Freedom and "Freedom" in Jekyll and Hyde

A child defines freedom as a snow day, a day with no school, a teenager as no curfew. But what does an adult define freedom as? Many would call it being able to do whatever one wants; they would define freedom as something absolute. Dr. Jekyll learns the hard way, though, in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that absolute freedom is not freedom at all—it is slavery.
         Pope John Paul II defines the belief in absolute freedom as “an alleged conflict between freedom and law”1 that makes humans believe they have the right to define good and evil for themselves,2. It is the belief that true freedom is being able to do whatever one wants, be it a moral or immoral act. Dr. Jekyll originally thinks that his alter ego grants him the freedom to do what he could not get away with normally. He describes his first transformation as “a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not innocent freedom of the soul,”3. But it is only moments later that he realizes that his initial feelings were not truly the case, when he states, “I knew myself…sold a slave to my original evil,”4.
         Although at first absolute freedom seems like true freedom, it is in fact a belief that is contrary to true freedom. Absolute freedom grants humans the right to sin, and to be morally corrupted. It is “those who live ‘by the flesh’ [who] experience God’s law as a…restriction of their own freedom,”5. Those who give themselves the freedom to sin become addicted to sinning, addicts who are slaves to their vices. This is exactly what becomes of Jekyll (“my new power tempted me until I fell into slavery”6) when he becomes unable to resist allowing himself to turn into Hyde. Eventually Hyde grows stronger, and is able to take over Jekyll’s body without the aid of the potion. Thus, Jekyll is no longer able to control what has tempted him, and it has overpowered him, stripping him of his freedom. Jekyll reveled in Hyde’s existence because he was able to escape from the moral obligations he thought trapped him, but he wound
up a slave to what thought was his freedom.
         How though, can it be that true freedom involves law, God’s law in particular? How is it that they are not in conflict with one another, but complement each other? Since it has already been made clear that sin inhibits freedom, it can be logically inferred that morality promotes it. We must turn to God in order to know what morality is, for “the moral law has its origin in God and always finds its source in him,”7. But as Augustine has been quoted saying, “to be free from crimes’” is only “the beginning of freedom”8; we must go farther than simply behaving ourselves if we want genuine freedom. In order to have true freedom, we must have the truth, and truth can only be found in Jesus Christ. We are unable to resist becoming voluntary slaves to sin, so “consequently, freedom itself needs to be set free,” and “it is Christ who sets it free,”9. Because of our imperfect nature, we must seek help in finding the truth that will grant us our freedom, and it is Christ who is there to help us. We freely follow God’s will, and in doing so, are enabled to resist vice, which would shackle us. By seeking the truth in Christ and God, we gain the knowledge necessary to make our own choices without being coerced; it is the Lord who rids us of naïveté, so we can recognize what true freedom is, and work to attain it. Ignorance of what it is to be free would most likely lead us into a trap, as in Jekyll’s case. Pope John Paul II states it simply when he says, “Truth enlightens man’s intelligence and shapes his freedom, leading him to know and love the Lord,”10.
         It is easy for us to be confused as to the true nature of freedom, and almost all of humanity would assume that law would be something akin to the opposite of freedom. On the contrary, God’s law is what guides us to the truth, allowing us to release ourselves from vice and know what it is to be genuinely free. When we freely choose to follow the path of Christ and know the truth—when we allow Christ to set our freedom free—we put ourselves voluntarily on the path to following God’s will to our own salvation and freedom.

1: John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (8/6/93), 35. 
2: John Paul II, VS, 35. 
3: Robert L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Mineola, NY: Dover 1991), 44. 
4: Stevenson, Jekyll and Hyde, 44. 
5: John Paul II, VS, 18. 
6: Stevenson, Jekyll and Hyde, 45.
7: John Paul II, VS, 40. 
8: John Paul II, VS, 13. 
9: John Paul II, VS, 86. 
10: John Paul II, VS, Blessing.