The Nature of Duality in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay

The temperament of Duality in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeIt has long been debated that there be ii inclines to the human mind.Many philosophers befool stressed on the circumstance that human beings are doubled creatures. There is the duality of good and evil, right andwrong, happiness and despair. There always is the desire to do somethingwhich is against the society, against the laws, although this variesfrom person to person. Robert Stevenson brings the possibility of some other self in one person to life in his knowledgeability of Dr. Jekyll andMr. Hyde. His novel is a rich tale of the duality of mankind. We allhave a split personality in a sense, we have two sides to us rightand wrong. There is a Mr. Hyde in all of us anger, frustration,murderous thoughts all prevail in us although we have evolved so much.Morals, education, helping and unselfishness are the Jekyll side ofus. Stevenson believed that people knew they had a elusive side, but theyall refuse to ac cept the truth, as the dark side is so unpleasant.The novel demonstrates how innocent curiosity about the darkerelements of our record house soon get out of hand, how the evil triumphsover good if permit out of control. Stevenson portrays duality in almostall of his characters, mainly Dr. total heat Jekyll. The symbols used, thenarrative viewpoints and the language use by Stevenson also putsforward the dual nature of man. The philosophic context of thenovella also is another performer which Stevenson cleverly uses.Stevenson creates a novel of gothic genre, which was extremely popularat the time of release. And the bottom line of the novel is toentertain the reader. The nature of duality, the philosophicalcontext, the scientific context, symbolism, and hy... ...onality. Darwins theory of evolution and Freuds creation of psychoanalysis are well portrayed in this novel. Overall, Stevensonclearly implies that humans are a mixture of good and evil andchallenges the human perfectib ility, which was presumed for theupper physique at the time.I particularly enjoyed this novel as it was exploring various themesat the same time. One interesting point is that, when Jekyll made upthe transforming selective service, it never was intended to turn him evil. Itwas just his desires which propelled him to being Hyde. The potionjust acted as a catalyst and in the end it was Jekyll who destroyedhimself. We had discussed this in air division and it struck me as it wasntan evil potion. This also shows that Jekyll wanted to fragmentize throughthe Victorian laws and meet his inner desires, which leads us back tothe nature of duality.