While reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for English class, I started thinking about curiosity. It is what made humanity great, what made us better than our stronger monkey brethren. Our invention of tools that suited our needs and the beginnigns of agriculture were all the result of curiosity, wondering how we could make our lives easier. From this incredible force, modern life sprung. But in the novel, curiosity is portrayed very differently. Jekyll simply cannot stop himself from drinking the potion he knows will leave him shattered in the end, simply because he would be eaten alive from the inside out by the need to know what would happen if he had drunk the potion. If curiosity brings us to new heights only to push us off the great elevation we stand upon, does this mean humanity was doomed from the start? Is it really possible for us to truly be happy, or will our need for knowledge be greater than our desire for peace? I can only hope we do not have the same tragic fate as the Doctor. I can only hope we were not created with such an inherent flaw. I can only hope we can accept our relative insignificance and stop feeling the corrosive, destructive need to possess the forbidden knowledge.