Forever Together, Never Alone

Authors Note: This is a response to “Dr. Layon’s Narrative” from the novella Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Stevenson. I wanted to dig deeper on the concept of how when worse comes to worse we are not alone and how there is something deeper within us that bonds us all together. I hope you enjoy…

The intermolecular bond that unites us as human beings intertwines our souls; inevitably enslaving us to each other’s emotions through bonds that never can be broken. In the time of complete duress this connection strains and stretches but never splits. We are one. We are one in each other. We are one in each other through a network of unending support. The bond feeds our desire to be wholly good, the need to rid ourselves of evil. Throughout the novella “Jekyll and Hyde” Stevenson utilizes the idea of the interlocking connection between us all to prove how no matter how hard the struggle someone is willing to help because of the natural bond that instinctively draws them in.

Steven portrays this bond through Dr. Lanyon as he instinctively must help his friend. In a time of complete duress, when it seems as if no one is there for him, Dr. Lanyon’s colleague cries of one final call for help. After receiving his request Dr. Lanyon quails “Upon the reading of this letter, I made sure my colleague was insane; but till that was proved beyond the possibility of doubt, I felt bound to do as he requested” (96). As maturity settles in, the bond becomes stronger, inevitably changing our actions to revolve around the wellbeing of others rather than the desires of ourselves. We are enslaved to ruminate upon each other’s requests and fallow through for them. As a connected body of human beings no one is ever alone because through thick and thin, good and bad, light and dark, we are one.