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Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Research Paper

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Introduction: Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde highlights the social beliefs of Victorian society. Stevenson presents common perspectives of Victorian society on scientific development, the importance of maintaining a positive reputation, and the notion of living a double life. In this novella, we see multiple perspectives of concepts through the characters who highlight the societal apprehensions toward scientific progress, the societal pressures to maintain a respectable reputation, and the internal struggles individuals face to conform to social norms while harbouring their personal desires. 1.1 Societal apprehension towards Darwin’s ‘theory of evolution’. Victorian society's strong interest in religion caused great tensions between science and religious belief. Many …show more content…

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the fear of scientific development in Victorian society was highlighted by the characterisation of Dr. Henry Jekyll and Dr. Hastie Lanyon. Dr. Jekyll, a respected scientist, embodies Victorian society’s concerns about the dangers of pushing scientific developments too far. His experiments, which involve his transformation into the monstrous Mr. Hyde indicate the consequences of scientific intrusion into areas considered to be under divine control, reflecting Victorian fears of scientific development. In comparison to Jekyll, Dr. Lanyon is a more conservative scientist, who symbolises the traditional Victorian belief that science should follow moral and ethical boundaries. Dr. Lanyon’s scarred reaction towards Dr. Jekyll’s transformation into Mr. Hyde results in him being critical towards unorthodox scientific experimentation as he describes Jekyll’s experiments as “unscientific balderdash.” Through displaying the contrasting scientific perspectives of Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll, Stevenson captures the two schools of thought regarding scientific development in the Victorian

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