Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Essay -- Jekyll Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson This novella, although unapparent, is intertwined with many allegorical undertones. Stevenson uses the book to criticise Victorian society and its hypocritical existence. The most significant thematic concern of the novella is the continually revisited theme of the duality of man and the camouflaged evil that lies deep within the human race. Stevenson was writing before the period in which the great psychologist Sigmund Freud was researching the human mind, so in some ways Stevenson was ahead of his time in resolving the 'mystery of the mind'. Stevenson's novella, after being added to by his wife on the book's revision, contained much evidence of these theories of the human psyche. Armed with this weapon, Stevenson used the novella to attack the hypocritical ways of the Victorian society he lived in. The theme plays on the idea of a part of the unconscious, the 'id'. The id is the Hyde part of a human, which is of course repressed, undeveloped and primitive, with the taste for hunting and sex. Then on the other hand is the 'superego', your conscience and morality, with the "floater" between the two, the 'ego'. Jekyll stresses that, "man is not truly one, but truly two." This all links to the theme of hypocrisy in Victorian society. Jekyll admits, "...and it was as a secret sinner that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation." Stevenson tries to reveal the double lives that were being lived around this era. Some critics believe that this is a self-confession of Stevenson's sinful past. Jekyll is the perfect representation of hypocrisy, as he is described as the "spotless Jekyll" yet continuously lying to Utterson and one could argue, soci... ...en to partake in his, "scientific balderdash". One more symbol is apparent. The key to the laboratory is a symbol of power and authority and in this case, the key holds satanic power, therefore Hyde is the one who has the power to change back into Jekyll. When Utterson and Poole search for the key and fail to find it, they cannot overcome evil. This also means that they do not have access to evil, as they are sinless in the story. It is clear that Jekyll started with selfish intentions when he strived for a better self, this is why the experiment only stripped Jekyll of the Jekyll veneer, leaving the Hyde interior. And that Jekyll is in fact a host for the constant bombardment of metaphors, especially with hypocrisy as Jekyll represents hypocrisy and the Victorian society itself. "In Hyde, you have no Jekyll but in Jekyll, you always have some Hyde"