How does Stevenson explore the duality of human nature in the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Essay

Stevenson had a precise strict upbringing from the start. In fact I would go to say he was everyplace stifled with ideas and eventually came to hate hypocrisy and rebelled. Since he had just liberated himself from his Calvinistic teachings I assume it was whence he debated with the idea of near and deplorable in every mavin. Therefore then creating the idea of dichotomy in human nature. It was then a theme was born.Many issues argon raised by Robert Louis Stevensons The unusual case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and at the time of 1885 these issues were impossible and scandalous. One of the particular issues that Stevenson uncovered was the idea that there be two sides to everyone and that these sides could be separated, good and evil. As healthful as this Stevensons novella explores how both of these sides be contained within a person. This book was written around the time of Charles Darwins theory of evolution and explanation fits perfectly with his theory. For typeface, D r Jekyll and Mr Hyde are two different steps in evolution. Dr Jekyll is the very pink of proprieties, celebrated too. And Hyde is anthropoid similar. Darwins theory basically was set to prove that people are desc winduped from a confusable species to apes. It would seem that these two sides are together in one body but unruffled one is lost or even unfathomed. Stevensons shocking novella heightened a drama amongst dainty fastness middle class citizens because this idea was a difficult one for them to grasp. However as time went on this idea became less uncommon, for example in 1954 Lord of the Flies by William Golding was published. Golding believed that if people were left detached without democracy and order, there sense of humanity and morals would disintegrate, therefore allowing primitive and even animalistic instincts to pinch through.Dr Jekyll is the perfect flake to help expose this duality of human nature he also helps the reviewer to expose Stevensons own curios ity on the subject. Jekylls hunger to prove that you can in effect split the good from the evil led to him creating an evil alter ego Mr Hyde. Stevenson also shows in his novella that if you over blockugle the evil side of a personality it mentally, emotionally and especially in this book, even physically can take over. For example through his transformations, the evil Mr Hyde becomes continuously stronger and subjugation of the good still endue in Dr Jekyll begins. Dr Jekyll is constantly tempted by Hyde, because he can completely disconnect himself from the evil and therefore has no attachment or guilt, spring headlong into the sea of liberty. As Mr Hyde Jekyll feels he can in the end be free. I believe the reason Hyde becomes so strong is because for most of Dr Jekylls life he suppressed the evil for too long. Unlike Mr Enfield who is a well known man virtually town, he often gave into evil urges in short and harmless bursts behind closed doors.However like in any good novell a the idea of good triumphing over evil comes into part, when Jekyll puts an end to his life and therefore Hydes too. However you still have to ponder if good actually did win because there was still evil committed and that is all Mr Hyde wanted to achieve. Stevenson was very clever in the naming of the character Hyde, this was apparently linked to the article hide and how in the Victorian era evil was very often hidden a commission from prying eyes. Therefore this is why when anyone reading the novella would have been appalled upon reaching the end to find that Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were in fact the same person. As well as Hyde adding secrecy and anticipation to the novella he creates the idea of the shocking, and maybe even sickening the reader.He is the subtile image of human evil, make full with violence, discourtesy and self-importance. It was non only his actions that sickened people, if was his appearance. In fact Mr Hyde was often described as deformed, and perchance t hat is what evil is a deformation from the good in all of us. Instantly people could feel a dislike to him, one valet de chambre in the novel quoted this I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at low gear sight the desire to kill him. For someone so respectable in parliamentary law to even consider killing a man portrays the utter horror everyone felt towards Hydes appearance.The word loathing expresses an extreme extent of hatred and the fact that a person felt that for Mr Hyde upon looking at him is tragic. But then this links back to him being deformed, in fact it is even stated that Mr Hyde donates a strong feeling of deformity in fact umteen harsh comments are made over Hyde, he is illustrated as hardly human, pale and dwarfish and even referred to as a devil, if I ever read Satans signature upon a face and there are many more horrific descriptions of Hyde, but at the same Jekyll enjoys having him, he enjoys having a vicarious existence.Eventually everything takes a turn for the worst and Dr Jekyll learns that something has to change, Jekyll micturates this when Hydes evil becomes strong enough to commit a crime of unmatched ferocity, Hyde was so evil he was capable of murder. 