Jekyll And Mr Hyde Duality

Jekyll and Hyde
Critical Response “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson
Mode: Reading
Genre: Prose
Text: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Task: How does Robert Louis Stevenson explore the duality of human nature in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. It concerns the theme of duality in human nature. Duality is an interesting theme because it was a new idea around the time the story was written and it makes you think about the two very different sides of human nature, good and evil.

The novella was written in 1886, during the Victorian era. At that time, concepts such as duality were only just beginning to be studied. Generally, Victorians
associated everything with social class. They believed that if you were rich, you were good and meant a lot. If you were poor, you were a criminal and weren’t really important. Appearance was also used to judge people: “He is not easy to describe.
There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never met a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.”
This suggests that the reason Mr Enfield dislikes Hyde is because of his appearance, which, along with disliking people due to class, was quite common in the Victorian era, but duality brings in a completely different idea. It brings in the idea that people are neither good or bad, but that everyone is both, regardless of social class or appearance. The reason that other characters may take a disliking to Hyde when they see him is that from how he appears, they recognise that there is something evil in
him.

Stevenson doesn’t make it clear until near the end of the novella that Jekyll and Hyde are the same character. This helps the reader to understand duality because we think of Jekyll and Hyde as two separate people and focus on their differences. We see them as having two completely different personalities, one who appears to be good and the other who is evil. We get a clear idea of just how different two sides of one person can be: “I was the first that could plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty.”
This shows Jekyll has respectable behaviour in public, but also that he has more freedom than anyone else through the evil Hyde.
Jekyll is upper class so a respectable public image is necessary.. His character is wealthy, people like him and he lives in a nice house. Jekyll doesn’t accept responsibility for the things Hyde does, but he does accept that Hyde is a part of him: “I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could be rightly said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.”
This shows us how Jekyll believes in duality. He strongly believes that he has two sides. Hyde, on the other hand is described as if he is lower class. People see him as deformed and don’t respect him. Hyde doesn’t care about Jekyll. He is thought to want Jekyll out of the way so he can have what is in Jekyll’s will: “‘I thought it was madness,’ he said , as he placed the obnoxious paper in the safe, ‘and now I begin to fear it is
disgrace.’”
This shows the audience that Mr. Utterson believes that there are other motives behind the contents of the will, because he knows that Jekyll and Hyde are very different types of people that would not normally be together.

At the beginning, Jekyll has good intentions for his experiment. The whole idea was to separate the good and evil to eliminate the evil completely and help human kind resist the struggle between good and evil. This makes the reader feel sympathy towards the character because he means well. Rather than getting rid of the evil, he creates a completely evil version of himself, alongside himself. This shows that Jekyll is willing to put himself at risk for the greater good. As well as feeling sympathy however, we also feel like it is his fault because he shouldn’t have been messing around with things that he doesn’t totally understand. The dangers of scientific discovery were also of concern to Stevenson. The final chapter of the novella is very important in helping the reader to understand duality. Jekyll starts off by explaining that although he seems respectable and decent, he had repressed desires: “It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man.”
This tells the audience that he thought of duality by considering his own desires and duality. He is very aware of his bad side. He created Hyde by accident and ended up using him to fulfil these desires, but he eventually started to lose control. “I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.”
This shows a contrast in how Jekyll feels. He knows it is his fault, but he also knows that he is losing control. This shows how strong human duality can be.

Throughout the novella, the author uses different techniques to highlight duality, for example, dialogue is used to show a contrast between Jekyll and Hyde. “He was the usual cut and dry apothecary.”
This gives the impression of Jekyll being a typical, upper class, respectable doctor. Hyde however is described as giving “a strong feeling of deformity.” This shows how people would have a different opinion towards Hyde’s character than towards Jekyll’s. The fact the story is shown from different perspectives also helps the reader to understand the story. For example it isn’t until we get Dr Lanyon’s account that we know for sure Jekyll and Hyde are one person. It helps the story to make sense. I think that the order in which events unfold is helpful in the readers understanding of the novella. Things happen that don’t make sense but gradually, other things happen that make the pieces fit together. This gives the reader a better insight into duality by showing how different people’s opinions can be on the same thing.

Throughout the novella, duality is mostly portrayed as the struggle between good and evil. This is shown though Jekyll trying to keep Hyde locked away. Unfortunately, Hyde takes over. He is too strong for Jekyll to fight because Jekyll’s evil side has built up over the years through repressed wants and desires: “I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak, both in body and in mind,”
Jekyll keeping all of his desires hidden for so many years has made him too weak to resist Hyde. Part of the message that Stevenson was trying to get across was that there is duality between civilisation and savagery. We all live in a supposedly civilised society, but we are all capable of showing primitive behaviour. We act civilised but all humans have primitive desires: “severed in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man’s dual nature.”
This suggests the theory that everyone has two sides. Most of what we do involves the differences between savagery and civilisation. Religion also plays a part in the story. Victorians were very religious and they thought of the idea of messing with duality or psychology as playing god or going against nature. They had the idea that if you don’t understand something you shouldn’t try to change it. In some ways Stevenson is trying to show that duality is a good thing. Hyde being strong because of Jekyll keeping his duality repressed is a good example of this.

Stevenson wants the reader to think about duality because we should all think about our own duality and basic natures. He is trying to show that even though having good, respectable behaviour in public is a good thing, we shouldn’t keep all of our desires bottled up. We need to accept all parts of our personalities. Thinking about duality helped me to appreciate the story more because it made me consider my own duality and how everyone has different behaviour depending on the situation they are in.