Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are also symbols of the duality of the Victorian Age: on the one hand, Jekyll represents the public face of the Victorian gentleman with his respectable behaviour and good manners; on the other, through the several crimes that Mr Hyde commits at night in the notorious streets of London, Stevenson shows the dark side of people caused by malevolence and cruelty.

Even the name Hyde is linked to this controversial theme: it means to hide, to do what you cannot do openly.

Another important theme in the novel  is the concept of social reputation and appearance. Such values were considered essential in the Victorian society. 

Despite the many serious problems that were affecting especially the lower classes, the Victorians showed a tendency to put up a veil of moral dechorum and sobriety in order to maintain a good reputation and avoid scandals. 

Dr. Jekyll, of course, is a good example of this struggle as he tries to keep up a gentlemanly appearance in society. His motivation for creating Hyde is not just scientific, but moved by curiosity and desire to go beyond the limits of nature. We see how excited he is when he succeeds in transforming himself into Hyde. His success makes him feel powerful as he realizes that through Mr Hyde he will be able to do whatever he wants without affecting his reputation. 

Also Mr Utterson is a good example of the Victorian model: he has perfect manners, and is systematic, rational, conscientious.

Friendship is another significant theme that is analyzed in the first chapter. The unusual relationship between the two men is portrayed as superficial and based on personal interests and appearance. Utterson and Jekyll are old friends, who see each other on a regular basis, but are unable to communicate. Jekyll also entrusts Utterson with his financial affairs, so their relationship is both personal and professional. At the end of the novel, their friendship will however prove sincere as the lawyer, moved by his affection for the doctor, will show his concern for his friend and decides to investigate on his strange case.

(VITTORIA C)

 

Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because it came to him one night in a nightmarish dream, in which he saw a man in a laboratory who had just swallowed a drug and turned into a different being. He was so enraptured with his dream that he got furious at his wife Fanny for waking him. 

After that nighmare, Stevenson had the idea of writing a story in which the connection between the Gothic aspects of this horror story and his harsh criticism of the hypocrisy and the double nature of the Victorian society would become the main themes of his masterpiece novel. 

Stevenson could not shake how the story came to him, envisioning it before it was written. The artistic belief that something imprinted had to be recognized as a form of inspiration seized Stevenson. It is for this reason that he was able to compose the drafts of the book so quickly. 

Stevenson was moreover driven by the need to explore the different polarities that existed within human beings. This duality of the human soul is a reflection of the same type of binary reality that governs the Victorian society.

The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde refers also to the tradition of the detective stories which became very popular at that time.

 

 

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde could be considered both as a gothic horror novel, as well as a detective story as it contains elements of both genres.

The novel explores dark themes such as the natural and the supernatural. It also includes elemnts of mystery, suspense and secrets which remain unrevealed to the end.

Furthermore Stevenson exploits the gothic themes of monstrousity, scientific experimentation and ambiguity to dig into the theme of the double which is revealed to the reader by the horryfing transformation of Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde.

Further gothic elements can be related to the setting and the night scenes. Nearly every Gothic novel takes place in a strange, mysterious location, like the dark, empty streets of London at night.
Moreover, Stevenson makes use of Gothic expression with the aim to create a dark atmosphere of evil.

As a typical detective story, the novel includes the presence of a detective, who solves a crime, using clues and bodies of evidence. In this case, the investigator is Mr Utterson, who uses clues to solve the mysterious behaviour of Mr Hyde and the strange things that happen to Dr Jekyll.

 

In many ways, the Victorians were hypocrites because they claimed to be moral and pious in ways they were not. They shut their eyes to whatever was ugly and unpleasant around them. To some extent, they perhaps hoped to draw attention away from their own double conscience by pointing out the hypocritical attitude in others.

The pious nature of Victorian society meant that many people had to suppress their feelings and primitive instincts. This resulted in the common desire to emphasise 'good heart' and civilised manners due to the fact that religion condemned all ‘evil' thoughts.

The importance of this value system is clear in the way that upright respectable men such as Utterson and Enfield, the protagonists of this first chapter, avoid gossip at all costs; they see gossip as a great destroyer of reputation.

