How does Robert Louis Stevenson use literary techniques to illustrate the social, historical, cultural and moral points he is trying to make in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

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Charlie Oliver L5H.

How does Robert Louis Stevenson use literary

 techniques to illustrate the social, historical,

 cultural and moral points he is trying to

make in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

        

‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ is a novella that was written an 1886 and has gone down in history as one of the most famous works of gothic ‘horror’ fiction.  The term ’Jekyll and Hyde personality’ is used in society today to depict someone with a dual personality who is a kind of schizophrenic, describing someone who lives a double life of outward morality and inward iniquity.  At the time when the book was written, Victorian society on the surface was extremely civilised and was dominated by strict codes of conduct, polite manners and repressed sexuality.  Great social emphasis was placed on duty and decorum and the book explores the outlook and manner of the Victorian people, and their ‘obsession’ with keeping a highly regarded, highly respected society governed by strict codes of conduct and polite manners.  The importance of the church and marriage was greatly emphasised, as was the following of the expectancy to behave morally at all times.  The Gothic nature of the book is shown in Stevenson’s vivid descriptions and dark imagery such as ‘the most racking prangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death.’

The story was enormously popular with its Victorian audience showing a fascination with the ‘other side ‘ of life.  Stevenson reflects on this ‘expectation of respectability’ in the text, a lot of the characters have professions that were seen by society to be significant and dominating such as a Doctor and a Politician. This shows us that he was saying to the reader that the upper classes were especially likely to have a dual personality.   The theme of the novella is the hypocrisy of Victorian values.  Stevenson saw that all around England, although the upper classes gave the appearance of outward respectability citizens, there were many dark secrets hidden behind a façade of decency.  He hinted at the fact that even the higher classes in society felt less compelled to uphold the ‘rules’ expected of them. The linguistic devices employed by Stevenson create an unusual atmosphere that surrounds the story.  This atmosphere gives a feeling of controlled suspense that gradually builds up a sense of horror and destruction.  This is achieved through a slow accumulation of dark and decaying descriptions, beginning with ‘sinister block of building’ ‘marks of prolonged and sordid negligence and ‘Tramps slouched into the recess.’  

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Although there are many facts relating to the duality of the nature of the human race, the full extent of this only becomes obvious at the end of the book for example when Jekyll admits ‘I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.’ By using this ‘duality of human nature’, shown when Jekyll says ‘man is not truly one but truly two,’ this shows us that the characters in the text on the outside can be quite respectable and polite and on the inside Stevenson uses subtle language ...

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