Analyse how R.L Stevenson explores the issue of the Duality of Human Nature in His Novel "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"

Analyse how R.L Stevenson explores the issue of the Duality of Human Nature in His Novel “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on the 13th of November 1850 in the city of Edinburgh. As a child he had health problems, however, he still managed to become one of the most respected authors of Victorian adventure stories. After travelling through Europe, Stevenson returned to London where he wrote prolifically over the next decade. He won widespread admiration for writing “Treasure Island” a text that he wrote in 1883. “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” came out in 1886, it was met with tremendous success; it sold 40,000 copies in six months, this ensured Stevenson’s fame as a writer.

The main focus of this analysis is to address the issue of the duality of human nature in Stevenson’s novel “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. A definition of the duality of human nature is the two varying sides of a human’s personality, for example, good and bad.

At the time when Stevenson wrote “Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, Queen Victoria was on the throne. This period was a particularly unstable one in British history. The Victorian era began and ended in crisis, with constant economic difficulties. The nineteenth century was often concerned with the concept of a “double self” or a “twin”. This genre began with a narrative with a type of double when Mary Shelley created the novel “Frankenstein” in 1818. When “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” was written, people, especially authors, were concerned with the ideas of death and rebirth, urbanism, imperial decline, sexual revolution and sexual epidemics.

Slightly before the time when Stevenson wrote the novel, Charles Darwin had put forward his theories about evolution. His theory is the widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor. His general theory presumes that the development of life from that life and stresses a purely naturalistic “descent with modification”. Meaning that complex creatures evolve from more sophisticated ancestors naturally over time. Basically, as random genetic mutations occur with an organism’s genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival, a process known as “natural selection”. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism. At this time Darwin’s theories were highly controversial as he had been the only person to suggest such a thing. Many people expressed different opinions regarding his theories including Stevenson who may have used these ideas in the writing of this novel, including the way in which Jekyll slowly changes into Hyde.

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A significant way in which the two characters are contrasting is their appearance. According to the remarks made by his observers, Hyde appears repulsively ugly, deformed, small, shrunken and hairy. “There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable”. In this quote Stevenson has enhanced Hyde’s displeasing appearance by using alliteration, the letter “D” is repeated three times in quick succession to help the reader understand how much Hyde is disliked. His physical ugliness and deformity symbolises his moral hideousness and warped ethics. For the audience of Stevenson’s time, the connection between such ugliness and Hyde’s wickedness might have been seen as more than symbolic. Hyde’s small stature may represent the fact that as Jekyll’s dark side, he has been repressed for years, prevented from growing and flourishing. His hairiness may indicate that he is not so much an evil side of Jekyll as the embodiment of his instincts, the animalistic core beneath his socially acceptable exterior. The language that Stevenson has used to describe Hyde is very strong “repulsively ugly”, these words and phrases conjure images in the minds of the reader as to how Hyde may look, however, as Hyde is written about in such a negative light, the reader would directly link him with bad and evil, possibly relating to the devil. This would have been more significant at the time because of the strong religious beliefs held in that era.

Jekyll, however, in contrast, is described as being “a large, well made, smooth faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish cast perhaps but every mark of capacity and kindness”. Stevenson has described Jekyll in such a way because he wants him to appear kind and friendly as well as being easy on the eye “the large handsome face of Dr Jekyll”. The author has used language to describe him in a smooth and flowing way, which may be attempting to mirror his personality.

Stevenson has ensured that Jekyll and Hyde are highly contrasting characters. This is to symbolise an extreme version of a dual human personality. The ways in which they are described make it easy for the audience to decipher who is the good side and who is the evil side.

Another way in which the two are contrasting is their behaviour and their actions. Jekyll’s behaviour is very calm and collected even when he is put under pressure and asked about Hyde. “My position is a very strange- a very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking”. Jekyll rarely becomes angry or annoyed, however, later in the story, when he realises that he has turned into Hyde for good he becomes more desperate and distressed.

In contrast to the behaviour of Jekyll, Hyde is a very impulsive and violent character who is easily provoked to attack other people, which is an action that he carries out on a couple of occasions in the novel. “The two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner, then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground… it was hellish to see”. In the last quote Stevenson uses contrasting language “trampled calmly”; this is to make the attack seem even more alarming; making it seem that Hyde was unphased by the attack.