The text describes these men as reserved—so reserved, in fact, that they can enjoy a lengthy walk during which neither of them says a word. Declining to indulge in their more impulsive thoughts and feelings, they display a mutual disgust for sensation and gossip.
The Victorian value system largely privileged reputation over reality, and this prioritization is reflected both in the narrator’s remarks about Utterson and Enfield and in the characters’ own remarks about gossip and blackmail. 
In a society so focused on reputation, blackmail proves a particularly potent force, since those possessing and concerned with good reputations will do anything they can to preserve them. Thus, when Hyde tramples the little girl, Enfield and the crowd blackmail him into paying off her family.
The episode described in "The Story of the Door" reflects the double nature of the Victorian society. 

While Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield are walking along the street they notice a weird house. The house is presented as an example of ambivalent setting because it has two facades, which are one the opposite of the other, just like the two faces of Victorian conscience. 

Both facades have a door: the one on the front is used by the well-reputed doctor and Victorian gentleman who leads a very sober life; the one on the back is used only at night by the mysterious Mr Hyde, who leads a life of crimes and depravity. 

The house with its double facades represents also the two opposite sides of a human being: the official one is all devoted to morality, decor and good position in society; the back door leads to mystery, corruption and vices. 

The character of Dr Jekyll represents the respectable gentleman of the Victorian wealthy classes, who believes in the Victorian values of personal duty, hard work, respectability, authority, charity and philantrophy, chastity and patriotism. 

Conversely, the character of Mr Hyde represents the dark side of the human being made up of animal instincts and brutality. Hyde is also a monster representing the corruption of society and its hypocrisy in hiding the big social problems of the Victorian age. 
In the novel the duplicity of the individual thus reflects the duplicity of the Victorian compromise.

The final statement is Dr Jekyll’s confession to Mr Utterson about his relationship with Mr Hyde.

Dr Jekyll had become aware early in his life that there are two sides in every human being, a good and a bad. In the course of his scientific and medical studies, he came to the conclusion that man is composed of two sides. He thus began to wonder whether his evil side could be isolated and contained in a separate body. After much experimentation, he discovered a chemical formula that he believed would strip away his good side and leave only the evil.

One night, having acquired the final ingredient, Dr Jekyll mixed the potion, drank it  and turned into Edward Hyde. Delighted by his discovery, Dr Jekyll acquired a flat for Hyde and drew up the will that Utterson so dislikes. Hyde began living a life of sin and immorality, though Dr Jekyll does not specify what he did. One night, Dr Jekyll went to bed as himself and woke up as Hyde: he had transformed overnight without having taken the potion. As this occurred more frequently, Dr Jekyll realised he had to choose between himself and Hyde. After much hesitation, he chose himself. For two months he lived a life of charity and altruism, but then began to live the sinful life of Hyde. Soon he murdered Sir Danvers Carew. With this, Dr Jekyll decided he must cut his links with Hyde for good, but some days later he was once again transformed without having taken the potion, this time in a park after having an impure thought. This was the occasion for him to send an urgent letter to Dr Lanyon in order to have the special ingredients so that he could change back into Dr Jekyll. Following the meeting with Dr Lanyon, Dr Jekyll began to require more and more of the potion to keep himself from transforming into Hyde.
Eventually, he realised that the initial batch of the particular salt he had ordered had been contaminated, which is why it had had a magical effect. Without this salt Dr Jekyll knew he was doomed. The narrative ends with Dr Jekyll’s last words before he is transformed into Hyde for the final time. He doesn’t know whether Hyde will surrender himself or commit suicide.
Jekyll is frightened when he realizes that Hyde will eventually take control entirely over himself, so that he decides to commit suicide. He considers this final resolution as the only way to eliminate Henry Hyde and to save himself from a life of crimes and depravity.

In this statement many fields of science are involved, for example: medicine, chemistry, psychology. Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hide was written during the 19th century, which was a period of new discoveries and revolutionary theories, that challenged the traditional biblical version of creation and the origins of man. 

 

 

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyse are actually the same person, however they are one the opposite of the other. Mr Hyde is evil, ugly with physical deformations, short and every time someone looks in his eyes feels a sense of anguish and wickedness. On the contrary Dr Jekyll is a" large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty with something of a slyish cast“. 

