How does Stevenson present the lives, beliefs and concerns of people living in the second half of the 19th century in his novel "The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde"?

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1426 words                James Greenhalgh 11A How does Stevenson present the lives, beliefs and concerns of people living in the second half of the 19th century in his novel "The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde"? The gothic glory of Robert Louis Stevenson's “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” reflects dramatically the beliefs and concerns of a troubled populace at the turn of the 20th century. He uses dramatic techniques to convey the scientific refrains of the time. The techniques he uses also express the moral statures of the different classes of the population. He experiments with the relationships between the ethics and morals of religion against the the challenging and often revolutionary ideas of science, A theme that is still common today which probably the reason that this book is so well known as a classic. The ideas in the book are strongly linked to the work of Dr. Sigmund Freud, an American Psychologist who’s work was very influential and revolutionary at the time.  Freud’s work largely consisted of theory's about the different levels of consciousness in the human mind. Stevenson in this book expands the theory out of the mind and into the body itself. Beliefs at the time that this book is set were mixed and varied due to the large number of conflicting ideas. Darwin’s theory of evolution was just one of the many challenges to the religious principals that most Victorians where brought up with. The morals of each person were are also defined by the Class of society the person was a member of. Well educated members of the middle
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class, such as Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Lanyon, were likely to have had very different morals to the members of the working lower-classes.  This was also the time that mainstream science was emerging and many people we favouring the new scientific proof over the mysticism of religion. These theory's and the ethics involved are very well portrayed by Stevenson. He also expresses that fact that transcendental medicine was not socially accepted as he portrays the ultimate result of experimentation beyond the scope of knowledge of the time, as evil. Because of these differences in moral stance, different characters have different ...

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