How does Stevenson play with the Concept of the Double in ‘Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Essay

The novella in question is Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885 at his residence in Bournemouth after a tragic nightmargon. I am going to discuss the subject of dichotomy in the novella. It is set in the nocturnal streets of capital of the United Kingdom in the overnice era, a period in which forkeds and versos were denounce. Curiously, this novella looks at the emotional state of a scientist called Henry Jekyll who formulates a potion enabling him to temporarily transform some(prenominal) his soulality and physical appearance.This new individual is Mr. Hyde, the id or the simian who hides deep down Dr. Jekyll. In umpteen ways, this guard reflects Stevenson himself and the Victorian period as a whole. I look at this novella from a various contrary origins the father to son relationship as in Jekylls justification Jekyll had more than a fathers inte shack Hyde had more than a sons indifference. the hypocrisy in the Victorian age as C arw the MP gives the impression of cosmos a homosexual and finally, the adolescent son inside the grown man which cod to Hydes physical status, he looks and feels younger.Stevenson represents duality through the physical appearance of the people and views in the book. The number iodin is the admittance to the shared residence which, is both Jekylls and Hydes habitat contemporaneously although it is non really obvious. The door by which Hyde enters is described as cosmos blistered and distained whilst Dr. Jekylls entrance has a great faade. The blistered door open fire be a look upence of a particular sexually patrimonial illness, syphilis Stevenson is trying to code one of the problems that bon ton had in those days. These aspects were frequent in Victorian houses canvassing as the front would be munificent whilst the rear constructed of inferior yellow bricks which gives objectiveity a smokescreen.Hydes entrance is described as nonhing besides a door a contrivance forehead discoloured besiege prolonged and sordid negligence was blistered and distained. These descriptive terms imply that the rear of the building was the hideous side, to be unplowed away from the public eye. This quotation also refers to Mr. Hyde, as it says a blind forehead discoloured wall. At the clock time, people with big foreheads were considered to present criminal t terminateencies. The discoloured wall can represent the fact that Hyde was a conquer part of Jekyll and and then has no colour of its own. There is repetition of 2 in describing this annoy seeing as there are two doors two storeys. which once more gives us a clear message of segregation between the two shells.Soho once had a reputation for prostitution and brothels and it would be where the aliens or foreigners would go in that period. This is also where Hyde lives his dwelling has two faces to it. The exterior was sordid and sickly whilst the interior was lavish and elaborate with expe nsive furniture. We can easily associate this with the characters in the story where the sleazy exterior represents Hyde however inside him is an aristocratical Victorian gentleman. Stevenson refers a peck to interiors and exteriors, pockets inside out lock sporting drawers stood open. This is an ex lieu of the interior, a mirror take in Stevenson is trying to break dance the truth of society at the time by show what is inside. As the pockets were inside out, or in a different scent out, inverted, which could refer to an inversion of sexuality which maybe Hyde was leading at the time as he was a mirror image, thus the opposite of Jekyll.Jekyll was the complete repeal of the id in physical aspects such as the stature and the age but also in an ironic way that Hyde kills peoples and Jekyll saves lives. The fog that surrounds Utterson as he goes to Soho can also be seen as both a London particular and a reflection of his state of mind. His confusion as he tries to find connec tions between Jekyll and Hyde is constantly reinvaded by sliminess. This has a forficate means, it could be that Utterson is loosing focus and then regaining it or, it could be that Hyde being the darkness recurrently invades Jekyll. In this atmosphere, there is an inversion of day and night payable to the fog, and there would be a glow of rich, lurid brown due to the faecal waste and the filthiness of Soho.The three main characters of the book are Jekyll the ego, Hyde the id and Utterson the superego. Throughout the whole passage, there are no real feminine characters which, represents the sexism prevalent at the time. Moreover there are appendage characters such as Enfield, Carew and Lanyon. Enfield is one of the first mentioned in the book he appears to lead a stunt man life as he finds himself in the streets of London at three in the morning which suggests that he top executive welcome been out in the brothels or maybe leading a second, homosexual life. Sir Danvers Care w also gives a similar impression of leading a two faced life as he too finds himself thread the streets of London late at night.An explanation that we can offer for the make out of his death was that he had mistaken Hyde for a homosexual prostitute and Hyde released the simian that he was, ending up with the MPs death. By showing this, Stevenson is trying to show the hypocrisy in society at the time as Carew was both a homosexual and a Member of fan tan that had outlawed such behaviour. Mr Hyde is probably the most complex and mysterious character in the novella. All the characters that see him, sense this unidentifiable deformity in him.This could be due to moral depravity. At the time, deformity was not received and those who were deformed were unwanted in the society. Stevenson captures the way people perceived Hydes deformities in one passage of the book Snarled savage ill and dwarfish deformity husky murderous hardly human troglodytic funky soul Satans signature on a face. We stomach the impression of an amoral, ape- alike(p) being who is of a different order to the rest of society. As Mr. Hyde attacks the micro girl and tramples over her he again gives this barbaric image of an untamed beast or a masked thing like a monkey on the other side of this mask is the opposite of this beast.The opposite of the beast Jekyll is the ego and the respectable face in society, a doctor and a wealthy middle aged man. Jekyll and Hyde are one being and this is shown in various instances, in the opening chapter, as Hyde has trampled the little girl, he remarks No gentleman but wishes to avoid a sentiment inwardness that he believes himself still a gentleman therefore a part of Jekyll is still present but is hidden inside the binary star figure. Henry Jekylls response to Utterson You do not