In the role of Mr Hyde, Jekyll will at the beginning feel stronger and free from all moral constraints. However, at the end he will lose control over Hyde´s actions and will be disgusted about Hyde's depravity. Jekyll wants to stop Hyde, also because of the several crimes Hyde has comitted. When he realises that he cannot control both his action and his mutation in Hyde, there is only one choice that he can make: he must eliminate Hyde. So, Dr Jekyll decides to kill himself to stop Hyde, hence we understand the hidden meaning of his name “Jekyll” from the French“Je kill” - I kill.

The novel “Dr jekyll and Mr Hyde” can be considered both a detective and a Gothic novel.

The plot develops through the happening of many crimes, for example the murder of a member of the Parliament, and is based on an investigation, which is led by Mr Utterson, and revolves around a crime that is unrevealed until the end. 
The mistery of the real identity of Mr Hyde and his relationship with the well-reputed Dr Jekyll is a mystery in the novel. Stevenson uses these characters to represent the duality of the human mind. In this, Stevenson anticipates what later Freud will investigate in his theories about the unconscious and psycho-analysis and which will lead to the discovery of such concepts as: Id, Ego, Superego.

The Gothic element of “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is mainly represented by the theme of the double and the struggle between the good against the evil side of man. This is revealed to the reader by the horrifying transformation of Dr Jekyll into the murderer Hyde. The transformation is generated by the fear of regression, as both men are revealed to be the same person. 
Other Gothic elements are: 

The theme of double is also symbolised throughout the novel by the city of London, which is split in two: one smart and wealthy side where Dr Jekyll and Mr Utterson live and work as opposed to another dark, shabby area of London, where immoral behaviours are expected and less noticeable.

Edward Hyde is a separate personality living in the same body of Henry Jekyll. 
“Hyde” is Jekyll transformed into his dark, monstruous side.

Dr. Jekyll decides to make a scientific experiment in order to eliminate the evil from the world. He thus discovers a scientific formula that will allow him to turn into Mr Hyde.
One day one of John's friends dies suddenly. Before he dies, however, the friend gives John a letter. He says it should only be opened if Dr. Jekyll either dies or disappears. Dr. Jekyll starts acting even weirder and shuts himself up inside his laboratory. Eventually, his butler and John break into the laboratory, concerned because the voice they heard inside is not the doctor's. Once inside, they find Mr. Hyde dressed in Dr. Jekyll's clothes and dead. He has committed suicide.

ANSWER IS INCOMPLETE

Dr Jekyll becomes aware of this transformation on the day on which he sees Mr. Hyde in the mirror of his room for the first time. Immediately Jekyll drinks some more potion in the hope of turning back to himself. Although he suffers as usual, he will retain the body and face of Henry Hyde.
After this episode Jekyll understands that there are only two possible choices left to him: he can either let Mr Hyde take full control of him and indulge in a life of crimes and depravity or choose the moral way and try to eliminate Hyde. In the end - as his name suggests - Dr Jekyll will kill Hyde by committing suicide.

The novel narrates the story of Dr. Jekyll, who is a well reputed gentleman and scientist in Victorian London.

With his experiments, Dr Jekyll is able to develop a poison for dividing the human nature: the good one from the evil one. The doctor decides to experiment the poison on himself and his identity will be separated in two parts: the good Dr. Jekyll and the mean Mr. Hyde. 

When Dr Jekyll turns into Hyde, he becomes repugnant and evil and, as such, he gives vent to his primitive instincts. With the passing of time, Dr. Jekyll will lose control over Mr. Hyde and will have to ingest the poison more and more times a day. 
As months pass Dr. Jekyll will withdraw from societyand confine himself in the laboratory. One day, a servant in the house hears screams coming from  laboratory; worried, he calls for Lawyer Utterson, who is Dr. Jekyll’s close friend. After smashing down the door, the lawyer and the servant will find Mr. Hyde dead on the floor, wearing Dr. Jekyll's clothes. 
The novel ends with Utterson's reading Dr Jekyll's final statement of the case, in which the doctor confesses the truth about his experiments and his decision to kill his evil part, Mr. Hyde. 
The novel is told in third-person omniscient narration, through events which are often seen from the point of view of Mr. Utterson.

The reader is aware that the narration is omniscient because from time to time the narrator provides information about Mr. Utterson's opinions and knowledge of the case. Also, we get the impression that the narrator is following Mr. Utterson, as if were recording everything he is doing on a video camera and providing us some background information to understand the story.

