In the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was he morally right or wrong for trying to separate the good and evil parts of...

This is a very subjective question, and each person could arrive at a different answer. It might be best to look at why he could have been right and why he could have been wrong.

Morally Right?

Dr. Henry Jekyll knows that he has two sides to himself, and it is safe to say that he is not the only one who feels this way. He struggles to reconcile his two sides, even living a...

This is a very subjective question, and each person could arrive at a different answer. It might be best to look at why he could have been right and why he could have been wrong.

Morally Right?

Dr. Henry Jekyll knows that he has two sides to himself, and it is safe to say that he is not the only one who feels this way. He struggles to reconcile his two sides, even living a double life prior to the experiment. One could make the argument, although it may not be a strong one, that it is morally right for him to try and live a "true" life by splitting his two selves. One could also see this as a potential means of him controlling his "evil" side and vanquishing those demons—unfortunately, he doesn't really wish to control this side. Instead, he indulges it until it gets the better of him. So, the idea behind the science could be morally good if used to control the evil side, but he does not use it in that way.

Morally Wrong?

The more commonly held belief is that Jekyll's choice to separate these two parts is morally wrong. Why? We are all born with different traits, and in Victorian England especially, the argument would have been that if God created a man that way, then it was God's will. To separate those two selves, good and evil, could be see as going against God, both morally and genetically. The preferable reaction to his darker needs would have been for Dr. Jekyll to simply get control of himself and those carnal desires. Everyone else was expected to do so by going to church, living a wholesome life, and abiding by the rules of society. By going around all of those rules, one could say that Jekyll was morally wrong.