Nick M.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde as interpreted by Nick M.

A common theme among Gothic novels is "Life at all costs" and this is no exception

in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr Henry Jekyll, the protagonist of the story, was willing to take risky experiments with his own life, just to feel younger and youthful. Towards the end of the novel, in his letter to Utterson, it is revealed that Jekyll began taking this potion that he himself developed. This potion would effectively transform the elderly Henry Jekyll into a smaller grotesque creature, that of Edward Hyde. As he continued to make these transformations, he began losing control of when he would switch forms, yet Jekyll continued to take the pills because he had so long desired for that feeling of life that Hyde presented to him. Jekyll writes in his letter, "He had now seen the full deformity of that creature that shared with him some of the phenomena of consciousness, and was co-heir with him to death: and beyond these links of community, which themselves made the most poignant part of his distress, he thought of Hyde, for all his energy of life, as something not only hellish but inorganic" (Stevenson 122). Also, throughout the story, Jekyll began ignoring his friends, the people who cared for him. The more he ignored them, the more they became concerned for him and investigated what was up with him. They were too late, as by the time they discovered that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person, Jekyll had died, and they had lost their friend. Jekyll had become so devoted to feeling younger that old age was not what killed him, but enjoying a youthful life did.

In today's world of professional sports, there are many athletes, particularly baseball players, that try to better their game with PEDs, or performance enhancing drugs. The main PED that was used by baseball players until the testing for it became more advanced, was steroids. These athletes that used steroids knew that the drug was damaging their body. Yet they were so set on being the best of players they didn't care. One player in particular was Mark McGuire. McGuire was constantly accused of steroid use in his playing days and constantly denied it. When he had to speak in front of Congress, he refuse to talk. This affected his social life after his retirement; he would hardly ever be seen in public. In 2010, McGuire decided he couldn't take any more of the problems that came from denying steroid use and came clean about it. Yet, for over a decade McGuire had to sacrifice his body and the life of a normal person just to be the best baseball player he could be.