The strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a classic mystery story and captivates audiences of all ages on the dramatic aspect alone. Stevenson first wrote the story after recalling a dream he had with the only intention of writing an entertaining tale. However, after much persuasion from his wife he decided to revamp the mystery to comment on the dual nature of man and of society in general.
To represent the duality of man he used two main characters in his novel, the first Dr.Jekyll, an elderly well-respected gentleman who struggles with the dual nature of his personality, he represents the good natured side of man. Although he appears very nice and welcoming to his friends he has a dark side which he chooses to express in the person of Mr. Hyde who is the second main character in the novel. Hyde is a man “…lost in stature…” he has something wrong with his appearance making him “…displeasing…” and “…downright detestable…” to look at. Mr. Hyde is hated by everyone who sees him, even at first glance; he is used to represent the evil side of man’s nature.
Stevenson creates two homes for these characters which also show the two sides of old Victorian London. Dr. Jekyll’s house lies on a very wealthy area of London’s West End called Cavendish Square. It was considered a lovely place to live “…with its freshly painted shutters, well polished brasses and general cleanliness”. The home of Hyde was less than a mile away in Soho which was one of the least respectable areas of the west End and one of the poorest. It was considered a “…dingy neighbourhood…” where “…tramps slouched…” in doorways and doors were “… blistered and distained…” The two houses are both opposites of each other like the two characters, it helps to emphasise their duality.
Dr. Jekyll wants to separate the two sides of his personality because he appears to be grieving for the younger, youthful part of himself, that’s why Hyde is smaller and younger at first, he is the under-developed side of Dr. Jekyll. Nowadays people often say they wish they could break the rules, but not lose complete control like Hyde does. The bad side of Dr. Jekyll, Hyde is completely evil but Dr. Jekyll himself just himself remains just as he was before all these transformations began to take place, trying to be just good and not bad. This could be because he had a strict upbringing. Dr. Jekyll believed that if he could only separate his two natures then “…life would be relieved of all that is unbearable” and with this altruistic motive, sets about finding a drug which will “shake the very fortress of identity”. Hyde was protected by Jekyll as he enjoyed his exploits because no one could ever find out what Jekyll was up to. Stevenson has also been very clever to make his two characters represent both Darwinian Theory and biblical myth. Hyde represents Darwinian Theory, and in the time the novel was written, Victorians believed in the Adam and Eve Theory, which made the story quite disturbing to the reader, yet at the same time exciting, as there weren’t many novels around at the time.
Stevenson’s first chapter is where all the evil starts taking place, a young girl was “...trampled...” to death in the middle of the night by Mr. Hyde. Another act of atrocity and evilness is when he beat Sir Danvers Carew to death with a cane in chapter four. Hyde is violent and cruel man that Dr. Jekyll gradually loses control over. I think that Dr. Jekyll takes some responsibility for the atrocities because he was the one who ultimately gave Hyde life, however most of the blame goes to Hyde. Jekyll explains in the final chapter how Hyde doesn’t simply have his own body but also his own independent mind, I think this happens because Hyde just simply manages to grow stronger than Jekyll and gradually begins to emotionally defeat Jekyll, until once in the body and mind of Hyde, the good side of his soul has no power. This tells us that he is quite insecure with himself and his actions and I think in the end he wishes he hadn’t tampered with science and his soul, and deeply regrets his doings. I think that Jekyll was subconscious about what he was creating and doing, before he began his life of duplicity because at the time of his creation of the potion he made, he was so overwhelmed by what he had managed to accomplish that he only really thought of the risks deep in the back of his mind and kind of cast aside the doubts and worries he had about the potion and was willing to take the risk no matter what.
Stevenson goes into great depths to interest the reader, and approaches this in different ways, by using techniques such as imagery,”…mountain bandit…” along with long detailed descriptions and long, loaded sentences, “Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.” This all helps to add to the tension of the story. He piles up layers of images to give as clues to the reader so that all the time the reader is asking themselves questions trying to guess who the murderer is and what’s going on. The reader becomes the detective. It’s as though they are being drip-fed information the whole way through the novel and never actually get the whole story until Dr. Jekyll’s confession in the last chapter. In the novel Stevenson exposes hypocrisy to a great extent. At the time he wrote the novel, Victorians believed in religion and Darwinian Theory was just breaking out, which made the story much more interesting to read for the Victorian reader.
Towards the end of the story Hyde becomes stronger than Jekyll and exists independently of the drug. This shift in balance of power and strength leaves Henry Jekyll fighting for his soul, a battle which in the end ha loses as he transforms into Hyde involuntarily. Once Jekyll has unlocked the “…monster…” from its cage he can no longer control it, this shows that his evil side is so strong and cannot be defeated by his good side.
The incident that sends Dr. Lanyon mad was when he witnessed Jekyll’s startling transformation to Hyde, which in the end caused him to die after being ill for less than two weeks in bed, “…less than a fortnight he was dead”. This would scare the Victorian readers because the real-life murderer, Jack the Ripper was around at the same time.
Jekyll and Hyde were two characters of complete opposites, who constantly fought each other for the soul and body of Dr. Jekyll. Their hatred for each other grew as the story went on because the battle for the body became increasingly challenging. Towards the end Jekyll’s final message tells us how and why Hyde has to die, to stop these cruel acts. The only choice there is, is for Jekyll to commit suicide which would then also kill off the soul of Hyde.
The story raises many issues and concerns. The hypocrisy of such Victorian values is one such indictment of society Stevenson makes. The story comments on the dual nature of man and of society in general. It also asks the reader that if they knew they could get away with something really bad and not get found out, would they do it?
The story also raises the issue of Victorian religious beliefs of how man was created, where they all created from Adam and Eve, or did they all evolve from apes? This links to Darwin’s Theories. This was a major moral issue at the time.
The story teaches us that no matter who we are we have a double nature of good and evil and if you don’t embrace and control your evil side it will take over, and you’d be a hypocrite if you didn’t. The craving or desire to be bad never goes away, it’s just like being an alcoholic or drug addict, you just have to learn to say “no”.
The story is ironic because although the whole experiment conducted by Jekyll is a success, in the end he is killed by his invention- the potion.
In the end Jekyll doesn’t commit suicide, but simply is only able to obtain the powder for the potion in its pure form, instead of the impure original powder which he originally used for the transformation. Edward Hyde is the one to commit suicide in fear of the gallows and now unable to take refuge in the body of Dr. Jekyll’s body.
The ultimate message from Stevenson’s novel is that if one gives evil an inch, it will take a mile.
Lindsay Barr 11W