The novel “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885, is set halfway between London in England and Edimburgh in Scotland in the late 19th Century. 

The novel has a complex structure with four narrators: Enfield, Utterson, Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll. All events are narrated through letters. 

The author uses a number of different techniques for the narrative structure. 

While the first eight chapters are told from the point of view of Mr. Utterson, the nineth chapter is presented from the point of view of Mr. Lanyon and the tenth is from the perspective of Mr. Jekyll. 

The novel is also non linear, which means that the events are not narrated in chronological order. Moreover, the author decided to combine third-person and first-person narrative. The novel begins with a third-person narrative through the eyes of Mr. Utterson  but then Stevenson intrudes Dr. Lanyon's perspective. In the closing chapter, the narrative turns into first-person narrative. 

Mr. Utterson is the first main character presented in the novel. He is a lovable lawyer, who represents the ideal Victorian gentleman because of his seriousness and severity with himself. Utterson is that type of person who inspires trust because he always maintains order and decorum. 

Mr. Jekyll, a friend of Mr. Utterson, is a well-know and respected physician. He’s 50 years old and the author describes him as a “large, well-made, smooth-faced…[with] every mark of capacity and kindness”. 
Mr. Jekyll represents the Victorian stereotype of a well-reputed gentleman in his community for his intellects and his gentlemanly qualities. 

Conversely, Mr. Hyde represents Jekyll’s double. He lives in the dark and has caused terror in his neighbourhood. He's pure evil and will have complete dominance over Mr. Jekyll.  When people see him, they feel the urge to strike out at him and kill him because his appearance brings out the worst evil in other people. 
A third important character in the story is Dr. Lanyon, who is a close friend of Jekyll. Although they both believe in science, when Lanyon sees Jekyll's transformation into Hyde, he gets scared about him. 

The minor characters in this novel are: Mr. Poole, a servant that had worked for Mr. Jekyll for years and Mr. Guest, an expert in handwriting who is Mr. Utterson confidant. 

The setting reflects the hypocrisy of Stevenson's contemporary society. In Edimburgh the rich NewTown, with its big squares and elegant palaces, was exactly the opposite of the poor districts in the Old Town, where crime was a pressing problem. In London, the respectable West End clashed with the misery and bad living conditions of the poor in the East End slums. 

This ambivalence in the setting chosen by Stevenson converges in Jekyll's house having two façades. Just like the two faces of Dr. Jekyll, also his house has two doors situated on the opposite sides: while the front door is used by Dr. Jekyll, the one on the rear is used only by Mr. Hyde at night. Dr. Jekyll has a virtuous life, his face is handsome, his hands are white and well-shaped and his body is large. On the contrary, Mr. Hyde is pale and dwarfish, his hands are dark and hairy and he gives an impression of deformity.

The mistery is solved only in the end when Dr. Jekyll, who is the last narrator, gives his full confession about the things that he and Hyde have done in a final letter, which is also his testament. This narrative device, which is typical of a detective story, increases suspense and provides entertainment to the readers.

Many people believed in the science of physiognomy, which held that one could identify a criminal by physical appearance. 
Additionally, Hyde’s small stature may represent the fact that, as Jekyll’s dark side, he has been repressed for years, prevented from growing. 

Mr.Hyde is deformed like the society in which he lives. Stevenson harshly criticizes the Victorian society because of its duplicity. The socalled Victorian Compromise was in fact based on materialism and the exploitation of the poor, although their mainstream values were that of personal duty, hard work, progress, triumph and authority.
All in all the Victorian society was characterized by hypocrisy, social injustice and inequity. While the upper classes enjoyed great economic prosperity and led a comfortable life, the vast majority of the population lived in appalling conditions and complete poverty. This dualism can be found also in Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, who represent the double aspects of the human soul and of Stevenson's contemporary society.

Dr.Jekyll in particular shows that beneath the facade of respectability, good reputations and civilised manners there is a monstruous part made up of evil, primitive instincts and violent drives.

For these reasons the choice of women as protagonists would have been criticized by the reading public. Besides the fact that Stevenson wanted to write about evil, crimes and violence, made the choice of male protagonists more suitable.