How does Stevenson explore the theme of duality in The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde

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How does Stevenson explore the theme of duality in ‘The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde’

 The story of Jekyll and Hyde was set in the Victorian times. This is in the 19th century and was a time of great change, for example, the industrial revolution. Although most people were still religious, science was starting to become more accepted however it was still not considered the way of the world, as religion was still most people’s idea of how life came about.  There were still many people who believed that science was bad, possibly even evil. In Dr. Jekyll’s case, many people disagreed with the scientific acts that he practiced. This is because he studied anatomy, which goes completely against what religious people believe. This becomes apparent when Utterson describes the science Jekyll practices as ‘Unscientific balderdash’.  This is shown when Utterson describes his relationship with Jekyll: But it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake's sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man. Such unscientific balderdash.” This shows that Utterson had become discontenting towards Jekyll’s science, because, like most people, he was a religious man. Religious people at the time would have thought that the body should remain untouched and left to rest when you die.

 I think that Jekyll and Hyde was a very strange novel but a interesting novel. I think it is interesting because it explores the duality between 2 people very closely and gives the reader a good insight on to what having a ‘double life’ is actually like. I think this is done especially well because Stevenson uses the first person which enables the reader to understand exactly what is being thought by the person in question, so when they speak an account of what they heard, saw or did the reader can feel like they were actually there.

 I think the narrative structure used on this story is perhaps a bit different, but is certainly very effective. Stevenson creates this effective narrative structure by using different characters to tell the story. I think this gives the readers the impression that they are getting the truth of the story. This therefore means that in this novel you will tend to find that you trust Dr Jekyll, Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Enfield more because they all give first person accounts. In doing this you find that  because having other people tell the story who actually witnessed the events makes you trust the story more than if it was told in simply third person the whole way through.

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 I think this is especially effective when someone is describing something or someone. For example, when Enfield describes the physical appearance of Mr. Hyde; ‘He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.’ 

This quote shows Enfield’s true feelings. This is signified by the use of the words ‘downright detestable’ and the fact he gives two reasons of his dislike towards this man’s appearance. In using ‘downright detestable’, he is exclaiming his disgust towards the physical appearance of this man by emphasising the word detestable, and by calling it ’displeasing’ as ...

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