The Duality of Human Nature: Men’s Roles
What truly defines a man? What roles should men hold in society? According to Victorian society, men should be respectful, successful and well known, which often restricted men from enjoying the pleasures of life and revealing their true self. Both Victorian writers, Robert Stevenson and Oscar Wilde, depict the roles of men in their works, while making a critique about the roles that are set by men in society. In the narrative, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson and the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Wilde, they explore the importance of duality as a matter of satiric exposition of what's wrong in Victorian society. Both writers aim at illustrating how the roles that men are expected to perform daily may lead them to create a dual identity in order to escape their restrictive life’s. Stevenson aims at depicting duality through the human nature of good versus evil that's presented through the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In contrast, Wilde depicts duality by means of what defines earnest and transforming the word into a name, which becomes Jack’s second identity.
In the narrative, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson makes a critique about how the expectation of men’s role by society restricts and limits men to identify their self. For instance, Dr. Jeyll creates two separate identities in order to enjoy the pleasures of life. Dr. Jekyll represents a respectable, successful, noble man in society, especially through his career as a doctor that describes the ideal Victorian men, while, his second identity as Mr. Hyde is savage, dwarfish and deform, which is labeled out of the norm in society. Dr. Jekyll illustrates a re...
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... to have a dual identity in Victorian society. Through Dr. Jekyll stevenson shows how a dual identity can become the tragedy of a person's life, while Wilde shows that it is not as opposite or far fetch from one's true identity. Perhaps, human nature is made up of two sides and restriction in one's life may trigger one to create a second identity, whether it is to escape the responsabilities of one's life or even to walk into the dark side and go as far as commiting a crime that will take over on'es true identity forever.
Works Cited
Stevenson, Robert. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: New York, 2006.2169. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. "The Importance of Being Earnest." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: New York, 2006.2222. Print.
Thus in conclusion, the concept that texts are a reflection of their context is applicable in Robert Stevenson’s novella: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. This is due to the values of the nineteenth century Victorian England such as technological advances, reputation and masculinity being reflected through the main characters of the text through Stevenson’s use of literary devices support.
Stevenson focuses on two different characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but in reality these are not separate men, they are two different aspects of one man’s reality. In the story, Dr. Je...
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.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publishing, Inc., 1991.
Stevenson’s most prominent character in the story is the mysterious Mr Hyde. Edward Hyde is introduced from the very first chapter when he tramples a young girl in the street, which brings the reader’s attention straight to his character. The reader will instantly know that this person is a very important part of this book and that he plays a key role in the story. This role is the one of a respectable old man named Dr Jekyll’s evil side or a ‘doppelganger’. This links in with the idea of duality. Dr Jekyll is described as being ‘handsome’, ‘well-made’ and ‘smooth-faced’. On the other hand, Mr Hyde is described as being ‘hardly human’, ‘pale and dwarfish’, giving of an impression of deformity and ‘so ugly that it brought out the sweat on (Mr Enfield) like running’! These words all go together to conjure up an image in the mind of an animal, beast or monster. During the novel...
“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde” is a novella written in the Victorian era, more specifically in 1886 by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. When the novella was first published it had caused a lot of public outrage as it clashed with many of the views regarding the duality of the soul and science itself. The audience can relate many of the themes of the story with Stevenson’s personal life. Due to the fact that Stevenson started out as a sick child, moving from hospital to hospital, and continued on that track as an adult, a lot of the medical influence of the story and the fact that Jekyll’s situation was described as an “fateful illness” is most likely due to Stevenson’s unfortunate and diseased-riddled life. Furthermore the author had been known to dabble in various drugs, this again can be linked to Jekyll’s desperate need and desire to give in to his darker side by changing into Mr Hyde.
Oscar Wilde, the writer of The Importance of Being Earnest, celebrated the Victorian Era society while criticizing it in his play. Through his play, he utilized the humorous literary techniques of pun, irony, and satire to comment on the impact of Victorian Era society left on the characters themselves. These comedic literary devices also help to show how the members of this society in the Victorian Era live by a set of unspoken rules that determine politeness, as well as proper etiquette to live by. Wilde uses a pun in the title of the work, as well as in the character personalities. Different types of irony appear in many scenes in the play, to flout the rules of society, as well as mock the intelligence of the upper-class characters, compared to the lower-class characters. Wilde satirizes the rules of the upper-class society of the Victorian Era through the dialogue of the characters. The time period in which these characters live, impacts their daily lives, and their personalities.
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Peter Raby, ed. Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. London: Oxford University Press, 1995. 247-307.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde takes place during a time in London when people flocked to the city for jobs which resulted in great competition and deceit. As the city grew in size with powerful men there became issues of appearance and reputation where men of high status began to dance with the devil allowing their evil nature to show itself. The social scene at the time required people to hide this evil nature so men and women began to create two sides of themselves so that they could maintain and uphold their reputation hypocritically. The text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde reveals human nature to have two sides; one represented by what a man claims and the other represented by how he/she acts.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a riveting tale of how one man uncovers, through scientific experiments, the dual nature within himself. Robert Louis Stevenson uses the story to suggest that this human duality is housed inside everyone. The story reveals “that man is not truly one, but two” (Robert Louis Stevenson 125). He uses the characters of Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Dr. Lanyon, and Mr. Utterson to portray this concept. He also utilizes important events, such as the death of Dr. Jekyll and the death of Mr. Lanyon in his exploration of the topic.
Page, Norman. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson." Encyclopedia of the Novel. Eds. Paul Schellinger, Christopher Hudson, and Marijke Rijsberman. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998.
To summarize, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a metaphorical looking glass into the duality of human nature. In the words of Romeo and Juliet’s Friar Lawrence, “Two such opposèd kings encamp them still/ In man as well as herbs—grace and rude will” (II iii 28-29). In everyone, there is good and evil, a Jekyll and Hyde. The decision is who will be allowed to take control. Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel helps the reader to better understand the duality of human nature through Jekyll’s fascinating tale, and the true meaning behind the story that makes the reader sit back and reflect makes the story a timeless piece of literature.
Foster, Richard. “Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at The Importance of Being Earnest” In College English, Vol. 18, no. 1, October, 1956: pp. 18-23.
Robert, Stevenson L. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publications, 2013. Print.
To begin with, Stevenson shows duality of human nature through society. During the Victorian era, there were two classes, trashy and wealthy. Dr. Jekyll comes from a wealthy family, so he is expected to be a proper gentleman. He wants to be taken seriously as a scientist, but also indulge in his darker passions.“...I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality/ of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in/ the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said/ to be either, it was only because I was radically both..."(125).