In this story Jekyll’s house is described as being “grand and having an air of wealth and comfort”. This mimics Jekyll’s personality as he is portrayed for the reader,” a large, well-made, smooth-faced man”. The description “smooth-faced man” gives the impression that he is not only hiding his age but also the secrets that come with age. We get the impression that he has something to hide right at the beginning of the story; I believe that through this Stevenson gives us a hint that Jekyll has some thing that he wants to keep hidden. His house however has a backdoor which is described as “blistered and distained”. This, I believe represents Hyde. It shows just as the backdoor is completely different from the front, Hyde is the complete opposite of Jekyll. He is described as “some damned Juggernaut” about him whereas Jekyll is described as fair. Another way they use doors is to suggest some thing hidden as in “behind closed doors”. Utterson finds that when Hyde is staying in Jekyll’s house in his place he stays in the cabinet with the doors closed to hide him self. I also feel this idea of two sides is also used to mimic what was going on in Victorian society at that time. They were pretending to live one way of life while living a different one altogether.
Many types of gothic novels especially from the Victorian era use the monsters to represent certain fears of the society.
In the time period this novel was written there were many fears of using science to try and play God. The Victorians believed you shouldn’t try and use science to change, or try and duplicate what God has created. That is why I believe that the monsters that are used in gothic novels of that time period, such as Frankenstein and this story, where creations of scientific experiments in which the scientist tried to play God, have gone awry. In Frankenstein the scientist was trying to create life, and his creation, after taking the lives of those close to him ended up destroying him. In this the scientist tried to split his good and bad side and the bad side ended up consuming the good, and again he killed innocents. I feel another purpose behind this is to say that even if we could play God we don’t have the power to control what we might create.
Stevenson’s monster is a representation of disfigurement and the dark side of society. Hyde is portrayed as the personification of bad and the opposite of Jekyll who is supposed to be good. He is first portrayed as deliberately evil and uncaring but as we read the story we begin to see Hyde as a desperate and confused man.
As we go through the book he is described more as bottled frustration waiting to be set loose and the tool of Jekyll’s darkest desires. He was created by Jekyll for just that purpose so he could dwell in the things that pleased him but society frowned upon while his public image of Jekyll did not get blemished. This is a mimic of how society functioned in that era, by day they were one person and by night someone totally different.
This story is told through different forms of narrative, first it is told from the point of view of Mr Utterson who is confused by the whole scenario and is trying to piece together what is going on and figure out what kind of hold Mr Hyde has over Jekyll. Automatically assuming that Jekyll couldn't be in the wrong as he is portrayed as good and that they could not be friends because they are the complete opposite of each other. This carries on until near the end as we see Utterson find clues and try and piece them together, all the time getting more and more confused. Then we are told the story for a while through the point of view of Lanyon who was a friend of Jekyll’s and a fellow scientist. We are then given the final part of the story from the point of view of Jekyll, leaving us to put together the information and come up with a conclusion for ourselves.
I feel in this novel Stevenson tries to mimic society by using the split personality of Jekyll and Hyde, which is emphasized by the two entrances to his house, to show the mixed views of people from that time period. He also voiced the fear of most of the society through his monster Hyde, who is created through science but cannot be controlled. I believe not only does he express the fear of science going wrong, he also expresses the view of not playing God, by showing that man might not be able to permanently control what he creates, which is shown by Jekyll loosing control of the transformation to Hyde. He also tries to explain that the good and evil parts of us are what make us who we are and instead of trying to separate them and risk losing control we should embrace them and try through our actions, to let the good side prevail instead of using science to destroy us while trying to do well.