Jekyll and Hyde Key Themes

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Duality of Human Nature

There are two aspects of the human nature: the noble part that follows the conscience and the selfish part. This duality is repesented through Jekyll:

  • Jekyll sees it as natural, recognising the 'thorough and primitive duality of man'
  • Jekyll realises the two parts 'divide and compound' human nature
  • Jekyll describes the seperation of the body into the base instincts - the 'lower instincts of my soul'
  • human nature might not just be dual, but multiple: a 'policy of multifarious, incrogruent...' 
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Friendship

There are several pairs/groups of friends:

  • Enfield and Utterson are friends, though 'It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in eachother'
  • Utterson, Lanyon and Jekyll are close friends and often dine together: 'the trio were inseparable friends'
  • Jekyll and Lanyon are long-standing professional friends but fall out over their different approaches to science: Lanyon follows a practical, rational type of science, described by Hyde as showing 'narrow and material views' whereas Jekyll has a more mystical and supernatural or 'transcendental' approach which Lanyon considers 'unscientific balderdash' and 'scientific heresies' 
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Good and Evil

Evil is personified in Hyde

Good is shown as being generous and kind

EVIL

  • Jekyll says Hyde is 'alone in the ranks of mankind, pure evil'

GOOD

  • Enfield describes Jekyll as 'one of your fellows who do what they call good'
  • Jekyll is perceived as a kind and popular scientist: 'every mark of capacity and kindness - you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr Utterson'

Hyde acts out of violence are contrasted by good:

  • the innocent small girl
  • Carew,  who has 'an innocent and old-world kindness' about him
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Repression

The repression shown in the novella is that of Victorian England: no sexual appetites, no violence, and no great expressions of emotion, at least in the public sphere. Everything is sober and dignified. 

  • The more Dr. Jekyll’s forbidden appetites are repressed, the more he desires the life of Mr. Hyde, and the stronger Mr. Hyde grow: 'The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified' and 'I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde'
  • Mr Utterson also represses his desires: 'he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years'
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Appearance vs Reality

Few things are as they seem in the novella:

  • Jekyll is considered a respectable man, but feels he hides a dark inner identity 
  • Hyde appears to be a normal, if ugly, person but is actually a ‘child of Hell’ 
  • the physical deterioration of Lanyon looks to Utterson like a physical illness, but is the result of the shock of seeing Hyde’s transformation - 'he had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face'
  • Utterson assumes Jekyll’s odd behaviour means that he is ill and seeking a cure.
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Violence

There are two detailed accounts of violent crimes against innocent and helpless citizens:

  • A little girl: 'the man trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground' 
  • An elderly man: 'with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot'

The violence in the novel centers on Mr. Hyde, and raises the question as to whether or not violence is an inherent part of man’s nature. 

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Religion

God and Satan figure prominently in this text, as well as many general references to religion and works of charity. As part of their intellectual lives, the men in the novel discuss various religious works. One sign of Mr. Hyde’s wickedness, for example, is his defacing Dr. Jekyll’s favorite religious work. Mr. Hyde is also frequently likened to Satan. 

  • Hyde is compared to Satan, 'I never saw a circle of such hateful faces; and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of black sneering coolness - frightened to, I could see that - but carrying it off, sir, really like Satan' 
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Women and Femininity

Most female characters in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are passive and weak:

  • The first female we see is a young girl mowed over by Mr. Hyde. Although she is "not much the worse, more frightened,"
  • The next woman we see is via a maid’s narrative of the Carew murder. After witnessing the murder, she faints, awakening long after the murderer is gone - 'At the horror of these sights and sounds the maid fainted.' She is a passive spectator.

There are many reasons as to the reasons for the absence of females in the story:

  • Women function as moral bedrocks in most Victorian novels. They’re supposed to be beacons of good moral influence. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde therefore, women may have unnecessarily complicated the story. 
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