time Throughout human beings have always been two faced. There is a side they show to the world, and another dark inner being that they keep to themselves. It isnt necessarily a totally different other person, as Mr. Hyde is to Dr. Jekyll, but a compilation of peoples deepest fears, annoyances, and desires. Things so dark and heinous that they fear if found out their entire persona and reputation will be lost. They will lose al their family and friends and be left alone to brew in their dark side. Some people would hide behind a mask in order to reveal this dark side, like Bruce Wayne. Although from an outsiders view some peoples inner being may not be a sinister as their owner thinks, but others might be so horrible that they could be considered sick and a problem to society. Many people have different ways of expressing these inner desires, some write them, others put it into their work finding a way to express themselves, some wear a mask or take on another persona entirely. In comparing Batman Begins Written by David S. Goyer and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louise Stevenson we can look in to two ways to oddly similar people divulge their inner psyche. As Mr. Utterson said "With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two." Chapter 10, pg. 104. In Batman Begins we are shown the beginning of Bruce Waynes life as a child. We witness his first confrontation with the thing he fears most, bats, and the truth of human mortality. We witness the death of his parents and then his rambunctious up bringing. His life was turned into a quest for vengeance, retaliation for his parents death. We watch as he trains with a higher order of ninjas bent on a quest to cure
mankind of all its impurities. The fuel his need for blood but in being told to kill a helpless farmer, he retaliates and kills the leader and burn down their Dojo. We see him back in Gotham and are told of the reason for his departure from Gotham in the first place. How he had learned about how corrupt his beloved city was. He had planned on killing the man that killed his parents on the murderers release; he did not get the chance. Someone else killed the man and he felt he was robbed of the only thing that kept him going. His childhood friend shows him the ,,leader of Gotham, a crime boss who used his power and money to make crime really pay. He confronts the man and they have a verbal fight, the crime boss shows Bruce the power he has by telling him that he would kill him in an instant. "Only those who know me, kid. Look around you: you'll see two councilmen, a union official, a couple of off-duty cops, and a judge. [Draws a handgun from beneath his jacket and points it at Bruce] Now, I wouldn't have a second's hesitation of blowing your head off right here and right now in front of them. Now, that's power you can't buy! That's the power of fear." After this encounter Bruce flees from the city and tumbles into a world of crime in what seems to be a third world country, not unlike a rural sort of Japan. He is arrested and that when he is ,,rescued from the prison by a ninja from the League of Shadows. Bruce trains with them, then flees back to Gotham after destroying their training house. He rescues the man that saved him from prison because he was his friend. Bruce then learns what he must do and decides to take on the form of a bat. He gives his reasoning when he says, "Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies share my dread." In the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde we arent totally sure what is happening to a friend of our narrator. Mr. Utterson has a friend who is a scientist who goes through a
bout of solitary confinement. No one hears from him for months and around the same time a man by the name of Mr. Hyde pops up. Mr. Utterson had be requested to write the will for Dr. Jekyll, saying that if anything happened to him that all he owned should be given to Mr. Hyde. No one knew who this man was, but most everyone who laid eyes on him hated him so deeply that just being around him made them sick. Mr. Hyde is most well known for an incident that happened in the evening, he was walking and ran into a little girl causing her to fall and injure herself, in stead of stopping to help her he keeps walking a nearby man stops Mr. Hyde and calls the girls parents. Mr. Hyde pays the family and then leaves. The next time we hear about him a maid witnesses him beating an old man to death in the street. The cops are on a manhunt for the man and no one can find him. At the same time Dr. Jekyll also disappears, his help tells Mr. Utterson that he has locked himself awake in his laboratory and refuses to come out, but that if Mr. Hyde should emerge at any time to obey him as if he were the master of the house. In the last chapter we are told the true horrors of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We learn that they are actually the same person. Dr Jekyll had cured a potion that brought out his darker nature. He believed that all people were made of good and evil, but that Mr. Hyde was pure evil. Mr. Utterson takes this information with him to the grave. The similarities between these two works are not that substantial. Besides the fact that they take place in very different times, they are two totally different genres. Despite the differences in the story the essence of the message is the same. And oddly enough so are the main characters. They are both well-educated upper men of society who have a dark secret they dont want to share with the world. With Batman Begins
we see his progression into forming his ,,altar ego while in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde we are told of the progression from a third party. These two characters share the same desire to reveal their inner egos. Both of the stories have a dark feeling; most of the important scenes take place in some sort of dark place. It gives the feeling that their inner souls are also dark and not appealing. The biggest similarity of these two works is the main theme. The theme that all humans have a darker side that they hide from the rest of the world. Of course each is portrayed differently one being an evil criminal, the other a hero, but they get their point across nonetheless The difference between these two pieces in the superficial light is substantial, but the core of the two stories is essentially the same. The core meanings of the stories are the same, but they use it differently. In Batman Begins we see the transition of Bruce Wayne into Batman, when someone first meets Bruce we are not too pleased. Batman is a childhood hero and we all have this image of purity and goodness but we get to see the tortured soul that breaks forth and forms ,,The Bat. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde looking at this mans split personality can be very scary, we see a vary smart iconic scientist who develops this ,,potion that transforms him into a heinous creature of the night. All of the darkest parts of humanity are portrayed in this one man, anger, hatred, and jealousy. Just one look at him and you feel pure unadulterated hatred towards this man for no reason. The reason we are so compelled to hate him is because, as been mentioned before he shows us the worst of humanity. Batman does not do this, Batman is an icon for us, someone we can hold up and say, and "I want to be him." Bruce Wayne however does not see it this way. He sees this other half of him as
someone to hide, for multiple purposes to protect the lives of those close to him, and to protect his own life. The movie Batman Begins could help someone understand the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because Batman is a more modern story that doesnt have the hardest hidden theme to find. The majority of people who grew up when superheroes were at large have at least heard of who Batman is, and if you havent it wouldnt be that hard to find some information on him. There are so many comics, cartoons, and movies about him that it would take a quick trip to the bookstore or a click of the mouse to find a plethora of information. All people who are fans of Batman know his inner psyche, the reason he choose bats and his childhood. Ask anyone about Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde and very rarely you will find someone who knows the actual story. There has of course been a musical and a movie that used the idea of this person, but they stories are so far off from the original that you lose the inner meaning. Bruce Wayne helps you understand Dr. Jekyll because they are both such similar people. They are both well educated intelligent men who seem more cut off from their peers than most of their esteem would be. They also share their own dark secret, although their alter egos a fairly different, they share the same darkness that both men want to hide.