Strange Ethics

The story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is quite a jarring expression of just how deeply ethics run through the human experience. The story of poor Dr. Jekyll, a deeply christian man who, like the Apostle Paul, was tormented by his inability to stay on the right moral path. Both of these men made the distinction that it was not their entire being that was bad but more so they simply possesed tiny elements of immoral tendencies. To think of Virtue Ethics, with the emphasis on forming habits in both cases, is quite interesting. It seems that morality weighs so heavily on people's conscience, as in the case of Dr. Jekyll, that they would do just about anything to rid themselves of the fear and guilt completely. 

Dr. Jekyll detests his immoral tendencies so he procures a potion that creates a seperate man from his original self that can run amuck without worries of moral issues. This other person, Mr. Hyde, being seperate from Dr. Jekyll should expel all the immoral tendencies so that Jekyll will not have to bear them on his consciousness. Yet something goes wrong and Jekyll begins to morph into Mr. Hyde even without ingesting the position. Though he thought the actions of Mr. Hyde would stay detached from him as Jekyll it seemed that the more he allowed Mr. Hyde out, to more his immorality became manifest in himself. This seems to me like an inverted type of Virtue Ethics. Pertaining to the habit building of good character traits, the building of virtue in ones soul, if you give in to your immorality, even in a clandestine way, habit will be formed yet it will not be virtuous. One must be virtuous in their intentions as much as they are in their acted deeds. If Jekyll had better intentions, rather than a clever scheme to rid himself of the guilt of his immoral nature, he would gain te strength as well to face them and deal with them in his intentions and his soul as well.  The intention of creating Mr. Hyde came from Dr. Jekyll -- this exhibits the inextricable nature of ones intentions and actions. 

The Apostle Paul on the other hand, unlike Jekyll, continued to work it out within himself through his writings. This is much less of an avoidance and certainly an example of clearer intentions in comparison with Jekyll's. This would be an effort towards building more virtuous habits in ones soul and not just in ones actions.