Analyse the methods by which Stevenson presents the duality of man in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

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Analyse the methods by which Stevenson presents the duality of man in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

         Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explores the duality of man; the good and the bad sides of human nature. The novella presents to us the psychomachic struggle of Jekyll trying to regain power of himself; however Jekyll’s attempts to do so fail. As a result Jekyll regresses into an uncontrollable grotesque monster: Mr. Hyde.

         Dr. Jekyll, a respectable noble man who had an “honourable and distinguished future” had always had problems with his multiple personalities. As a consequence, Jekyll wanted to hide one of his personalities, the evil side, from the “public eye”. Due to this, Jekyll, a scientist, conjures up a potion to separate both sides of his personality. However, his potion does not work according to plan and he is left with his evil side, over powering and dominating him. Jekyll’s evil side (known as Mr. Hyde) soon over-powers Jekyll completely, leaving Jekyll with no power over the switches.

         The structure of the novella is successful in sustaining the mystery of the novella owing to the fact that we as readers do not realize the nature of the mystery till the very end; that infact Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are one person. The exposure of the mutual personalities leaves readers to decipher the true colours of Jekyll and to comprehend why Jekyll did what he did and reflect upon his on going predicament.

         The axiom of the story is also equally as successful in presenting to us the duality of man and revealing to us that we as people all experience dual sides to our personality; good and bad. Stevenson shows us how even a “wise and good” being (Jekyll) can have a “secret double life” and also he shows us the battle of Jekyll trying to gain possession of himself and the difficulty and complications he faces through his struggle to overcome his dual personality.

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         We first become aware of Hyde’s existence when Enfield narrates an account of an incident in which Hyde was first seen. Hyde was seen trampling a young girl and was described as “displeasing” and “something downright detestable”. From this point onwards we are given the sense that Hyde isn’t a very nice person and he seems to be the incarnation of evil.

         The description of the door which precedes Hyde’s description is useful in preparing the reader’s sensibilities for Hyde’s nature because in the description the device of pathetic fallacy is ...

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