The Intoxication of Temptation

Author’s Note: While reading the last chapter, I kept relating Jekyll’s potion to alcohol. It almost seemed as if Jekyll was addiction to his potion was like an alcoholic would be addicted to alcohol. When drinking, we leave our reasonable self behind and embrace our wild, reckless side. When describing his feelings of his darker side, he explains, “I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil; and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine” (107). I tried representing Jekyll’s two sides, his addiction, and his death through a story of an alcoholic.

While her lips pressed against the glass’s opening, her seventh shot left a stinging, tingling sensation as it slid down her throat. The room fogged, clouding her mind. A current of youth flooded her soul, but not one of virtue. She was touched by the hands of evil that had, since then, been held down by resist. Once innocent and tied down by perfection, nothing lived up to her expectations. Now liberated, set free, unleashed, she slid into the comfortable recklessness of destruction. Here, in this state, she was set apart from her reality. Finally lured into the enticement of intoxication, all morals, all lessons learned were left behind in the body of her more stable, perfect self.

With all principles vanquished, all that remained was the inner devil craving the very substance that never fully quenched her thirst. Desiring the weight of disappointment and innocence to be lifted, she fed this dark, wild side, fostering its strength. As this devil continued to drain the perfection built within her sober side, it left her unsatisfied; wanting more. Hungry for further irresponsibility, her brighter side was enslaved by the reins of her darkness. With these frequent surrenders, she began to wonder whether her so-called perfect side always contained this slice of wickedness. Wherever it came from, it persistently devoured her.

What once brought her ease and freedom, now imprisoned her. What once granted happiness and pleasure, now left her miserable, depressed. With this total loss of control, there was no good left to hold on to. Before the temptation could completely consume all that was left to save, she took its life by sacrificing her own. With one final sip, she drowned what remained of her split soul.