Clothing In Dr. Jeykll And Mr. Hyde

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“The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde,” uses clothing in a unique way is to focus in on the idea that there is an uncivilized side of humanity trapped inside formal civilization. However, this idea doesn’t become present until the last chapter when we learn more about the duality of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde. The story plays off the concept of good and evil and that is exposed between the two men. The clothing “covers up” the real intentions of good and evil and when we explore deeper into the concept of the clothing being “too big” or “fitting just right,” we are able to understand the idea of civilization in Robert Stevenson’s story. Dr. Jekyll performs a scientific experiment that he hopes will separate his light and dark elements from one another. Dr. Jeykll knowingly puts his life at risk and consumes a potion in with high hopes of discovering his hopes. However, the results were the opposite of his expectations and he actually discovered his evil side, also known as Mr. Hyde. These results came unexpectedly and his new counterpart, Mr. Hyde, reacts to the occurrence by stating, “I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs” (pg. 1681). The imagery of the clothes being too small on Mr. Hyde suggests that …show more content…

Jeykll even validates this idea from his experiment by claiming, “man is not truly one, but truly two.” The duality of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde exploits this assertion through the use of clothing of their individual beings combining into one. Human nature can be seen as something that has two sides to it, good and evil, and the evil side seems to be overlooked because the contrasting side is considered dominant. However, we notice that the uncivilized side of humanity or the evil eventually finds a way to take dominance. Humanity is not meant to be perfect, like some may think it should be. One way or another, there will always be some form of underlying evil intentions that will come to light and take dominance over what’s

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