The Duality of Human Nature in Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Stevenson's Use of Technique to Present Character and Atmosphere in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

One might question the extent to which Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are in fact a single character. Until the end of the story, the two seem nothing alike. Stevenson uses this marked contrast to make his point: every human being contains opposite forces within him or her, an alter ego that hides behind one's front. Correspondingly, to understand fully the significance of either Jekyll or Hyde, we must consider the two as looking at one single character. When viewed separately, neither is a very interesting personality. It is their relationship that gives the novel its power.

Though the novel is narrated by Jekyll’s old friend, now lawyer, Mr. Utterson, the major focal point in the novel is Jekyll’s experiment where he develops a potion to separate the good and the bad portions of one’s soul. After testing the potion on himself, the disgusting, sneaky, and sly Mr. Edward Hyde is born, or rather separated from Jekyll. By using characterization and symbolism in his novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson explores dualism in human nature, explaining how good and evil can coexist in a single being.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Since Stevenson believed that everyone has good and evil within, he makes a great deal of exaggerating both the evil and the good part of every human. The most obvious indication of this is that Dr. Jekyll always enjoyed doing evil things, even though his consciousness was troubling him whenever he did these evil acts, which lead to Dr. Jekyll separating the good and bad parts of him and thus creating Mr. Hyde. In doing so, he showed how every person is affected by two personalities which balance each other out, kind of like Yin and Yang. When he separated these to personalities, there was nothing to keep his bad side in check and therefore it ran loose without anything to hinder

In the novel “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde” there is a theme of good vs evil. Good being Dr. Jekyll and evil Mr Hyde they have the inner fight between themselves, because they are the same person.Robert louis Stevenson uses Diction,imagery,and details to contrast the character of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Stevenson discovered many themes that interested Victorian readers, one of which was the battle between “good versus evil”. Good being Dr Jekyll as he suffers through out the story trying to get rid of the evil creative Hyde. This theme shows the idea that everyone has a good and evil side to their personality. In addition the theme of rich and poor is also shown as we learn that Hyde’s mysterious dwelling is run down and neglected. In contrast Jekyll’s home is extremely well kept, majestic and beautiful.

“All human beings as we meet them are commingled out of good and evil.” Stevenson uses his main characters Jekyll and Hyde as a link between civilization and non-civilization. Stevenson observes man's relationship with good and evil. In the presence of others, Dr. Jekyll is both a prosperous and respected doctor; He is well established in his community because of his charitable works. When Dr. Jekyll seeks to separate and purify his good and evil natures, he transforms into his doppelganger who

The two sides that he has have two names for example, when he is good people know him as Jekyll and when he is a mean, scary, and old person then people know him as Hyde. This main character is no ordinary person that you just see their personality or attitude change, instead his look changes and personality changes. The methods on how Jekyll turns into Hyde is he drinks a potion that helps him change. During the story the characters do not know that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person but different personalities. As in the book said, "that man is not truly one, but truly two" (pg 61 Stevenson). Therefore, sometimes you never know when a person's personality

Mentally, the two main characters Dr.jekyll and Mr.Hyde were also extensively different. since Dr.Jekyll was a scientist he thought more with reasoning and rationality and acted with caution. The author Stevenson stated in the text, “made enough allowance for the complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil.” This displays that Mr.Hyde was filled with temper and did not act very

Robert Louis Stevenson writes about the duality of human nature in “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Stevenson use Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde characters to express the belief about human duality by introducing them as two different characters, instead of just one character. He describes Dr. Jekyll as “a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty (Stevenson 19)”, and Mr. Hyde is “pale, dwarfish (Stevenson 17)”and not human like. The way Stevenson described them as opposites make us think that they are two different people, but throughout the story, he builds up clues to tell us that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person. The story is trying tell us that everybody has a good and evil side of them, and they also

This side of his identity isn't dynamic; however, he chooses to initiate it through his analysis. This side winds up dynamic through the persona of Mr. Hyde - a criminal man who perpetrates pitiless demonstrations of savagery against others. Through this adjustment in Jekyll's character, Stevenson demonstrates the duality in human instinct - the possibility that everybody can do good and insidiousness

Although, Jekyll is fully aware of what Hyde is doing, he wakes with a clear memory the morning after. One example of this is when he remembers the trampling of the little girl and the killing of Sir Davis. Jekyll could not live under societies expectations and rules which ultimately led to the evil side of himself known as Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is a socially acceptable repressed individual who still has a dark side but he does a fine job hiding it. Hyde on the other hand is completely free and liberated. “Hyde is a metamorphic creature, adhering to the elusiveness of Stevenson’s creation: the initial frames depict Hyde as a dark shadow, undistinguished from the abstract cityscape that he aims to possess” (Becoming Hyde)

Throughout the novel, Jekyll is driven by his motive to discover his darker side. Because this story takes place in the Victorian era where there are only two types of people: good and bad, Jekyll struggles

The various level or narrator positions in the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are frequently changing; this can lead to confusion for the reader. Stevenson does also use changes of narration to provide a clearer duality of man. Furthermore, this kind of divided self is well known in the Gothic literature. Gothic literature uses doppelgängers or duality to create a feeling of instability. The Gothic fiction’s doppelganger reflects the inescapable anxiety through a malevolent other that destabilizes the cohesion and leads to a self-destruction(Dryden p.39 ).In

Stevenson's Representation of Good and Evil in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde