The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The novel ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in the Victorian era, which had a very different culture from today. The book was first published in 1886 in England and it brought success to the author. The Victorians had strict moral codes to live under as middle class people and had to be well respected to be considered as a good person. The character’s reputation emerges throughout the novel as an essential tool to success in the society of the era. Another Victorian value expected of them was to live a life without any sin and to obey the Bible as literalists. However, this only prompted people to keep certain thoughts secluded, behind closed doors instead of eliminating them.

Stevenson explains to the reader that humans have lots of different sides to each other and not just one. The final chapter of the novel, ‘Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement Of The Case’ explores the ways in which the author presents Victorian attitudes to the nature of humans. He also explains how duplicitous humans are, which means how people often have two separate approaches to their life. The duality of man means the two sides of the person’s mind and is most apparent in, as the title suggests, the characters ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. The separation of Jekyll into two beings, Jekyll and Hyde, is an analogy for humankind’s conflicting forces of good and evil. These characters bring to life the inner struggle between the two powers of the soul. Dr. Jekyll asserts that ‘man is not truly one, but truly two,’ within the book to illustrate the theme of the novel and to help describe Mr. Hyde to more rational people such as Mr. Utterson.

Jekyll portrays the good side of human nature in this narrative. He is the protagon...

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..., but truly two’ could be considered with a number of meanings: civilisation versus savagery, good versus evil, or religion versus science. All of these were significant to Stevenson and are asked rhetorically throughout the novel.

I think that the structure of the novel contributes to the development of the themes effectively, as they do not emerge fully until the last chapters. By giving us several narratives in the book, Stevenson provides stronger evidence that this is a realistic novel instead of being a one sided fantasy. Stevenson also does this to develop the characters independence and shows layers within the book where each character is missing parts of the information, leaving us to piece together the true story and answer the unsolved questions. He interconnects the duality of many characters and scenes of the novel to contribute to its dual theme.