Jekyll and Hyde Essay; How does R. L. Stevenson convey the dual nature of mans personality in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

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How does R. L. Stevenson convey the dual nature of man’s personality in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

Robert Louis Stevenson conveys the dual nature of man’s personality in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in many different ways, he does this by firstly having stories about two different people with different personalities and feelings about the world, these two men are Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. This essay will outline the major points to show how Stevenson conveys the dual nature of man’s personality and what makes the points effective.

This novella was set in Victorian London, and had several different characters in it with major roles in the overall story of Jekyll and Hyde; the two major characters were Henry Jekyll who was a respected doctor who seems tied to Mr Hyde in some way. The other is Edward Hyde who is an evil and unpredictable young man who is mysteriously linked with Dr Jekyll. The setting is highly significant as the Victorian Era was characterised by rapid change and developments in nearly every sphere from advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge to changes in population growth and location. During the Victorian heyday, work and play expanded dramatically, the national railway network stimulated travel and leisure opportunities for all, so that by the 1870s, visits to seaside resorts, race meetings and football matches could be enjoyed by many of this now largely urban society. The London area itself was a city of startling contrasts. New building and affluent development went hand in hand with horribly overcrowded slums where people lived in the worst conditions imaginable. Also the population surged during the 19th Century, from about 1 million in 1800 to over 6 million a century later. This growth far exceeded London’s ability to look after the basic needs of its citizens. Many modern people mistakenly imagine the Victorian period to have been a time of tranquillity and peace, far different from our own supposedly more violent age. In fact, parts of London were so dangerous no policeman would enter them, and thieves would murder people for their handkerchiefs.

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Stevenson was concerned to highlight the dual nature of man’s personality because he was living in a Victorian society which was deeply hypocritical. The Victorians prided themselves on being respectable, but many ‘upright’ citizens were living a double life. During the Victorian period there was much Gothic Literature and fiction, these features included terror, mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses. Also, during Stevenson’s time, Charles Darwin’s revolutionary book On the Origin of the Species was published in 1859 and had a tremendous effect on the popular ...

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