Why Does the Story of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde both Fascinate and Appal The Victorian Audience?

The story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written by an author called Robert Louis Stevenson. It was written in 1886 in the heart of the Victorian era, a religious yet progressive time with great advances in engineering and science, for example in railways and in architecture.

Robert Louis Stevenson (November 13th, 1850 – December 3rd 1894) was born and raised in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. As he got older he became a great admirer of the man Deacon Brody and the novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was inspired by the life of Mr Deacon Brody himself.

Deacon Brody was also Scottish man, and a highly respected one at that. He was not only a well-known carpenter but also a high member of the Edinburgh council and led a very respectable life, or at least that is what people thought. To very few people’s knowledge, Deacon Brody also led a second life, away from the one everyone knew him by. This existence was one of a dark, gloomy and a creature-like lifestyle, causing him to drink in bars and sleep with women and have nothing what so ever to worry about. As a result people describe him as having a “grand respectful front door” for his public life and a “dingy back door” for his “after hours” life, through which he would sneak in at night. In other words they were saying that he appeared to be a highly respected man but behind the scenes, he was the total opposite.

The novel itself would have both fascinated and appalled the Victorian Audience for the following reasons:

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published shortly after Charles Darwin’s novel “Origin of the Species” was published. Darwin’s novel caused a major uproar within the religious society of the late 1800’s. This was because of its extremely controversial ‘theory of evolution’ which contradicted the story of Genesis.

So as a result of Darwin’s book, Victorian audiences were eager to see what this one would be like. And again just like Darwin’s story, this one caused shock among the audiences ...

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The novel itself would have both fascinated and appalled the Victorian Audience for the following reasons:

So as a result of Darwin’s book, Victorian audiences were eager to see what this one would be like. And again just like Darwin’s story, this one caused shock among the audiences of the Victorian time. Although did it not just stop at man having two personalities, it went on to show the evil side of the man taking over and eventually “winning”, beating out the good side inside of him. This had never been seen before around this time.

At the opening of the novel, Dr Jekyll is just one man but is experimenting with creating a formula that can change one’s personality and physical characteristics (Mr Hyde), in order for him to be able to misbehave without having his respected name put on the line. However, this formula is obviously a kind of drug, and just like any other drug, it is addictive. Throughout the story Jekyll slowly becomes addicted to the transformation drug and then his addiction gets worse. He started in full control, then started to lose slight control and ended up having no control over Mr Hyde whatsoever. For example, he says,

“I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll and awakened Edward Hyde” showing that he has began to lose control. Then as conditions got worse, it sadly ends in death due to the addiction, to the Victorian audiences’ great surprise. It says,

“A man sorely contorted and still twitching, the cords of his face, still moving with the semblance of life, but life was quite gone”.

The novel has a theory-like message about the duality of man which is closely related to the split personality of man. It says, “that man is not truly one but truly two”. In this case this phrase is explaining and describing how the two are Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Jekyll being the good side and Hyde being the evil one. This would be both shocking and fascinating for Victorian society, because they were very much concerned with appearances and would not want to acknowledge the seedier side of human nature.

Now in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson uses a large number of both similes and metaphors in order to be very descriptive to grab the Victorian audiences and helping them to paint a picture in their head. For example he says,

“Like a rat”, “mere animal terror” and “I gnashed my teeth upon him”, all of these comparing Hyde to animals and describing his animal-related actions. This by itself caused a slight uproar within the audiences as it relates to Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution”, which, did not go down well at that time. By comparing the actions of a man to these of an animal in a way gave more weight to Darwin’s theory, and the Victorians did not like that.

It also appalled the audiences by its graphic comparisons, for example,

“The animal within me, licking the chops of memory”. This kind of graphic detail shocked the Victorians as they were not used to it and the fact that it was another reference to Darwin’s “ridiculous” theory, they did not like it.

In Victorian times the society the people lived in was divided into different classes of people, upper class and working class and the difference between the two could have been outrageous. In Stevenson’s novel it shows both kinds of society within just one person; Dr Jekyll being the upper class person, living in the town and being wealthy and highly respected, and yet Mr Hyde being the working class person, getting drunk, sleeping around and even being a murderer. This idea came from the true life story of Deacon Brody, who lived his life and took his chances in both societies.

Now Lanyon I believe was shown to be a genuine member of the Victorian society, giving the Victorian audience a character they could relate to. If any member of the society then had seen Jekyll lying dead having changed and aged so quickly then they would have been horrified, which is exactly how Lanyon felt when this happened.

“Lanyon was shaken to his roots.”

The audiences in the Victorian day were also totally appalled by the fact Dr Jekyll tried to invent a “potion” that he could simply drink and as a result of this make himself change into some kind of horrific creature. What made things worse was that some people did actually believe that it was possible, as there had been many major advances in engineering and science.

To conclude, the novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde both fascinated and appalled the Victorian audience because its choice of subject matter was not only shocking through it’s storyline but also in the way in which it was told. Furthermore it made readers acknowledge the existence of a less attractive side of human nature, which was at the same time revolting yet intriguing.