The Duality of the Jekyll/Hyde Character as Representative of the Victorian Era

The idea of duality is a universal one. Everything in our world that we are familiar with has its opposite; day and night, love and hate, and good and evil just to name a few. The Victorian era in literature began in 1830 and continued until 1901. During that time, Britain saw a marked improvement, a dramatic change towards manufacturing and industrialization where before it had depended solely on agriculture and an outdated class system. The people of that time period vacillated between the emotions of regret and depression due to the loss of the old ways to the excitement and hope of a new age. This seemingly split set of emotions spawned a new generation of writers in Britain who expressed their feelings with eloquence in prose, poetry, and even strange new tales of the likes no one had read before. The duality of the character of Jekyll/Hyde, from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, runs parallel to the undertaking of industrial change during the Victorian era leaving both unrecognizable in the end.

Seven years into the Victorian age, Alexandrina Victoria became the queen of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Author Mark Twain attended the sixtieth celebration of her reign in London and commented, "British history is two thousand years old and yet in a good many ways the world has moved farther ahead since the Queen was born than it moved in all the rest of the two thousand put together" (Greenblatt 979). He was right. During this remarkable time the United Kingdom went from an agricultural nation to one of great modern industrialization. London grew by leaps and bound in terms of its inhabitants and businesses. Inventors made unparalleled progress in such inventions as steam power, printing presses, iron ships, all of which and more allowed for mass manufacturing of products combined with speedy delivery and export. The world moved ahead in London at such a great speed that the people witnessing the event felt both excitement as well as sadness. Moving forward meant letting go of the past, and letting go of traditions. Often, leaving the familiar behind can bring about anxiety and depression. This marked difference of feelings, of depression and of hope, defined the duality of this amazing age. By the end of the era, London was a teeming city filled with businesses and business people, and no longer the place recognized by generations of British aristocrats and commoners. Those still attached to such ideas felt displaced, lost in the world of technology (Greenblatt 980).

In the middle of all the change came a writer known as Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson was born November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the son of Thomas Stevenson and Margaret Isabella Balfour. As a young man, he was raised as a Presbyterian. This religious upbringing changed after he attended university, studying law, where he announced to one all at the age of twenty-two that he was now an agnostic (an agnostic is a person who is not convinced of the existence of God, but does not discount it either). Stevenson married Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, and was step-father to her two children. His health was never what one would call robust, and he suffered off and on with bouts of sickness most of his adult life (Stevenson, The Critical Heritage). However, he never let his ill health prevent him from doing what he loved most which was writing. He often got his ideas for stories from dreams. One such dream, a nightmare, gave birth to his classic adult horror novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's said that he awoke one night from a nightmare where he saw a man turning into a monster before his eyes. The story showed the idea of both good and evil residing in the soul of one man. He told his wife about it, and then spent the next three days writing the tale. The story went through a revision thereafter and became the tale known today. Towards the end of his life, Stevenson returned to his early roots of religion, becoming once again, a Christian (Stevenson, A Critical Heritage). His life is a testimony to the duality of his very own nature of believer and doubter.

Such differentiation of ideas often find their way into the work of most writers. They write what they know, and Stevenson knew duality. He had both witnessed it all around him during the Victorian age, and experienced it throughout his life. It made sense that he would create a character who would struggle with the duality of his own nature, and that character was Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. The character of Dr. Jekyll was of a good, upstanding citizen with many friends. He was well respected in his community, and no one had any quarrel with him except perhaps his old friend, Lanyon. The professional rivalry between the two sometimes sparked bad feelings between these fellows. Lanyon was the one character within the story who actually witnessed Jekyll's transformation from Mr. Hyde back to himself. The experience left him so terrorized; he died not long after the event. Lanyon's reaction to meeting Mr. Hyde was like that of everyone else in the story; he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about Hyde set off instinctual warnings to stay away from him. Jekyll himself explained in his diary that the purpose for the creation of Hyde was to set himself free from morality (Noble, Review). Hyde was the quintessential embodiment of all things immoral. Hyde was evil without guilt. In Hyde, Jekyll could indulge his basest nature free from any feelings of responsibility or any inkling of regret. The problem with that is Jekyll lost control over his own creature. The evil residing inside of him proved stronger than the good known by all who knew him. One might suggest that the immoral side living inside of him was greater than the good all along since not much is known about what immoral thoughts and feelings Jekyll entertained. It is never mentioned exactly what kind of immorality Hyde practiced during his "nocturnal expeditions", but the story tells of at least one death that resulted from the combustible, unchained rage that was let loose through Jekyll's experiment (The Double, 28). The battle for Jekyll's life became a battle of good versus evil, moral versus immoral.

The dual persona, Jekyll/Hyde, resided in London, the very place where dual morality was rapidly progressing from the good and known to the unknown. The jury was still out on whether or not the unknown future would prove good or bad. While citizens of Britain were struggling with their split emotions, Stevenson struggled with his own double nature as he simultaneously created a literary character whose "polar twin" reflected an even greater division of itself; a mirror image that is made up of every opposite characteristic of that individual (The Double, 28). This duality can be both harmonious and/or disturbing.

Duality in nature, and in the individual, is necessary for balance. There cannot be one without the other. There cannot be night without day, happiness without sadness, and good without evil. To deny or destroy one or the other would tip the scales to a destructive imbalance.

These opposites are two sides of one coin. The character of Dr. Jekyll failed in his experiment because he attempted to separate polar opposites; to cut one off from the awareness of the other. Neither could stand without the other as they needed each other to maintain a natural balance. The same can be said for the dual feelings of those witnessing the rapid industrialization of Great Britain. The regret of leaving behind the old ways helped temper the advance to a new age, but did not stop it.

However, the result in the end, both for the Victorian era and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was one that was unrecognizable in the eyes of all who both participated in and witnessed the change. In the case of Dr. Jekyll, those who survived him were the receivers of the lesson of what happens when trying to undo nature. In the case of all who lived in the rapid industrialization of the Victorian age, the lesson may have been lost in the change; learned only much later that values can be lost in the race for power and riches. It is in denial of duality that the way can be lost, but to embrace duality is to find balance.

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