Stevenson's Use of Literary Techniques in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Stevenson's Use of Literary Techniques in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In his novella "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", Robert Louis Stevenson

explores the dual nature of Victorian man, and his link with an age of

hypocrisy. Whilst writing the story he obviously wanted to show the

people of the time what happened behind closed doors. In Jekyll's

suicide note he makes the following observation " I have observed that

when I wore the semblance of Edward Hyde, none could come near to me

at first without a visible misgiving of the flesh. This, as I take it,

was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of

good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was

pure evil." I believe that the underlying moral of this novella is

that we are all comprised of good and evil, and that we should possess

the ability to control and acknowledge the darker side of ourselves.

Dr Jekyll is described as "a large, well made, smooth-faced man of

fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of

capacity and kindness". However, when angered "The large handsome face

of Dr Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness

about his eyes". He is a very strong-minded man, as he argues about

his will with Mr Utterson, however he does become addicted to Hyde,

and too weak to oppose him. Mr Utterson after meeting Hyde for the

first time, starts to feel sorry for his friend, however he does

suggest that Jekyll has a dark past "was wild when he was young; a

long while ago to be sure".

Mr Hyde is presented as a very dark and sinister character. Hyde " was

small and very plainly dressed, and the look of him, even at a

distance, went somehow against the watcher's incli...

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...l's mind to kill them both.

By Jekyll killing, himself he sets both him, and Hyde free, although

it is Hyde who is found when the cabinet door is forced open. This is

because when Jekyll dies, he is emotionally and physically venerable,

and Hyde shines through. So theoretically, it is Mr Hyde continues to

exist temporarily when Dr Jekyll is gone.

Therefore, I conclude that Stevenson explores the duality, which lies

within man very well and aptly describes this phenomena in Jekyll's

suicide note when he writes, " all human beings, as we meet them, are

commingled out of good and evil". However, I feel that he has not

truly exploited the capabilities that could have been developed when

sculpting Hyde's character. Jekyll's original experiment was to try to

create a purely good man, however, he just ends up destroying his

experiment and eventually himself.