The Duality of Man

The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a novel written in the victorian era by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson had this novel published in 1886, which was met with much success almost immediately. The novel was a hit because of the philosophies of the day and how it connected to the novel.

This novel portrays an investigation into a couple of deaths of innocent people by a man that one character describes as such, "It wasn't like a man; it was like some damned juggernaut." This description along with the many others in the book paint the villain in this story as a gross, evil, debased character who is supernatural in nature. This was important because the victorian era was philosophically moving away from a rational mode of thinking. The people became fascinated with fanciful tales full of mystery and a sort of supernatural grimness. The mysteriousness of the story is deepened when we find out that this evil character named Mr. Hyde was the evil incarnate from inside a respected doctor in town known as Dr. Jekyll. This jarring connection is intriguing to people of the victorian era and even our day because a perceived good man isn't necessarily all he is thought to be. We have a sick fascination with the gruesome and grim and so when we find it we want to see it and hear about it and read about it. 

There is a dual nature to man. We are both good and evil.

The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, updated in writing style and language choice, could easily be a hit novel in our day. I feel that our time period shares many similarities with the victorian era. Many of our movies and novels today feature grim scenarios with mystery, death, and some degree of horror. The victorian era novels were quite similar, as the people of that time wanted an escape from rational thought. Real life had become boring, and a fantasy world could bring excitement to the people. We in our day have this same problem. Many of us are bored of our lives because they are boring and unadventurous. Many turn to social media, video games, and others things. For a large part of the population, we turn to horror, mystery, or creepy movies and novels to get a break from reality. 

This novel rouses many ideas which make for great discussion.  In the novel, while Dr Jekyll is explaining what led to his predicament, he says, “I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.” The main idea from the story is the balance of good and evil in the world. Jekyll says that man is both radically good and evil. Man is what he decides to favor, but can never quash the other. A good man is good because he favors the good, but the evil is still there.   The story makes the case that there is evil in everyone and that when evil is indulged, that side of us can take over and we can lose ourselves in it. Even good people can become evil. The story toys with us, making us question who is good and who is evil and how we could be deceived by them. Which side of yourself do you show? Which do you hide?







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era#Society_and_culture

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 30 Oct. 2018.

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