Stevenson uses many lines to show that Victorian moral pressure played a part in why the book as written. He uses lines such as “That is not fitting language.” This shows that Hyde is not as respectful as Dr Jekyll is. And his language is less appropriate for a middle class man. This could also be tied in with good verses evil as Jekyll is respectable and good where as Hyde is the bad side to this man.
There is also reference to good verses evil Dr Jekyll Lawyer refers to “Satan” quoting “O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend!” Connecting this to Victorian moral pressure, the lawyer must have also been friends with Dr Jekyll as he referred to him as Harry and not doctor, which is informal.
It is also quoted that others take a dislike to Mr Hyde’s appearance. Hyde is described as an aggressive, ill-mannered, dull-looking man, where as Jekyll is described as some sort of a well dressed, respectable person, with an image like this in ones head it shows a side of good verses evil, and it makes it seem almost hypocritical. This story is also a way for Stevenson to have a go at hypocroisy and those people are two faced.
There is a case of the human mind, “But it is more then ten years since Henry Jekyll became to fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind; and though, of course, I continue to take an interest in him for old sake as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man.”
The word “devilish” also makes you think about good verses evil. There is also when Mr Utterson quotes “They have only differed on some point of science.”
Stevenson uses this as he understands the science in this nature and now it can reveal to tie in with the study of the human mind.
When Hyde and Jekyll realise they have to choose who out of the two shall remain a permanent person, this shows choosing between good and evil, and right and wrong. This shown by “All things therefore seem to point to this: that i was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.”
Jekyll began to enjoy the pleasures and adventures of Hyde, but Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll. There was a difference seen between the two, “Jekyll had more then a fathers interest; Hyde had more then a son’s indifference.”
Stevenson created Jekyll and Hyde from a nightmare he had one night, from which his wife awaked him. Stevenson wrote up the nightmare, but after letting his wife read the story and listening to what she thought about the story, he rewrote the story making it more interesting, including details that he knew very well.
At one point in the story, there is also a balance between good and evil, “And at that very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering. These past away, and left me faint; and then in it’s turn the faintness subsided, I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the danger of bonds of obligation.”
All of this evidence therefore proves that “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” was written about R. L. Stevenson’s beliefs, imagination, knowledge, judgement and experience. This also proves that Stevenson also used the themes of good verses evil, Victorian moral pressure and the study of the human mind. I believe these to be the reasons why the book was written and that there is little or no connection with sexuality unlike what others think.
