Mr Hyde Duality

Stevenson’s novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” is a work of Gothic fiction that has dark and mysterious tones. The novel tells a story about a doctor named Henry Jekyll who formulates a potion, that when consumed, turns into his alto ego of Edward Hyde. The ideas of good and evil, addiction, and duality, are all prevalent and what creates the suspense throughout the novel. The contrast of good and evil is shown throughout the story in multiple different ways. The town of London, in which Dr. Jekyll resides in, it is described that, “The inhabitants were doing well, it seemed, and all emulously hoping to do better still and laying out the surplus of their grains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that throughfare

Hyde and Dr. Jekyll is prevalent, not only because they are, in the end, the same person but within their psyche. Dr. Jekyll has a passion for science and discovering the unknown therefore it is no surprise that he would go deeper into the understanding of indulgence within the human psyche. This is shown when Jekyll creates this potion to turn himself into the physical form of his deepest desires which give him the freedom to do whatever he pleases without consequence. This is prevalent when Hyde kills Sir Danvers, “And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman” (pg 17). This side of Dr. Jekyll is the side of dominance and power over the goodness in people that he wishes not to show as his true self, so he sees the need to do it in another form, as Mr. Hyde. The guilt of these actions eats away at Dr. Jekyll and causes him to come to terms with his actions: “Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I had 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” (pg 62). Here Jekyll is coming to terms that he can’t escape his mind and that these actions are not just another person, but his most intrusive

With addiction comes many negatives such as withdrawal, shame, and guilt, to name a few. Robinson never truly made it known that there was any type of addiction going on until the very last chapter of the story where Jekyll confessed his wrongdoings with “creating” Mr. Hyde. Jekyll even goes on to explain how he was hesitant to try this new drug, but his desire for science and learning got the best of him: “I hesitated long before I put this theory to the test of practice. I knew well that I risked death; for any drug that so potently controlled and shook the very fortress of identity, might, by the least scruple of an overdose or at the least inopportunity in the moment of exhibition, utterly blot out that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change. But the temptation of a discovery so singular and profound at last overcame the suggestions of alarm” (pg 51). Jekyll’s fascination of the drug is what drove him to take it in the first place and put his life and mentality on the line. After taking the drug he would then turn in to Mr. Hyde and can act upon his deepest desires without ruining his perfect scientist image of Dr. Jekyll. “The object of study—the body—was individualized, dissocialized, demoralized. Following the logic of the discourse of addiction, the same object of study exists in the novel: Hyde” (pg 117 addiction). The idea of individualization, dissocializing, and demoralizing