows him to forget his moral natureSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you\'re glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'