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Dual Nature in Victorian London: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Explore the societal divisions and moral complexities in Victorian London through Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, presenting the duality of human nature and the struggle between good and evil. Learn about upper and lower class dynamics, the significance of reputation, and symbolic names that reveal deeper meanings.

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Dual Nature in Victorian London: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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  1. The strange case of dr. Jekyll and mr.hyde “All human beings are commingled out of good and evil.”

  2. Victorian London – Social Classes • Victorian society was highly stratified; classes did not mix, and behavior, especially among members of the upper class, was expected to be exemplary at all times • The unrealistically rigid morality of upper class Londoners led many to live double lives • Upper class = they, along with their homes, were expected to be proper and elegant at all times

  3. Victorian Style – Upper Class

  4. Victorian London – Setting • London’s social classes led to divided communities • People were uncomfortable and often unwelcome in parts of town that were not inhabited by their own social group • Cavendish Square, the area in which Jekyll, Utterson and Lanyon live = wealthiest part of London • Only a few blocks away = ghettos, such as Soho where Hyde kept his residence

  5. Victorian Style – Lower Class

  6. Victorian Novels • Emulates the conservative values of Queen Victoria: earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic propriety, respectability, and restraint • Seeks to faithfully represent society and the classes;seeks to represent a large social world with a variety of classes • Attempts to be more realistic than Romantic worksOften features a main character who strives to earn love or social status • Presents the human condition by following its characters' physical, emotional, and psychological quest • Characters are rewarded by being virtuous and punished for being otherwise

  7. Robert Louis Stevenson • Born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland and died in 1894 in Samoa • Only child from a wealthy family • Ill as a child; spent a lot of time reading • Strict Christian and moral upbringing; theme of good vs. evil (strict repression of “evil” actions and evil thoughts) • As a student, liked visiting the ghettos of Edinburgh; would put on a false identity • Studied engineering and law in college but became an author

  8. Robert Louis Stevenson • Based J&H from Edinburgh • Old Town = dirty, disease ridden, overcrowded, full of poverty • New Town = prosperous, middle class, clean, ordered • William ‘Deacon’ Brodie – well respected craftsman by day, criminal by night – hanged in 1788

  9. Robert Louis Stevenson • Interested in what made up a person’s character: why they could be bad as well as good • Fascinated by the "dregs of humanity", something that the upper class pretended never existed • After a nightmare, Stevenson wrote the novella in just three days

  10. Themes • Good vs Evil / Duality of human nature • Jekyll asserts that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and he imagines the human soul as the battleground for an “angel” and a “fiend (evil spirit),” each struggling for mastery • Importance of Reputation • avoid gossip at all costs; they see gossip as a great destroyer of reputation • also reflects the importance of appearances, facades, and surfaces, which often hide a sordid (shameful) underside

  11. Symbolic Names • Jekyll • “Je” = “I” in French • Kyll = kill • Hyde • hide

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