How does Robert Louis Stevenson explore the duality of human nature in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

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How does Robert Louis Stevenson explore the duality of human nature in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

Robert Louis Stevenson incorporated the ideology of the duality of human nature into his Victorian thriller novella: 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. This does not emerge fully until the last chapter. The text not only de-familiarizes the duality of human nature as its central theme but forces us to wonder the properties of this duality and to consider each of the novella's chapters as we weigh up the various theories. Jekyll asserts that "man is not truly one, but truly two," implying that everyone has two parts to their personality, 'Good' and 'Bad' instead of just yourself and he imagines the human soul as the battleground for an "angel" and a "fiend," both opposing forces each struggling for mastery. The novella tackles many different theories that circulated at the time. When the novella was published, there was uproar that it suggested we have two parts to our personalities. This theory went against many influential Victorian religious beliefs. Robert Louis Stevenson's believed that people had a dual personality and this is echoed in the novella. The inspiration for the