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. Madman is the word that strikes me first and puts a clear image in my head of not just the Scrooge like character from before but now a man of pure sin and hatred. The words like brandishing and stamping exposes the madness and brutality of Hyde. You are also revealed to his short temper from the artistic style all of a sudden which portrays the fact that the murder was probably unprovoked. His murder of Mr Carew was in no way calculated or even intelligent, it was just pure, unstructured evil.The novella is not only consisting of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. There are separate characters these characters are almost apply as tools to further endorse Stevensons point about human nature and the duality within it. One of these characters as a mentioned earlier is Mr Enfield. He is a man of status, a man of grace and decorum and he also comes across as an comprehendible person. Another character is Mr Utterson he is a very good example of a double sided character. Cold, meagre and embarrassed in discourse backward in sentiment, lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow desirable. He is first described with very negative adjectives, for example cold, but then by twisting it to loveable shows the two different sides to his character. Smaller characters are just as interesting as the more mentionable ones, for example Hydes maid. She is described as evil face smoothed by hypocrisy but her address were excellent.You clearly chance on the word evil, which creates a harsh impression of her right from the start. However by the end of the sentence you begin to understand that she is full of poise and good manners, which is normally the first thing you notice in a person, not how evil they look. But Stevenson once again does things differently and makes the idea of evil the most important thing in the sentence. Another good example of a double sided character is the officer. The fact that his eye lighted up with professional ambition shows a very childish spot of being selfish and only hoping for personal gain. Stevenson is very clever because he demonstrates that every character has a dominant side, but it is sometimes not evident.Characters are not the only tool that Stevenson uses to explore deeper into the duality of human nature. For example, London itself is described as a place of two halves. Good and evil, light and moody and in fact how those things blend into each other. Soho is one of the evil parts of London, and where Hyde lives when he is not Dr Jekyll. This theatre of operations is often described as in the typical horror clich, with darkness and fog. some city in a nightmare. The city is referred to as a nightmare, which shows how shielded the life of an upper class Victorian was and how they would never venture into the darker side of society but sometimes darkness has to be faced to catch it.Throughout the novella the fog and darkness is used, effectively to hide the secrets. Not only the environment is used but even Jekylls home shows the duality, there is the front door, which the respectable Dr Jekyll uses. However as well as this there is a back door, which Mr Hyde often skulks through and stays in the laboratory, a infinitesimal like Frankensteins laboratory, which is yet another horror clich. The back door is also hidden to the exoteric eye and is one that is chosen to be ignored, like the ways the Victorians dismiss anything that could disrupt a repute or status.To begin with Jekyll is not overcome with doubt or guilt or even oftentimes emotion, no matter how atrocious. He distances himself and pretends that nothing is wrong , much like in Lord of the Flies when Ralph and gluttonous refuse to take responsibility for their part Simons death. But as time goes on Dr Jekyll begins to realise the horror of what is going and on, as well as becoming weaker, while Hyde becomes stronger and somehow it still takes a while for Jekyll to try and let Hyde go. This poses the question did Jekyll have a deeper more devious yearning for Hyde other than scientific truth? Dr Jekyll admits to in his final confession which is the last chapter in the book.The message is clear and could be depicted by anyone therefore this would have been shocking to a Victorian. Everyone does have the potential to be good or evil. But it is up to a person what is done with evil in us all, thus far the extremes of a personality may not be as bold as in this novella. The story does make you think, if anyone is capable of evil, what am I capable of? If my life is a constant battle between the good and evil in me, then how do I know if I mysel f have the dominance to conquer the evil within? And I think it is these questions that Stevenson wanted people to ponder.