Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Research Paper

Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic gothic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) is an incredibly polarizing text. Due to its depiction of society during the Victorian Era, its conversations on the complexity of the human soul and its ability to alter, duality and the conflicting identities within people deeply engage readers. These themes have given the novella its notoriety and longevity despite shifting cultural norms. Stevenson's depiction of Victorian society is paradoxical and hypocritical. Jekyll and his promise to stop his relations with Hyde, or Mr. Utterson claiming to leave issues alone but indulging in the case of Mr. Hyde. There are also multiple instances of characters masquerading as respectability. Such irregular

This is proven through the dynamics of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the effects Hyde’s crimes have on Utterson, and Dr. Lanyon’s deterioration. Despite common interpretation, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are not two different people or identities. Rather, Mr. Hyde is a literal manifestation of Dr. Jekyll’s need to adapt to a restrictive society. Although it seems Jekyll is dual-minded in his desires, Jekyll is somewhat unreliable in his theories due to his close-mindedness attributed to the society he has developed in. Jekyll chronicles his youth as one of high expectations, compulsively concealing his internal thoughts. It’s only natural then that he finds his solution to his plight through Hyde, asserting that his first time taking the potion “There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in my body” (Stevenson 80). However, Victorian England held strict standards of morality and reasoning. A man of Jekyll’s standing has been raised to fully agree with these

This limitation in his thinking keeps him from fully contextualizing the reasons for why he must rationalize his desires in an intensely fixed way. Even with the desires Jekyll exhibits in his early life, Hyde’s point of creation only comes when Jekyll is given no other ways of externalizing his inhibitions healthily, limited by the society he exists in. Therefore, Jekyll’s need to visualize these desires reads less as an amalgamation of his depraved half and more as a definitive way for him to separate himself so he does not have to take accountability for his imperfect single personhood. Hyde is meant to encapsulate Jekyll’s desires so he can irrevocably rid of the guilt they bring him, made clear by this passage I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements. If each, I told myself, could be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright