Jekyll And Hyde Essay

Man is not truly one, but truly two. Discuss the theme of the duality of human nature in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a gold mine of themes ranging from religion to science and from esotericism to the duality of human nature.The latter, though, seems to be the most interesting and complex at the same time. Stevenson succeeds in presenting the theme of duality. This is presented all throughout the text, starting with Jekyll and Hyde’s physical appearances, Jekyll’s constant search for separation and is further presented in Jekyll and Hyde's hatred for one another.

One of the very first signs of duality the reader can observe is the different physical aspects of Jekyll and Hyde. After meeting Hyde, Utterson states that he "was pale and dwarfish . . . [and] gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation." These characteristics could very well imply that Hyde is a sad, belittled person by society due to his physical appearance. On the other hand, while describing Dr. Jekyll, Utterson remarks that he is "a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty." Considering his physical appearance and higher status being a doctor, it is only normal for his entourage to consider him a confident man with a respectable opinion of himself. After both characters have been described physically, the reader can come to a conclusion that despite his physical appearance, Hyde admits that he "felt younger, lighter, happier in body [...] [He] knew [himself] at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked.’’ As for Utterson, he felt an "imperious desire to carry [his] head high and wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public," although he had to suppress his deepest desires "with an almost morbid sense of shame." Utterson’s use of physical appearance as binary opposition shows the reader the importance of the differences in these two characters. A pale man with dwarfism and a large man confident in each stride suggests that each man juxtaposes each other’s mental and psychological state.

The reader can also understand throughout the novella that Jekyll has a deep desire to separate his moral side, Jekyll, from his immoral side, Hyde. After having led a life of study, controlling his desires, Dr. Jekyll is tormented by "those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man's dual nature." He thus succeeds in creating a potion allowing him to both physically and mentally distance himself from any sinister impulses. This allows him to keep his stature, which is essentially pure, as his body performs no bad. With a clear conscience, Jekyll lives peacefully for a few months until Lanyon dies because of a secret revelation from Jekyll. We learn that this is the result of seeing the transformation from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde, having scared him almost literally “to death.” Had Jekyll been able to control his immoral side to grow out of him, he would not have been tormented by remorse after Lanyon’s death. Also, Hyde killed Sir Danvers Carew upon transforming without any warning because Jekyll’s urges became too strong to control. After realizing that he could no longer control his urges as he used to, Jekyll became more and more cautious. It is upon realizing that he could

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