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

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis StevensonThis novella, although unapparent, is intertwined with manyallegorical undertones. Stevenson uses the book to criticise Victoriansociety and its hypocritical existence. The most significant thematicconcern of the novella is the continually revisited theme of theduality of man and the camouflaged evil that lies deep within thehuman race.Stevenson was writing before the period in which the greatpsychologist Sigmund Freud was researching the human mind, so in whateverways Stevenson was ahead of his time in resolving the mystery of themind. Stevensons novella, after being added to by his wife on thebooks revision, contained much evidence of these theories of thehuman psyche.Armed with this weapon, Stevenson used the novella to attack thehypocritical ways of the Victorian society he lived in. The themeplays on the mind of a part of the unconscious, the id. The id isthe Hyde part of a human, which is of course repressed, undevelopedand pri mitive, with the taste for hunting and sex. Then on the otherhand is the superego, your conscience and morality, with thefloater amidst the two, the ego. Jekyll stresses that, man isnot truly one, but truly two.This all links to the theme of hypocrisy in Victorian society. Jekylladmits, ...and it was as a secret sinner that I at last fell beforethe assaults of temptation. Stevenson tries to reveal the doublelives that were being lived around this era. Some critics believe thatthis is a self-confession of Stevensons sinful past. Jekyll is theperfect mission of hypocrisy, as he is described as thespotless Jekyll yet continuously lying to Utterson and one couldargue, soci... ...en to partake in his, scientific balderdash.One more symbol is apparent. The key to the laboratory is a symbol ofpower and authority and in this case, the key holds satanic power,therefore Hyde is the one who has the power to change tooshie intoJekyll. When Utterson and Poole search for the key and fail to findit, they cannot overcome evil. This also means that they do not haveaccess to evil, as they are sinless in the story.It is clear that Jekyll started with selfish intentions when hestrived for a better self, this is why the experiment only strippedJekyll of the Jekyll veneer, leaving the Hyde interior. And thatJekyll is in fact a host for the unvarying bombardment of metaphors,especially with hypocrisy as Jekyll represents hypocrisy and theVictorian society itself.In Hyde, you have no Jekyll but in Jekyll, you always have some Hyde