Anxiety and Drug Use in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Sign of the Four
The life experiences and writings of the Victorians are peppered with anxiety. External influences such as sweeping change or fear of change can produce unease, as seen in the their anxious attitude toward Darwinism and colonialization, which greatly influenced the political, spiritual, and psychological landscape of nineteenth century England. However, for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll, anxiety springs from an internal source: the human mind and its many urges. For Jekyll, the anxiety is fueled by a desire to set free his evil urges; for Holmes, the catalyst is his proclaimed "boredom" with everyday life. Jekyll and Holmes struggle with their separate anxieties and reach similar solutions. Both the doctor and the detective choose a drug to alleviate their anxiety. The unsuccessful outcomes that these chosen drugs produce speaks to the Victorian notion that anxiety could not be conquered. The people who lived and died under Queen Victoria not only dealt with anxiety in their own lives, but also fortified their literature with it. Doyle's The Sign of Four and Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explore two distinct anxieties and the consequences of using drugs to alleviate them.
For both Holmes and Jekyll, an internal anxiety plagues their actions and thoughts. An aversion to "boredom" troubles Holmes, while Jekyll struggles to come to terms with "man's dual nature" (Stevenson, 42). Holmes defends his drug use by declaring:
My mind... rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am...
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...fer from constitute an inability to deal with internal factors, while the Victorians suffered from an inability to deal with external factors. For Victorians, anxiety over entertaining the impossible stemmed from Darwinism and colonialization, which was the catalyst for the dreaded fear of the "other." If Holmes and Jekyll turned to drugs in the face of anxiety, what did the Victorians turn to? Perhaps the rampant use of laudanum and opium was an attempt at easing the anxieties of a nervous culture. One could turn to science, religion, or technology for comfort, but most likely these areas would simply cause more anxiety. No matter what the answer is, it is clear that the anxiety of the Victorians carried over into their literature. Without this cultural trait the world may never have been introduced to the insane Dr. Jekyll or the brooding Sherlock Holmes.
Within every being exists temptations, whether it be quiescent or dynamic, which fluctuates from one individual to another. Commonly negative, temptations ascend from lesser qualities of man and expose an individual to develop even more reprehensible ambitions. The story of a one man’s dark wishes is explored in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. Properly termed, Stevenson perused the unnerving case of a respectable, proletariat-class doctor, who becomes associated and obsessed with Mr Hyde. It is this presence of the “duality of human nature that is created consistently throughout the Gothic Literature”.
...laws were unfair and should be more reasonable as well as democratic. He thought that it should be fair for all and there is a need of liberty, religion and justice (Doc N). Later on, religious toleration flourished among the colonies. This was a very important change because religious toleration was an important step towards democracy.
Between 1607 and 1733, Great Britain established thirteen colonies in the New World along the land’s eastern coast. England’s colonies included Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Though the colonies were classified as New England, middle or southern colonies, the colonists developed a unifying culture. With this new American culture, the colonists throughout the colonies began to think differently than their English cousins. Because colonial America displayed characteristics of a democratic society and, therefore, deviated from England’s monarchic ways, it was established as a democratic society.
“Man is not truly one, but two.” (Chapter 10 page 125) Stevenson tells his prospective to the world through Jekyll. In his everyday life he saw a continuous struggle. He saw two natures fighting for control, and the winning nature determining his or her place in the dichotomous Victorian society. In the Victorian London society you were either the virtuous upper class that did no wrong or you were the scum of the earth. Jekyll did not only show his prospective, but many of the upper class in this particular society. Jekyll wanted keep the success and reputation that he had, but he also wanted to be able to enjoy his pleasures without being criticized by society. He felt as though society restricted him, and he hungered for freedom. He wanted...
When settlers from England came to America, they envisioned a Utopia, where they would have a say in what the government can and cannot do. Before they could live in such a society they would have to take many small steps to break the hold England had on them. The settlers of America had to end a monarchy and start their own, unique, form of government. They also had to find a way that they would have some kind of decision making power. The most important change that the colonies in America had to make was to become a society quite different from that in England.
