This week our readings were The Mortal Immortal and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Two of the main themes that were present in both were the ideas of life and death, and good and evil. In Mortal Immortal you see the idea of good and evil being played out through Winzy who works for a famous alchemist that in real life, some viewed to be doing the work of the devil. You also see the struggle between good and evil being played out with Winzy deciding to drink the potion or follow the alchemist’s instructions and leave it alone. The life and death struggle in this story is extremely easy to see. Because of his choice to drink the potion, Winzy becomes immortal putting out of reach of life and death but not his wife. While he cannot die he has to look death in the face every day as he watches his wife age and eventually die.
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the good and evil struggle is clearly seen as you find out that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are one in the same struggling for control over one body. Mr. Hyde is a vile, evil man and Dr. Jekyll can be seen as a good man whose interest in science caused an unintentional consequence. Because of this good and evil struggle over one body Dr. Jekyll decides that death is the better choice than being Hyde permanently so he ultimately makes the choice to end his life and the life and death struggle.
I can't imagine being the character Winzy as he is forced to watch is true love grow older and older while he basically stays the same age. I don't think WInzy knew what he was drinking would make him immortal, like Kelsea said. I wonder if he knew that what he was taking would make him stay the same age forever, if he still would have chosen to drink it. I know that I would hate stay the same age while everyone around me was getting older. However, if we all could stay the same age together, my answer might be different.
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