Public and Private Life in the Victorian Age: The Split Personality of Dr. Jekyll

In "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Robert Louis Stevenson addresses the parallel forces of good and evil, affecting every person. Through Dr. Jekyll's transformation into the hideous Mr. Hyde, Stevenson illustrates two contrasting sides of human nature: "I had long been trying to write a story on this subject," said Stevenson, "to find a body, a vehicle, for that strong sense of man's double being which must at times come in upon and overwhelm the mind of every thinking creature." Stevenson creates Dr. Jekyll's dual personality to reveal the manifest differences between an individual's public and private personas, thereby revealing the sinister side of society. In the novel, Dr. Jekyll's public self exhibits characteristics associated with morality and upper-class Victorian society; whereas Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll's private self, displays traits associated with immorality and the lower-class.

Dr. Jekyll's public self is drastically different from his private self. In public, Dr. Jekyll is a gentleman, displaying characteristics associated with virtue. Dr. Jekyll is attractive, wealthy, respectable, educated, and charitable. The narrator tells us that he is a "large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness". Dr. Jekyll's pleasing physical characteristics symbolize the public side of his personality. To those around him, Dr. Jekyll is a gentleman. He entertains respectable gentleman at his home, charming them with his public personality: "A fortnight later, by excellent good fortune, the doctor gave one of his pleasant dinners to some five or six old cronies, all intelligent, reputable men and all judges of good wine" (1829). Dr. Jekyll's physical and social characteristics exemplify gentility.

Dr. Jekyll is torn between his desire to retain respectability and his desire to surrender to sin. Underneath the facade of gentlemanliness, Dr. Jekyll hides the darker side of his nature:

Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life. (1850)

In his creation of Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll attempts to separate the two sides of his nature in order to satisfy his darker side (Mr. Hyde) without affecting the respectability of his better half (Dr. Jekyll). However, Dr. Jekyll finds that the more he indulges Mr. Hyde the harder it becomes to resist the temptations of Hyde's evil enterprises. He describes his transformation into Hyde saying, "All things therefore seemed to point to this: that I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse" (1855).

Mr. Hyde represents the hidden side or private life of Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Hyde's very name suggests his connection to the hidden. Mr. Utterson comments on the connection between the hidden and Mr. Hyde's name: "If he be Mr. Hyde," he had thought, "I shall be Mr. Seek" (1827). In addition, Mr. Hyde's appearance is elusive, illustrating his connection to the private self. No one who views Mr. Hyde can give a clear description of his physical features. However, every person who sees Mr. Hyde feels that there is something wrong with his appearance. For example, Mr. Utterson examines the elusive nature and hideous nature of Mr. Hyde's appearance when he says:

There is something more, if I could find a name for it. Good bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodictic, shall we say? Or can it be the old story of Dr. Fell? Or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent? The last, I think; for o my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.

Mr. Hyde's backdoor entrance into the house as described by Mr. Pool is symbolic of private life: "Indeed we see very little of him on this side of the house; he mostly comes and goes by the laboratory." Mr. Hyde does not associate with the members of Dr. Jekyll's home or those of upper society. His social status is in direct contrast to Dr Jekyll's status. Mr. Hyde's attire and associations are symbolic of the lower class. He dresses poorly and frequents the dark corners of Soho society. Mr. Utterson describes Mr. Hyde's low class attire and elusive appearance saying, "He was small and very plainly dressed, and the look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher's inclination" (1827).

Mr. Hyde is associated with evil and sin. He is cruel and inhuman in his treatment of other people. For example, he tramples a little girl in the street, and beats a man to death. The narrator describes Hyde's evil deeds and connects him to the hidden self saying, "Much of his past was unearthed, indeed, and all the disreputable: tales came out of the man's cruelty, at once so callous and violent, of his vile life, of his strange associates, of the hatred that seemed to have surrounded his career; but of his present whereabouts, not a whisper." The social and physical characteristics of Mr. Hyde are associated with private life and the immorality of the lower classes.

In contrast, Dr. Jekyll is compassionate and charming in his social interactions. He attempts to hide his darker self by creating an exceptionally moral and gentlemanly public persona. For example, when Hyde disappears, Dr. Jekyll reenters society and attempts to reestablish his respectability: "He came out of his seclusion, renewed relations with his friends, became once more their familiar guest and entertainer; and whilst he had always been known for charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion."

Dr. Jekyll leads a double life, putting on a face of virtue in public and indulging a criminal monster in private. Nevertheless, he does attempt to make amends to society and rid himself of the infamous Mr. Hyde. However, he can not return to his previous state of morality. He is irreparable tainted by Hyde's sins, and therefore, he is incapable of overcoming the evil within himself. Dr. Jekyll realizes the hopelessness of returning to his former position in society when he says, "A moment before I had been safe of all men's respect, wealthy, beloved-the cloth laying for me in the dining room at home; and now I was the common quarry of mankind, hunted, houseless, a known murderer, thrall to the gallows" (1857). Essentially, Dr. Jekyll is corrupted by his primitive self.

Robert Louis Stevenson uses Dr. Jekyll's public and private personalities to illustrate both the civilized and primitive aspects of man and society. Dr. Jekyll embodies characteristics associated with upper-class morality and culture and, therefore, he is considered a gentleman. In contrast, Mr. Hyde embodies traits associated with the primitive elements of society and criminality. Dr. Jekyll's attempts to retain respectability and conceal his darker side (Mr. Hyde) illustrate the tendency of people in the upper­classes to present one face in public and another face in private.

Stevenson reveals the parallel sides of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through their physical features, social class, attitudes, and actions. In his creation of Dr. Jekyll's dual personalities, Stevenson brings to light the hypocrisy apparent in the upper and middle classes of Victorian society. During the Victorian age, the strict moral code governing social conduct caused upper and middle class Victorians to conceal sinful pleasures. Stevenson addresses corruption in upper-class Victorian society by connecting Dr. Jekyll's better side to upper class society and his darker side (Mr. Hyde) to the criminal class. In doing so, Stevenson suggests that sin and corruption exists in the private lives of the most virtuous public figures. In "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Stevenson examines the private deception and corruption that coexists with public personas and surface respectability through Dr. Jekyll's transformation into the sinister Mr. Hyde.