Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

1388 Words3 Pages

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

This novella, although unapparent, is intertwined with many

allegorical undertones. Stevenson uses the book to criticise Victorian

society and its hypocritical existence. The most significant thematic

concern of the novella is the continually revisited theme of the

duality of man and the camouflaged evil that lies deep within the

human race.

Stevenson was writing before the period in which the great

psychologist Sigmund Freud was researching the human mind, so in some

ways Stevenson was ahead of his time in resolving the 'mystery of the

mind'. Stevenson's novella, after being added to by his wife on the

book's revision, contained much evidence of these theories of the

human psyche.

Armed with this weapon, Stevenson used the novella to attack the

hypocritical ways of the Victorian society he lived in. The theme

plays on the idea of a part of the unconscious, the 'id'. The id is

the Hyde part of a human, which is of course repressed, undeveloped

and primitive, with the taste for hunting and sex. Then on the other

hand is the 'superego', your conscience and morality, with the

"floater" between the two, the 'ego'. Jekyll stresses that, "man is

not truly one, but truly two."

This all links to the theme of hypocrisy in Victorian society. Jekyll

admits, "...and it was as a secret sinner that I at last fell before

the assaults of temptation." Stevenson tries to reveal the double

lives that were being lived around this era. Some critics believe that

this is a self-confession of Stevenson's sinful past. Jekyll is the

perfect representation of hypocrisy, as he is described as the

"spotless Jekyll" yet continuously lying to Utterson and one could

argue, soci...

... middle of paper ...

...en to partake in his, "scientific balderdash".

One more symbol is apparent. The key to the laboratory is a symbol of

power and authority and in this case, the key holds satanic power,

therefore Hyde is the one who has the power to change back into

Jekyll. When Utterson and Poole search for the key and fail to find

it, they cannot overcome evil. This also means that they do not have

access to evil, as they are sinless in the story.

It is clear that Jekyll started with selfish intentions when he

strived for a better self, this is why the experiment only stripped

Jekyll of the Jekyll veneer, leaving the Hyde interior. And that

Jekyll is in fact a host for the constant bombardment of metaphors,

especially with hypocrisy as Jekyll represents hypocrisy and the

Victorian society itself.

"In Hyde, you have no Jekyll but in Jekyll, you always have some Hyde"

Open Document