The modern audience may think that this was nothing to be afraid of because in the modern world horror books always have murders in them. We are more desensitised to murders because of the special effects we se on TV. On the other hand, they may think that this book is true in saying that everyone has two sides but everyone is a “hypocrite”. This is because they use their good side more than they use their evil side.
Duality is also shown through the symbols of doors and windows. Hyde’s door was “blistered and distained”, so this may suggest that he has no care for his home. His door is also “equipped with neither bell nor knocker”; this shows that maybe he doesn’t want anyone to come into his house. Hyde’s house has “no windows”, to present that he is hiding something and doesn’t want anyone to look inside his house.
However, Jekyll’s house is totally different. Jekyll has a butler who was “well dressed”; this may suggest that Jekyll is rich and worked hard for his money. Jekyll’s door “wore a great air of wealth and comfort”, to show that he wants people to visit him and he wants people to feel comfortable when they stand at his door. Jekyll’s house “was still occupied entire”, so that means that you know someone is living there and it is open. Jekyll’s house has a lot of windows which may represent that he is trying to escape from the norms of human nature and use his evil side instead.
When they were destroying the door of Jekyll’s laboratory the “wood was tough”, so it was hard to break down but it was a “red baized door”, which is suppose to be soft. This may suggest that on the outside everyone is good but on the inside they have a bad side. This represents duality between Jekyll and Hyde.
The structure of this book is very unusual because when Jekyll dies we hear his point of view. We hear his point of view due to the fact that he is the only one in the whole novella that has the knowledge of what is actually going on between himself and Hyde. He also knows what he is trying to prove by doing this suicidal experiment. Most of the novella is told from Mr Utterson’s side of the story. This is because we know that he is trustworthy and we will believe everything he says. Stevenson uses Utterson as the main narrator because he doesn’t have much knowledge of what is going on just like the reader. The effect of this style of narration is that it makes us think in different ways of what is happening in the story just like how we think in different ways over Jekyll and Hyde.
Stevenson makes us trust Utterson by saying that he is “loveable” and respects his friends. Whereas, he makes us feel no sympathy for Hyde by describing him as a “satin” and he made his reputation bad for the whole book by “trampling” a little girl in the beginning. This event was the main factor that makes the reader lose sympathy for Hyde.
Most novels have only one genre but this one has several genres. It could be presented as either a horror, sci-fi or as a mystery. This all may be confusing but it has a purpose. The changes of the genre may represent how Jekyll is so changeable. He changes from Jekyll to Hyde while the novella changes genres. This is the first ever mystery book. The genre hadn’t been invented yet. The most famous mystery book, Sherlock Holmes, was written a year after Jekyll and Hyde. This book can be a sci-fi when it shows that Hyde must be “deformed somewhere”, this may represent that Hyde is some sort of extra terrestrial creature. This novella can also be suggested as a horror because when Hyde murders Carew it isn’t just a normal murder but a “wicked” murder. It can also be a mystery because throughout the whole book we try to find out what Jekyll is hiding and what alliance he has with Hyde. Clues are given. Stevenson involves the reader, we try to discover who Hyde is.
This novella was created at the same time as when Darwin’s theory of evolution was introduced. So when Hyde brutally attacked sir Danvers they described him as an “ape”, to show his “fury”. When Hyde started “stamping”, his feet it shows that he is an animal that cannot be tamed. Hyde may be an ape who hasn’t yet evolved into a human properly. When Hyde “clubbed” sir Danvers “to earth”, it implies that he showed no remorse and that he has no emotions like an inhuman creature. This would have offended a Christian reader because they are describing a human as a devil and Christians believe that a devil lives in no man.
The description of Carew says that he has “white hair”, to represent that he is wise and innocent. It seems like he is so wise that he knows the answer to every question. However, Hyde is described as the exact opposite. They describe him as a “small gentleman”, to show that he is hunched and mysterious. They also say that he is “impatient”, to show that if he wants to kill someone he wants to do it quickly. Or it may mean that he doesn’t want anyone to catch him in the act. It makes the reader keep a bad vibe around Hyde throughout the whole book.
The Victorian audience had a lot of different views of what we have today. They believed that if a person was deformed or ugly in appearance this was an outward or physical reflection of their inner self. So when they say that sir Danvers has a “pretty manner of politeness”, it implies that he is an upper class man and has very good manners. This also shows that he is good rather than evil. So Victorian readers must have thought that he was a real gentleman and he was wealthy. On the other hand Hyde was “deformed” so he must have been evil. Also he doesn’t have very good manners because he didn’t respond when Carew greeted him and “bowed” before him.
To conclude I believe that this novella’s message is that everyone is a hypocrite because they know that they have another side to their personality but they do not use it. Another message is that you should never trust someone you think you know very well. Utterson shouldn’t have trusted Jekyll. The only person in the novella who wasn’t a hypocrite was Hyde because he freed himself from the Victorian tradition. All the themes in this novella represent duality between Jekyll and Hyde. Stevenson wants the reader to question themselves. After reading this we should consider how we judge people.