understand my position I am painfully situated, my position is a very unusual very strange one cannot be mended by talking it isnt what you fancy it is not so ba d as that gives the impression of him being involved in an illicit affair or blackmail.Jekyll is reassuring Utterson that it is not the usual case a lawyer was used to. Utterson gives a very vivid description of what he thinks about the two characters Jekyll and Hyde, turns me quite glacial to think of this creature stealing like a thief to kick ups bedside. This quote clearly tells us that the other characters do not know of Jekylls duality. What I believe Stevenson is trying to get crosswise is this message of a monster next to his creator or his double the man that created the being that will lead to his destruction.Stevenson applies different layers to the structure of the book where aught is quite what it seems. The book opens with a frame narrative but ends abruptly with Jekylls confession. This can be interpreted as the presence of Hyde at the beginning it has a frame but at the end this book closes without one as he is not present. The story consists of doubled narrativ es which again lie in spite of appearance a narrative and this corresponds to Jekyll and the character at bottom him, Hyde. One example is in Dr. Lanyons narrative and in Dr. Jekylls letter to Lanyon. In the last chapter, Stevenson begins to write in the first person and suddenly there is a shift of person as he talks about Hyde, in such a way as to set aside his second self. He, I say I cannot say, I. as Jekyll begins to regret his discovery and the impossibility of controlling his other self. Furthermore, in the confession, this heighten of person can be considered as a confused identity, Hyde fall taking control and manipulating Jekyll.Throughout the novella there are intelligible references to the double that are used in either a numeric or a metaphorical way. In the last paragraph of the novella, Stevenson emphasises the sense of the double as he finally reveals, to the shock of the Victorian reader, the duality of Jekyll. The reoccurring references to the double in his c onfession seem to be a way that Jekyll uses to reassure himself that Hyde is not taking over by segregating him. Stevenson is telling us this strange case starts with one person and will finish with some other, meaning that by the end of the process, Hyde takes over and Jekyll will lie dormant and suppressed as once his double did. The obsession that Dr. Jekyll has with the double could also be a reference to the obsession he feels with the experiment as Lanyon describes the unveiling book double occurring perhaps six times in a total of several hundred entries.This feeling of the double also appears in various puns and metaphors. On the other side is used as on the other hand but has been carefully chosen since not however is Jekyll another surface to his physical self but also writes with his left hand hand which could be referring to sinister (deriving from left in Latin) evil. A compound metaphor is used in the confession the animal within me crush the chops of memory th is metaphor has a double duality to it. Hyde is the animal within Jekyll and as we know of Hydes deformity, the chops could be of his face, whilst the use of memory gives us the feeling of it all possibly being a nightmare. As Stevenson wrote this book, he was suffering from tuberculosis and the animal within could be the disease wear him away.The language used describing Dr. Jekylls cabinet has a double symbolism to it. The cabinet is clearly divided into two parts, the cosy fireside with the things located out for tea and the kettle singing gives us this feeling of the place being homely and comforting whilst on the other hand, there are the glass cases full of chemicals giving a different atmosphere to the rest of the room. Several books on the shelf open annotated startling blasphemies. The book that is set(p) next to the tea things, presumably a holy book, had been written on with wickedness by Hyde. We can relate this to the fact that it was open meaning that Hyde had been unleashed.The last object yet, probably the most significant in the room, is the cheval-glass. Stevenson shows his bilingualist skills and produces a bilingual pun. In French, a cheval glass is also called a phsyc which is another way of saying psyche. As Utterson and Poole peer into this glass and see nothing, it is another way of saying that they peer into the psyche of Jekyll and Hyde and see nothing as they are both dead. This pun tells us a lot of what Stevenson thought of society at the time. Stevenson uses the cheval-glass to say that the Victorian era was not yet ready for psychoanalysis.There are various ways in which Stevenson shows the socio-historical characteristics of the novella and of the time. The typical Victorian gentleman was well known for his duality. This could bear been for sexual suppression since there are many sexually-related citations with the lack of female characters and the compromising situations the reader often finds them in. At the time, the exc iting possibilities and dangers of science present many questions to the Victorians. This was epitomised by the fierce debate caused by the publication of The melodic phrase of Species.This novella can be related to this question as it shows a vast contrast between the two figures, Hyde being the simian and Jekyll the ghostlike man who believes in God. Social problems that were faced at the times were many and severe. Syphilis was a very widespread sexually transmitted disease which was due to the many brothels present in London. Drug addiction was another of the societys worries this book tightly relates to this problem as Jekyll depends on the chemicals that he requires to keep Hyde under control. Drugs also had a hallucinogenic magnetic core on people and what Stevenson may be saying is that the whole of the double life that Jekyll was leading was a hallucination and that the drugs transform oneself into another being that is why he finally dies as Hyde due to toxic-dependency . Victorian society was also obsessed by class. The industrial revolution emphasised the breach between the upper classes and the working class. Stevenson played on the prejudices of his readers in reservation Hyde a proletarian figure in contrast to the upright and plain worthy Jekyll.In conclusion, this novella has many subtexts and concealed messages which the 1886 reader would have readily identify with. This was because they would be exposed to these things every day. We now have a different view of society and science but it could be questioned whether we are any less hypocritical. The theme of the double still continues to ginger up play writers and novelists now and for a long foreseeable future.