Above is a clear indication of their contrasting behaviours and actions, Jekyll is very calm and always thinks things through thoroughly before carrying out action. On the other hand, Hyde is extremely impulsive and reacts irrationally to situations where he cannot control his anger and keep himself calm. Stevenson has ensured that the personalities and behaviours of Jekyll and Hyde are directly contrasting so that the duality of human nature is clearer and easier to understand.

The final way in which Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are to be compared is the differing reactions of society towards them. Dr Jekyll is seen by society as a very pleasant, responsible man. Stevenson may have used the title “Doctor” to make him sound more important, more intelligent, more responsible and more respected. “A fortnight later… the doctor gave one of his pleasant dinners to some five or six old cronies”. This particular quote shows that he is a well respected character because he has thrown a dinner event and “five or six” people attended. There is also evidence of society respecting Jekyll at the point where he and Utterson are discussing Jekyll’s will “I only ask for justice, I only ask you to help him for my sake when I am no longer here…well…I promise”. In this quote Utterson has agreed to Jekyll’s terms due to the fact that he respects him and the decisions that he makes.

Again, Stevenson has made it obvious that the characters of Jekyll and Hyde are directly opposite to one another by the reactions of society towards them. “I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight, so had the child’s family… but the doctors case was what struck me… every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw that sawbones turned sick and white with the desire to kill him”. This quote shows that Hyde was severely disliked by society; it shows that because he has shown no respect to the girl that he had attacked, he was not receiving any respect in return.

Some of the main themes and issues put forward by Stevenson in this novel were issues that were relevant at the time when he wrote “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”; they are also issues that possibly concerned him at the time of writing.

The first theme is that of the duality of human nature. “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” centres upon a conception of humanity as dual in nature, although the theme does not fully emerge until the last chapter, when the complete story of the relationship between the pair is revealed. This ties in with the structure of a classic novel in the mystery genre in which the whole truth is revealed at the end, all of the separate events are merged together to create the overview at the end of the text. Therefore the reader confronts the theory of a dual human nature explicitly only after having witnessed all of the events of the novel including Hyde’s crimes and his ultimate eclipsing of Jekyll. The text not only posits the duality of human nature as its central theme but also forces the reader to ponder the properties of this duality and to consider each of the novel’s episodes as the reader weighs up various theories.

Jekyll asserts that “Man is not truly one, but truly two” and he imagines the human soul as the battleground for an “Angel” and a “Fiend”, each struggling for control. However, his potion, which he hoped would separate and purify each element, succeeds only in bringing the dark side into being. Therefore, Hyde emerges, but he has no angelic counterpart. Once unleashed, Hyde slowly takes over as Jekyll ceases to exist.

Another important issue of that time was urban terror. Throughout the novel, Stevenson goes out of his way to establish a link between the urban landscape of Victorian London and the dark events surrounding Hyde. He achieves the desired effect through the use of nightmarish imagery in which dark streets twist and coil, or lie draped in fog, forming a sinister landscape befitting the crimes that take place there. Chilling visions of the city appear in Utterson’s nightmares as well. The text notes that he would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city. “The figure of Hyde haunted the lawyer all night; and if at any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping houses, or more swiftly through wider labyrinths of lamp-lighted city and at every street corner crush a child and leave her screaming”. In such images, Stevenson points out Hyde as an urban creature, utterly at home in the darkness of London, where countless crimes take place, the novel suggests without anyone knowing.

In the novel “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, the author Robert Louis Stevenson has explored the issue of the duality of human nature by using the example of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson may well believe that every human has two sides to them, one good and one bad. In this novel he suggests that the bad side of human nature can easily take control if it is released as symbolised by the character of Mr Hyde. The story suggests that Stevenson believes that once the evil side of human nature is released, it can be controlled at first; however, it slowly takes control, and instead of being half of human nature, evil takes over completely.

In my opinion Stevenson has successfully explored the issue of the duality of human nature and fully expressed his views upon this subject as well as others that were relevant at the time this novel was written.

James Perryman