Our Decisions Matter

Often we are faced with decisions in our lives that require us to reflect on our values to really decide what is right and what is wrong. While we may know what is right, it can be difficult to choose that path at t specific situations. For example, for college students it is known that drinking before you are 21 is illegal and should not be done, however, college students find themselves wrestling with this decision on a regular basis. Now, taking a look at the story of Jekyll and Hyde, this is a small wrong compared to the sins Hyde was committing. However, what we can learn from this story of Jekyll and Hyde is that while everyone wants to believe that they can choose the right thing in all situations, there is a voice in the back of our heads that make us contemplate choosing right from wrong. Hyde represents the person in each of us that does not always choose the right thing- the person that truly makes us believe choosing the wrong decision will make us happier. It sounds crazy, yet we all as human beings can relate to this feeling and find ourselves, at one point or another, in a situation like Jekyll and Hyde.

Taking a look at the different classic characteristics, it can be stated that Jekyll throughout the novel expressed signs of consequentialism. He was focused on the final result. He wanted immediate gratification when taking the poison to rid him of his own conflict and solve it through his evil self “Hyde.” This decision making process proved to be faulty and ultimately resulted in the destruction of many people’s lives. This decision-making process and story that came from it depicts the tragedy and domino affect that one person’s decisions can have on the people around them. While each of us may make decisions based on a different classic category, everyone can feel the affects of our decisions. That is powerful. When we choose to base our decisions off our own virtues, we have to understand that others are affected through that whether they have the same vales as us or not. When we make decisions based on others or an external source of authority, this again will have a domino affect even to the people that are not involved. Finally consequentialism, as made apparent through Jekyll’s decision making, has a drastic affect on those around the decision maker as well. Jekyll’s decision to find instant gratification in taking this poison resulted in deaths of his friends as well as himself. 

Our decisions affect others. The way we live our lives matters. This is an amazing gift that we each need to remember when we are making decisions. We have been blessed with the opportunity to create our own lives and tell our own story through our choices. However, if we do not have a conversation with our inner selves, we will make decisions that could yield a situation similar to Jekyll and Hyde, ultimately loosing site of who we are.