Jekyll and Hyde Intros

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Duality: The novella is an allegory about the good and evil that exist in all men, and about our struggle with these two sides of the human personality. In this book, the battle between good and evil rages within the individual. The question is which is superior. Since Hyde seems to be taking over, one could argue that evil is stronger than good. However, Hyde does end up dead at the end of the story, perhaps suggesting a weakness or failure of evil. The big question, of course, is whether or not good can be separated from evil, or whether the two are forever intertwined.

Reputation: Preserving one’s reputation emerges as all important. The prevalence of this value system is evident in the way that upright men such as Utterson and Enfield avoid gossip at all costs; they see gossip as a great destroyed of reputation. Similarly, when Utterson suspects Jekyll first of being blackmailed and then of sheltering Hyde from the police, he does not make his suspicions known; part of being Jekyll’s good friend is a willingness to keep his secrets and not ruin his respectability. The importance of reputation in the novel also reflects the importance of appearances, facades, and surfaces, which often hide a sordid underside. In many instances in the novel, Utterson, true to his Victorian society, adamantly wishes not only to preserve Jekyll’s reputation but also to preserve the appearance of order and decorum, even as he senses a vile truth lurking underneath.

Science, Supernatural, and Religion: Jekyll and Lanyon are both scientists. Science traditionally explains the real world by means of experiment and observation. Scientists are usually dismissive of the supernatural, and Lanyon has avoided Jekyll for ten years because of his fanciful and wrong minded ideas and investigations. By contrast, in his final confession, Jekyll says his investigations led wholly towards the mystic and transcendental. He is fascinated by the mystery of human nature- and such investigations are closer to religion and psychology than traditional 19th- century science. There is a war of attitudes between Jekyll and Lanyon, and both men are destroyed by their beliefs. Lanyon by his inability to imagine or accept a world beyond the rational and scientific; Jekyll by accepting and unleashing the dark powers that lie beyond. Stevenson asks the reader to examine which man comes closer to the truth.