How does Stevenson explore the theme of duality in the novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and how does this reflect the time in which it was written?
In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde the theme of duality is explored in such a way that fascinated the audience in which it was initially written for. For centuries people have been interested in all things unknown, especially the paranormal. However, what really struck the Victorians was the concept that beneath a person’s composure there could be darker elements to their personality that are kept unseen, meaning that no matter how they presented themselves it would just be a façade. The idea of being able to change into another person to do whatever you like and live exactly how you wanted would have been a particular interest with Victorian readers as it is likely that they would have been able to directly relate to Dr Jekyll’s character, who felt that for all his life he had been forced to live a certain way and to only show one side of himself, The novella fits in with other pieces of gothic literature written around the same time as they pushed forward the boundaries of the unknown and were originally written as a reaction to the strictness and the suppression of a Victorian society.
Duality is used in the narrative voice of the novella by having three of the main characters telling the story at different times in the book. The different perspectives automatically create a duality because, for example, Dr Jekyll and Dr Lanyon are both scientists who have very different beliefs and methods of their work. For most of the novel, the narrative follows Mr Utterson’s viewpoint, straight away we are told that he is a lawyer, a credible and well-educated member of society – because of this we know we can trust him from the start. Stevenson describes him as “a lover of the sane and customary sides of life” this is probably because it makes him represent the attitudes of the average reader at the time, again making him the perfect character to follow. Utterson as a narrator is effective in the way that he doesn’t know anything more than the reader does, this helps to keep the story going as when he gets closer to uncovering the mystery so do we. Utterson’s profession makes it harder for him to jump to the conclusion of what is actually happening with Jekyll and Hyde throughout the novel, his knowledge of law blinds him from what is really happening and causes him to jump to the wrong conclusions and immediately assume that Dr Jekyll is being blackmailed, this stops the reader from working out what is really going on too and so makes the last 2 chapters more dramatic as they would come as complete surprise. The last two chapters are written from the perspective of Dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll and are in the form of letters, the two doctors do not feel they can talk about their experiences openly due to the suppression of the society at the time and shows how seriously they both took it to keep it from others. Both letters were written with the aim of being read after both men had died, possibly showing how ashamed they’d felt, Lanyon for trusting Jekyll and Jekyll for what he had done. The letters in this novel are a way of portraying the opinions of the other characters as well as creating a sense of mystery and secrecy. Stevenson chose to not let Jekyll or Lanyon have their accounts until the very end, if he had the story would not have been as successful in the build up of mystery and tension that it originally created, If Utterson had read Dr Lanyon’s letter when it was given to him, instead of doing as it instructed and waiting until the death of Dr Jekyll, the entire build up would have been destroyed much earlier on.
