Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Analysis

Before science could dawn in the new era, curiosity had to infect the mindset and the culture and the professions of Victorian society; Stevenson bases the plot of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on the curiosity of the Victorian Era society. Dr. Jekyll admitted on the subject of his inspiration, “It was thus rather the exacting nature of my aspirations than any particular degradation in my faults, that made me what I was, and … severed in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man’s dual nature” (Stevenson 54). Dr. Jekyll was more driven by curiosity of the unknown rather than the specific desire to be split, and this deeply reflects the general sentiment of the Victorian Era. Scientists in the Victorian Era were pioneers; they did not have a guideline of the best

… Victorians were curious about so many things, and both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert supported the curious in ... science, history, art, medicine, and even the supernatural” (McClymer). Stevenson’s work undeniably draws on the inquisitive attitudes towards science and medicine and the supernatural during the Victorian Era, and Dr. Jekyll’s self experimentation is not the sole contributor. Stevenson also drives the plot with Dr. Lanyon’s curiosity to see Mr. Hyde’s transformation and Mr. Utterson’s desire to pull away the secrecy of his friend, Dr. Jekyll’s, will, and he starts it all with Mr. Enfield’s quizzical gossiping with Mr. Utterson on what he calls ‘the Black-Mail House’. All of these have a common trait -curiosity- which may seem positive; However, as one source points out, “just as our curiosity encounters a certain lack of control … the Victorian’s similarly associated curiosity with disorder. The phrase ‘down the rabbit hole’ functioned both as a metaphor for an entry into the unknown, and a disorienting or mentally deranging experience”