This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human” (Stevenson 88). This statement is rather heart breaking as Jekyll simply sought a means to end his misery. When Dr. Jekyll cannot reverse his “cure” on cue to the good, law-abiding man, he commits an act of “self-destruction by drinking a poisonous phial to avoid capture and the following legal and social condemnation” (Sanna 35-35). In terms of Jekyll and Hyde’s dissociation, no matter the cause, the theory of dualism comes up numerous times.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel about dual identity, Dr. Henry Jekyll, an affluent surgeon, creates a potion by which he can transform into Edward Hyde, the physical manifestation of his evil side. After many months of thrilling nighttime criminal escapades through the streets of London, his antics under the cloak of Hyde get him in trouble when he slays prominent public figure Danvers Carew. Jekyll is so shocked by this deed of evil that he decides an end will be put to his transformations, a science he calls transcendental medicine. Much to his alarm, Jekyll finds that he now turns into Hyde without his wanting it, undeniably a side effect of the drug. After locking himself into his cabinet, in order to facilitate his use of the drug in case of spontaneous transformations, his concerned butler Poole alerts good friend Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer. Together, they break into the cabinet, only to find they body of Hyde, lifeless on the floor. The pair finds an envelope addressed to Utterson which shall supposedly explain why they cannot find the body of Henry Jekyll.
Within the text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson portrays a complex power struggle between Dr. Jekyll, a respected individual within Victorian London society, and Mr. Hyde a villainous man tempted with criminal urges, fighting to take total control of their shared body. While Dr. Jekyll is shown to be well-liked by his colleagues, Mr. Hyde is openly disliked by the grand majority of those who encounter him, terrified of his frightful nature and cruel actions. Throughout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson portrays the wealthy side of London, including Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll, as respected and well-liked, while showing the impoverish side as either non-existent or cruel.
Hirsch, Gordon, and William Veeder, eds. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after One Hundred Years. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Stevenson explains to the reader that humans have lots of different sides to each other and not just one. The final chapter of the novel, ‘Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement Of The Case’ explores the ways in which the author presents Victorian attitudes to the nature of humans. He also explains how duplicitous humans are, which means how people often have two separate approaches to their life. The duality of man means the two sides of the person’s mind and is most apparent in, as the title suggests, the characters ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. The separation of Jekyll into two beings, Jekyll and Hyde, is an analogy for humankind’s conflicting forces of good and evil. These characters bring to life the inner struggle between the two powers of the soul. Dr. Jekyll asserts that ‘man is not truly one, but truly two,’ within the book to illustrate the theme of the novel and to help describe Mr. Hyde to more rational people such as Mr. Utterson.
Texts are a representation of their context and this is evident in Robert Stevenson’s novella: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, where many values of late nineteenth century Victorian England values were reflected through the themes of the novel using language and structural features. These values included: technological advances, reputation and masculinity and are demonstrated in the text through literary and structure devices as well as the characterisation of the main character.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “It is much easier to suppress a first desire than it is to satisfy those that follow.” This is certainly true in the situation of Dr. Jekyll, as the temptation of becoming Mr. Hyde becomes stronger as he continually surrenders to the wickedness that is constantly misleading him. Mr. Hyde is never contented, even after murdering numerous innocents, but on the contrary, his depravity is further intensified. The significance of the repression of a desire is a prevalent theme throughout the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, as the inability to repress one’s curiosity can lead to a fatal end, whereas the repression of a desire that can no longer contain itself, or the repression of confronting a guilty conscience, will conclude in a tragic ending and in this case specifically,
Psychotic characteristics are one component of anti-social disorders, in which both Hyde as well as Jekyll display throughout the novel. Both characters in the book show these
In Hawthorne’s “Wakefield” the narrator’s thoughts and comments bring insight into the motivations of the character of the story. The story includes a long introduction in which the narrator, Hawthorne, describes how he heard the curious story of Mr. Wakefield. Hawthorne supplies his audience with a condensed version of the entire plot of the story. With this introduction, Hawthorne has already informed the audience of the story’s intriguing plot and this intensifies the audience’s desire to find out Mr. Wakefield’s motivations because they cannot comprehend why he would do such a thing. The audience will try to make sense of Mr. Wakefield’s actions, but they will not find a logical explanation. The story may seem unreal but the reader must take the story as it is and focus on the charact...
The story takes place during the Victorian age, a time when there were only two categories of people: good people and bad people. There was no way that one man could be considered acceptable without suppressing his evil side almost entirely. The reason that Jekyll restrained his evil side for so long was because of this dichotomous Victorian society. Most people, including Jekyll’s friends, Lanyon and Utterson, are content to stay molded in this ideal. However, Dr. Jekyll soon became tired of this hypocritical mindset and states that he “it was rather the exacting nature of my aspirations…. that made me who I was and…. severed in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man’s dual nature” (123). He had determined that he would find a way to indulge his more human nature while still yet living in acceptance among his colleagues. Dr. Jekyll soon did discover a method, but it inevitably came with a curse. Stevenson uses this to display that people generally tend to go with the societal flow and conform to other people’s ideas so that they will fit in.