What Is The Role Of Technology In Dr Jekyll And Hyde

In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mr. Henry Jekyll decides to take a potion to rid himself of the evil inside him and it is that use of technology to escape his problems that leads to his demise. From the beginning of time and the myths of Prometheus to the modern age and the creation of the Unabomber manifesto people have debated the role of science and technology in society and the Story of Dr. Jekyll is a prime example of what happens when technology is relied upon too much. The usage of science and new technology take away from the personal connections between people by providing a crutch and brings out the worst in people fundamentally destroying the social aspect of humans being human.

In modern society and in the story people become less connected and more independent. Mr. Jekyll shuts himself away and even when his friend Mr. Utterson comes to see him, Jekyll refuses, “On the 15th, he tried again, and was again refused, and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits”. (18) Mr Jekyll, an idiot completely refuses to see anyone, even his trusted friends, due to the fact that he ruined his life through his extreme lust for knowledge because of technology. Even in modern society very similar things happen when people use the internet and social media as a crutch to stay inside or avoid facing their own problems in reality. Overall Mr. Jekyll and people in society today share the same traits of isolation and solitude which break the connections between people which is reinforced and made easier through the usage of