The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dual nature of man is a recurring theme. Jekyll constantly struggles with good and evil, the expectations of Victorian society, and the differences between Lanyon and Jekyll.
Dr. Jekyll was acclaimed as a man of great intelligence and wisdom, but something inside him was seething. Jekyll was expected by his peers to maintain a reputable manner, but he had another side in which he hides from the public eye. When Jekyll was a young man, he had a darker side, but with age and knowledge he quickly refrained from his old ways. He knew he had to conceal his pleasures if he wanted to be taken earnestly, but this was a grueling task to obtain. Jekyll states, “I found it hard to reconcile with my imperious desire to carry my head high and wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public” (123). This behavior could be compared to the Victorian era. Society was broken into two parts, there was no in between. People were either well- respected or had no value. Jekyll couldn’t go out and perform the indulgences he wished to partake in. His acts would disgrace him in the public eye, therefore causing Jekyll to refrain from certain activities.
As Jekyll reached adult hood, he found himself living a dual life. He had become more curious in discovering his other side. Jekyll insists, “Man is not truly one, but truly two” (125). This eventually led Jekyll into the scientific interests of separating his good and evil side, and he finds a chemical concoction that transforms him into a more wicked man, Edward Hyde. At first, Hyde was of pure impulse, but in the end, he became dominate and took control over Jekyll. Jekyll had never intended to hurt anyone, but he was aware that something could potentially go wrong. Jekyll presumes, “I knew well that I risked death, for any drug that so potently shook the very fortress of identity… utterly blot that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change” (127-129). One could say this makes Jekyll equally as menacing as Hyde. Jekyll couldn’t control the imbalance between the two natures. Jekyll foolishly allowed his evil side to flourish and become stronger. This is shown when Jekyll has awoken to find that he has turned into Hyde without taking the solution. Jekyll says, “But the hand in which I now saw, clearly enough in the yellow light of a mid- London morning…It was the hand of Edward Hyde” (139).