Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Authors Avatar

This novel written by Stevenson in 1886 is a highly gripping story, which provoked the religious and moral thought of people in the Victorian era. Dr Henry Jekyll, a scientist and a dearly respected man seeks to discover his inner self through a potion.  Jekyll believes in the “duality of man”: indeed; “man is not truly one, but truly two.”  He seeks to take the evil within him, leaving him truly good. However, this leads to a tragic ending as the potion “unleashes” the “beast” of Hyde; that he cannot control the monster within himself. Through the curiosity of Mr Utterson, a lawyer and a very good friend of Dr Jekyll, we learn of the ugly and violent Mr Hyde and his odd connections with Dr Jekyll.

The Victorian society held many anxieties. For example, Charles Darwin and his theories surrounding evolution, contained within his publication The Theory of Evolution.  Darwin’s claim was that all humans evolved from apes. This was very much disapproved of at the time, especially amongst the educated classes and religious world of Victorian England; because they could not accept that people as civilised and rational as them could possibly have anything to do with animals.

Religion also contributed to disapproving this theory. This is because England was at that time predominantly a Christian country. They believed that the human race began with Adam and Eve and that our purpose of life is to glorify our Lord. Nevertheless, Darwin’s claims left doubts in the hearts of (even) the religious people and soon this became a weak point in the Victorians. In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde we are told in The Carew Murder Case that Mr Hyde beats Sir Carew with an “ape-like fury”. This is very effective because this phrase emphasises the fear that Darwin created in the minds of people.  “Ape-like” has clear overtones of Darwin’s prognosis, drawing specifically upon his idea to strike further fear into his readers.  Suddenly, Stevenson is able to blur the lines between fiction and reality.  Darwin’s theory, coupled with Hyde’s “ape-like behaviour”, would have struck people’s imagination, daring to visualise the horrific reality of humans being tainted with such brutal and animalistic behaviour.  He painted our worst fear: the regression of humanity, and the satanic consequences of this happening.

Join now!

Hyde’s “ape-like fury” also relates to another weak point of Victorian society. Sigmund Freud was a psychologist who studied the sub-conscious mind. He claimed that the human mind was essentially made of two components: the conscious and subconscious mind.  This directly reflects the earlier quote for Stevenson merges Freud’s idea in the “duality of mankind”.  According to Freud, the conscious mind is where humans have capabilities to reason, contain rationale, and store our values, beliefs and conventions.  All our hidden urges, dark desires and monstrous thoughts are suppressed into our subconscious mind.  The fear was that if the subconscious ...

This is a preview of the whole essay