Jekyll and Hyde Literature Analysis

Jekyll and Hyde Lit Analysis In The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson displays how evil ultimately overcomes good.
Stevenson uses characterization to demonstrate man’s inability to partition benign behavior from wickedness. Specifically, Jekyll and Hyde illustrate how evil behavior ultimately overcomes good. This is shown when Jekyll is sitting in a local park. In Jekyll’s statement, Jekyll says, “and at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering” (66). Hyde finally and inalterably begins to dominate the Jekyll-Hyde relationship; Jekyll begins to transform into his darker self spontaneously without taking his potion. At this point, Jekyll longs to transform into Hyde revealing his dependence on the evil creature. It appears that Jekyll most vocally expresses his desires when longing to turn into Hyde. As Hyde, he loses his ability to form language completely, falling victim to the instincts within. This demonstrates Jekyll being overcome by his evil side, Mr. Hyde. Another character that displays duality is Mr. Utterson. Although Utterson exhibits honesty and kindness throughout the novel, he still lets his vile side take over. The narrator explains that “no sooner was Mr. Utterson alone that night, than he locked the note into a safe where it reposed from that time forward” (30). In this part of the book, Utterson is hiding a note, which he believes is Jekyll’s attempt to cover up a murder, he has received earlier that night. Thus, even when he suspects Jekyll covering up for a murder, he reports nothing of it to anyone, preferring to set the matter aside. Utterson’s insistence on propriety and the maintenance of appearance bring out his overwhelming evil side. It is clear that a seemingly upstanding person, like Utterson, can also possess an evil potential hidden within.
One major way Stevenson portrays the overcoming of evil is through the setting. Although Hyde lives in the well-kept city of London, the location of his dwelling is more of an eye sore. He lives in an alley made up of various well lit stores and homes except for his. Just the sight of his front door, as well as his house in its entirety, is enough to generate an overwhelming feeling of discomfort toward the alley. The house is described as “a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discolored wall on the upper; and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence. The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained” (6). This depiction of the house sends shutters throughout the reader. Beforehand, Stevenson describes a street with nice houses and stores which is symbolically “ruined” by Hyde’s house. Hyde’s house represents the evil undertaking the good, or the rest of the street. Another area Stevenson uses setting is Jekyll’s laboratory and house. Jekyll lives in a well-appointed home, characterized by Stevenson as having “a great air of wealth and comfort” (16). This house starts out as a smoothly run home with bustling servants keeping everything in order. By the end of the novel, the residence had various items strewn about with the servants all huddled together out of terror. Although Jekyll had an orderly home at the start, the evil events throughout the book destroyed order in the house. A third way Stevenson displays the overcoming of good by evil is through symbols. Stevenson shows the overtaking of atrocity through the physical appearance of Hyde. His physical ugliness and deformity symbolizes his moral hideousness and warped ethics. He is described by Enfield as having “something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable” (10). Evil has completely taken over the appearance of Hyde. He is later given the physical traits of being short, hairy, and grotesque, all of which are not desirable. Hyde’s features have been taken over by the powerful vile force within. As well as Hyde's appearance, Stevenson also symbolizes this recurring theme with a cane. In the book, Jekyll receives a cane from Utterson as a gift which Hyde later uses to kill Sir Danvers Carew. An eyewitness from the murder says “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” (21). The cane was originally a gift symbolizing kindness and friendship from Utterson to Jekyll. When Hyde takes over, he uses this cane to essentially beat Carew mercilessly to death. Even what begins as a symbol for good ends up as a murder weapon.