Jekyll and Hyde: Context

Robert Louis Stevenson

Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850. His family inluded engineers, scientists, a philosophy professor, and a religious minister, evident in the novella as the themes of science and religion are explored throughout. As a child, Stevenson had serious lung problems, and so spent most of his time reading a great deal of books on travel and adventure. He mainly wrote children's book like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, but then turned to gothic horror with The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886, A combination of his love of adventre and ill health led him to spend many years as a writer travelling the world in search of a climate that was healthier than Britain's. In 1890, he went to live in the remote Samoan Islands in the South Pacific, and died there four years later at the age of 44.

Religion

The Victorians were very religious, everyone was expected to attent some form of religious worship on a sunday. New and very active Christians gave the Church of England a boost in it's popularity at the time. There was more interest in building new churches in addition to restoring old ones. 

Science

Darwin's theory of evolution explains how life on Earth has changed over geological time, and is supported by evidence from fossils and by the rapid changes that can be seen to occur in microorganisms such as antibiotic resistant bacteria. Scientists believe this to be the reason why all living things on Earth exist today. Many species have become extinct in the past, and the extinction of species continues to happen- survival of the fittest.

Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams, published in 1899, introduced the idea of the conscious and subconscious mind. He believed that many people 'repress' their painful memories into their unconscious…