The dominant theme is the divided nature of man and that things aren’t always what they appear. The hypocrisy is seen in all the characters and is derived from their reactions to Hyde. Stevenson is arguing that Hyde represents the dark side, which is present in all people. In wanting to kill Hyde, they are rejecting what is in fact part of their true selves and are so guilty of hypocrisy. The danger of knowledge is still relevant to us today.
Suppression can lead to violence. Although Jekyll admits that he enjoys the wicked part of his nature, he cannot accept it is a natural part of him and therefore tries to separate it from him in his scientific experiments. This denial leads to his destruction. Jekyll’s later attempts at repression enrage Hyde’s fury: “my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring”. So once the beast is loose, it can only resolve itself in death. The beast is obviously represented in Hyde: “a dismal screech, as of mere animal terror, rang from the cabinet”. Hyde is not Jekyll’s opposite, but something within him: the fact that he is smaller than the doctor, a ‘dwarf’, demonstrates that he is only a part whereas Jekyll is a complex whole.
Early in the story, Utterson thinks that something unspoken from the past maybe coming to claim Jekyll: “He was wild when he was young; a long while ago, to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statue of limitation. Ah, it must that, the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace; punishment coming, pede claudo, years after meaning has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault”.
Jekyll is leading a double life because he has aimed so high. He wanted respect, honour and distinction to be highly regarded in society, and then felt that he had to conceal any irregularities in his life: “Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed a profound duplicity of my life. Many a man would have balanced such irregularities, as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame. It was thus rather the exacting nature of my aspiration than any particular degradation in my faults, that made me what I was and, with ever a deeper trench thus in the majority of men, severed in me those previous of good and evil which divide and compound man’s dual nature”.
It is interesting and significant that all the characters in the story are isolated. They have no wives, no families, and no close friendship.
Jekyll in becoming Hyde is letting loose the evil in him. He experiences a “solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul.” The greater the aspirations towards the good of Jekyll, the greater the monstrosity of Hyde.
Every character seem to have an exterior whom they are not. Jekyll doesn’t get any kicks out of being a doctor; he wants to be evil without spoiling his reputation. The time the book was written; the British Empire was becoming richer. But it was the upper class that actually gained out of all this.
But people started suggesting that just because you’re a gentlemen doesn’t mean that you’re good.
Utterson seems like a well-respected lawyer. An upstanding pillar of the community. Yet he has an unhealthy envy towards the crimes of his clients; “some times wondering, almost with envy, at the high presents of sprits involved in their misdeeds and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.”
The settings can also symbolize the duality of society. For example Jekyll’s house. The front is nicely decorated, in an attempt to keep up appearances. Whereas the back is on an ugly street where Hyde enters through. Jekyll’s invents Hyde so that he can keep up appearances but it doesn’t work. Hyde still becomes associated with him.
Jekyll’s calls his pleasures “undignified”. This is shadowy hence he is chiming into Utterson’s way of life. In this Victorian age, gentlemen were very hypocritic. They would sleep with prostitutes at night but would tell their wives to cover up their legs or the legs of tables because it was thought to be too revealing! Enfield may also have something to hide: “I was coming home from some place at the end of the world, about 3:00 am of a black winter morning.” What was he doing at some place at the end of the world?
More hypocrisy /duality is seen in the policeman who doesn’t actually care about the murder but has a professional ambitions. Hyde’s maid gets pleasure when she finds out the murder has been associated with Hyde. Her hypocrisy can also be seen: “She had an evil face smoothed by hypocrisy, but her manners were excellent.” The reaction to Hyde trampling over the girl is that they all wanted to kill him, but do the next best thing. They don’t kill him because it would ruin their reputation and it wouldn’t be considered civilized. This proves that civilized people had animal instincts.
Utterson “goes out of his way to find Hyde”. Utterson is obsessed with this case because of an early irregularity (where the will goes to Hyde if Jekyll died or DISAPPEARED which didn’t sound regular to him). Utterson believes that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll’s because of a past misdeed so he thinks Hyde may have something on him.
Lanyon has a “smooth face with a slyish cast”; “The geniality, as was the way of the man was somewhat theatrical to the eye”. The hypocrisy is obvious in his face, just like with Hyde’s maid. Even though the exterior may seem good, the evil always shows through. This is also seen in Jekyll’s house, which has cracks so hence proving that the evil always shows through. Jekyll’s laboratory is a “windowless structure” and he was always behind “closed doors”. This symbolises Victorian society, where many things are done behind closed doors, hidden away.
The murder of Carew is Stevenson’s idea of a sick comedy. Because the night was cloudless, lit by a nice full moon. Carew was murdered because he had nothing to hide, he was genuinely a good person and Hyde hated this. So what was going on underneath was evil. This symbolises Victorians society, the exterior is all nice, but what goes on underneath is evil. After Carew’s death the atmosphere is described as dark, dingy, gloomy and unpleasant. Just like Victorians society.
