Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Dualism Analysis

Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was a very unorthodox man. He was renowned for his dark and psychologically twisted literature. According to Singh, Stevenson was a curious man who indulged in many psychotropics, such as alcohol, cannabis, and opium. Perhaps Stevenson’s drug exploration provided him with a medium to access the repressed feelings, thoughts, and desires that society seeks to repress, as he eventually reveals that the story of Jekyll and Hyde emerged during his dreams. Weston suggests that Sigmund Freud’s experimentation with drugs-specifically cocaine-assisted with his development of Psychoanalytic Theory, about the complexity of the human psyche. The text uses an extreme psychological

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde develops the theory of human dualism to illustrate the social pressures and ethical restraints that propel Jekyll to conceal his innate ‘Hydeness’ from society. This novella provokes an unsettling response because it acknowledges the inherent evilness that we as humans encompass, but seek to conceal. Singh argues that the term dualism derives from the Latin word, ‘duo’, denoting ‘two’ to represent the duality of Jekyll and Hyde. Danahay suggests that Mr. Hyde allows Dr.Jekyll to indulge in his greatest desires as if wearing a mask or costume; emphasizing the notion of persona as a public façade humans use to conceal their hidden desires. Stevenson’s clever illustration of the danger of knowledge reveals the troubling reality of awareness and reveals Jekyll’s brilliance to be the Achilles heel that leads to his demise. The relevance of the concept of ‘consuming knowledge’ plagues those who know, and proposes there is a degree of truth to the belief that ‘ignorance is bliss,’ because if Jekyll lacked the scientific prowess to create a concoction to tap into his repressed and animalistic nature, his path may alter. The complexity of Stevenson’s themes acknowledges both his literary genius and the philosophical dilemma of the grayness of the world in which we