How did the 'Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appeal to the collective consciousness of Victorian Society

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How did the ‘Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appeal to the collective consciousness of Victorian Society?

        In the Victorian Era many people were indeed superstitious of various issues that were classified by class, for example, becoming drunk would not be considered as normal, or as proper, with people from the upper classes; whereas with people from lower or working class this would have been deemed a standard activity and most likely occurred on a daily basis.

        In Robert Louis- Stevenson’s novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde just about every aspect to do with the fear of a typical upper class Victorian is explored by the life of the unfortunate Doctor.

        The face of Hyde is described as a criminal from everyone’s view and one of the memorable first sightings of Hyde, met by a distant cousin of Mr. Utterson, namely Mr. Enfield, claimed ‘he gave me one look, so ugly that it brought out the sweat on me like running.’ It’s a human reaction on first sightings of someone never before seen to be very stereotypical, as was the case with many upper class Victorians. If someone from a lower class did not look ordinary than they would most likely be considered a criminal. As such, the reaction from the majority of accusers was as follows: ‘I had a loathing to my gentlemen at first sight. So had the child’s family, which was only natural.’ If this was the case, than there was little the accused could do for himself, because the lower classes were never given the benefit of the doubt when there was an important or rich family involved. ‘I saw that Sawbones turn sick and white with the desire to kill him.’ Even the doctor had been so taken aback by the ferocity and ugliness of this so-called human, despite doctor’s professionalism not to be judgemental in times when their attention is needed. This only shows the type of opinions that Victorians held from a range of a backgrounds.

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        This appealed to the Victorians in a sense that, by introducing the new police force, they had succeeded with trying to bring in a law abiding country and ridding it of these criminal faces.  

        In the early Victorian years, Charles Darwin produced a theory that claimed we had not been created by God and had instead evolved from nature.  He omitted to mention which animal we had evolved from, but many ideas were developed.  One such idea was the primitive ancestor reflected the troglodytic actions performed by Mr. Hyde at certain occasions.  On one of these occasions Hyde murders ...

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