How does Stevenson Present Good and Evil in "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"?

Authors Avatar

Daniel Griffiths

How does Stevenson Present Good and Evil in

“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”?

Throughout the story of “The Strange Case Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, presents his idea of the duality of man- where we all have a dark, wicked side within us, where evil is held in waiting to surface, but we hide it away, we pretend it does not exist, and we keep it tame. He presents this idea by using two protagonists, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, who are actually the same person. One of these characters symbolizes the normal side of a person represented by the respectable Dr Jekyll, who is a typical upper class Victorian, and the other, Mr Hyde, a deformed man, signifies the purest of evil. During the course of this essay I will comment on Stevenson’s presentation of good and evil, and how the two work together to create an outstanding story.

The book “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” was published in 1886, in Victorian England. The horror story originated from a dream that Stevenson’s had about a split personality and the central suggestion that evil is potentially far stronger than good. When he awoke he immediately set about putting his thoughts into words and finished the first copy in just three days but was forced to burn it because of the disapproval from his wife. He wrote another version, again in just three days. The second copy was published and was an overnight success.

The storyline is about a doctor, who stumbles upon a potion, which he finds can change him into an entirely different person physically. Mr Hyde opens the window for evil deeds, through which Dr Jekyll could commit crimes without ruining his good name. At fist Dr Jekyll can control his transformations, by taking the drugs, and then retaking it to become himself again, however later in the story, Jekyll becomes so obsessed with his "other self" that he begins to lose control of the transformation. Hyde begins to appear merely when Jekyll remembers the wicked deeds he committed. His change from these two characters becomes so uncontrollable that at one point in the story he falls asleep as Dr Jekyll, and then wakes up as Mr. Hyde. Eventually he committed suicide as he could no longer control his actions. Stevenson uses many themes throughout this storyline to present good and evil.

One of the main beliefs in the Victorian society shown in “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is physiognomy. We can see this in the story when Stevenson’s describes Mr Hyde as “ugly”,”wicked-looking” and “evil”. We also see this when the innocent, good character in the situation, Sir Danvers Carew, is described as an “aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair”. This shows that Stevenson could have believed in physiognomy or he used it because it was a key part of Victorian society where the good character is beautiful and the evil character is ugly.

 

        Another aspect of Victorian society that is shown in the story is hypocrisy. Two examples of this during the novel are when two characters, Richard Enfield and Sir Danvers Carew, are wandering the streets of London in the early hours of the morning. This seems like they were up to something they shouldn’t have been doing. Enfield speaks of the incident when Mr Hyde trampled down the young girl, a figure of innocence. This was at 3am on the Soho side of London where Enfield could have been being behaving in an unlawful, immoral manner. The other example of hypocrisy that I have mentioned is which Sir Danvers Carew, who was also wandering the London streets in the late hours just before his murder when he could have also been doing something morally wrong manner. Stevenson may have used hypocrisy to remind the reader that not everyone is completely innocent.

Reputation is extremely desirable in the novel and is so desirable that it could be seen as evil as people may do evil things just to maintain their reputation. There was a very strict moral code in the Victorian times which people would be anxious about keeping to, because of the extreme risk of ruining their reputation. We see this in the first chapter of the story when Mr Jekyll tramples over a little girl and is threatened by her parents that they will ruin his reputation by telling all of his friends and family of the incident. Enfield says that they will “make his name stink from one end of London to the other” so Mr Hyde decides to write a cheque for £100 to the family as he knows if things go too far he will be found out. This shows that Mr Hyde would rather lose a massive sum of money, large enough to buy a house, than have a ruined reputation. Stevenson may have used this idea as it will always be relevant, there will always be inequality in the world and one person will always be higher up than another person.

Join now!

The story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde could be seen as a warning to other societies around the world not to become so overwhelming and repressive and not to keep of all our emotions kept in. Jekyll says, “My Devil had long been caged, and now it came out roaring” about the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. This shows the consequences of not listening to your inner self. The novel was especially popular in Victorian times because it was relevant to the Victorian reader as it examines Victorian hypocrisy. It also places emphasis on the general sense of unease ...

This is a preview of the whole essay