Are science and technology really a good thing? The book “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson helps to convey the idea that science and technology are bad with evidence from the Victorian era. This idea goes along with the modern-day ideas of science and tech being negative. These negative effects consist of health issues, destroying the truth and science, and technology being utilized for negative purposes.
Science and technology are causing serious health issues. Back in the time of the Victorian era, when industrialization was just starting to occur, machines were used in place of manual work. These machines created a “chocolate colored pall” (Stevenson 15) that used to seem like a “nightmare” (Stevenson 16). This is because the dark fog would cover passengers in vehicles with a “lurid brown” (Stevenson 16) color. Constant exposure to this fog could not have had good outcomes health-wise. In the present day, this brown fog has been replaced
…show more content…
In the Victorian era, drugs were starting to be brought into play. From the book “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", the character Jekyll was using these drugs to transform himself into this evil being, his altar-ego, named Hyde. He was said to have “slaved to his original evil” (Stevenson 44) and how the drugs made Jekyll/Hyde “loose [his] stature” (Stevenson 44). Although this is a fiction-based book, the idea remains the same. Drugs are still being misused by many, for many of the same reasons. Mental health problems are a big factor in this drug misuse. This is because “drug use and mental health problems affect the same part of the brain” (NIH). The risk for drug addiction, which is “a brain disease” (NIH) where your body relies on drugs to function, constantly increases, making the only possible benefit, which is to “try and feel better”, be outweighed by the lifelong effects drug addiction