Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a short gothic novel, based in London in 1886 at a time where to enter the dwellings you would have to “penetrate courts reeking with poisonous and malodorous gases arising from accumulations of sewage and refuse scattered in all directions and often flowing beneath your feet; courts, many of them which the sun would never penetrate, which would never be visited by a breath of fresh air, and which rarely knew the virtues of a drop of cleansing water. You would have to ascend rotten staircases, which threatened to give way beneath every step, and which, in some places, had already broken down, leaving gaps that imperil the limbs and lives of the unwary. You would have to grope your way along dark and filthy passages swarming with vermin. Then, if you were not driven back by the intolerable stench, you might gain admittance to the dens in which those thousands of beings who belong, as much as you, to the race for whom Christ died, herded together.” Parts of this description are repeated in the novella (a short novel) and act as a pathetic fallacy, relating Mr. Hyde with the weather and state of London.
The description of the street in the first chapter reinforces the theme of duality. The street is described as merely an anonymous street in London, whose shop fronts “like rows of smiling saleswomen” - p30 have a brightness that stands out in contrast to the grim neighbourhood. And yet on this street, two doors from the corner, stands a dreary, gothic house, which “bore in every feature the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence” - p30. Dr. Jekyll’s house itself has a natural duality: pleasant, prosperous, respectable, as well as threatening, mysterious, and disturbing. This duality is marked by each of its two disguises: the respectable, Jekyll side of the house stands out in complete contrast with the dullness of the Hyde side of the house. The theme of duality is also noticeable by the nature of the name, Hyde. Hyde is obtained from the more familiar word hide, and stands for the hidden aspects of Jekyll. Indeed, in chapter 2, Mr. Utterson claims, “If he be Mr. Hyde… …I shall be Mr. Seek.” – p38.
Robert Louis Stevenson says that there is more evil in us then good but that no one is fully evil or respectable. He says, “the drug had no discriminating action” - p85 which tells the reader that all humans contain good and evil elements and that the drug just emphasizes the evil. and that “all human beings are commingled out of good and evil” – p85.
There is another moral in the book based on religion. It starts as a temptation for the drug that transforms Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. When that temptation is not fulfilled Dr. Jekyll suffers from cravings and abstinence. This reminds us of the drug addicts and desires endured in today’s world. In the novel, however, Dr. Jekyll gives up to the temptations and this is a metaphor linked with Adam and Eve’s indulgence of the “forbidden” fruit. This is known as an ‘original sin’. An excellent quote proving this says, “for while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would be not even conscience of all that he had lost.” – p89. Another quote states, “it was as an ordinary secret sinner that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation” – p92. This implies that Dr Jekyll at first transformed for a respectable reason to separate the good from the evil but then he begins to change in order to commit foul offences. Robert Louis Stevenson writes about the harmful effects of improperly interfering with God’s creation. The ideal belief is that one should accept the gifts, abilities, and freedoms of choice God gives to all human beings and not attempt to transform oneself. However, the negative desires and urgings can overtake our original selves until we lose touch of who we are. Dr. Jekyll’s desire to temporarily alter his existence results ultimately in his deadly downfall.
The last moral of the book is shown and displayed on nearly every page. This moral believes that children are innocent and relates to the issue of not taking drugs. The statement, “the evil side of my nature was less robust and less developed when I was young” – p84 means that the evil Mr. Hyde became noticeable after Dr. Jekyll’s childhood. So Mr. Hyde would always have been younger than Dr. Jekyll when the evil was committed and therefore was constantly found to be innocent.
In conclusion, Robert Louis Stevenson uses religion, science, ethics and location to produce an excellent novel, to which many morals are assigned. These morals include good and evil, innocent and young, self-restraint and double existence.
