Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde :: English Literature

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I have been reading the book Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The book was written by Robert Louis Stevens on during in the 19th century. This book was written during a time where Victorian society had a lot of strong moral values. These codes were very strict and controlled every aspect of the Victorian lifestyle. People in these times believed to settle things verbally rather than aggression so fighting was looked down upon. People looked upon this kind of behavior as a sin and of course they looked down upon sins as well. The upper class Victorian society believed that everyone kept to this moral code that they had. People in this time believed that people with very high status were very moral and did not cause any sins. However, this book was also written during a time where there was a lot of hypocrisy around and people. The underbelly of this society showed what Victorian society was really like. Though it's polite and well-groomed exterior, we find people committing sins and going against the moral codes. These sins were however well hidden from the society and although they acknowledged some of the 'evil' that was happening, they still just shrugged it off saying that only the people committing 'evil' were the 'sick individuals'. The 'sick individuals' also seemed to belong to the lower class society. Victorian people were very physiognomous as they judged people by their physicality and the word 'sick' seemed to describe the lower class society very well according to Victorian times. We know now that it wasn't just the lower class individuals committing sins, but they weren't individuals either. Robert Luis Stevenson explorers this very well and shows that the upper class can be evil too. Stevenson used 'Hyde very well to hide Dr Jekyll's evil side well. Even the name is ironic. The upper class society had seemed to 'Hyde' all this very well. They kept their upper society life 'clean' but they had another side that committed sins. That is what 'Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' is all about. The author (Stevenson) had based this book on people in this era. He believed in the duality of man, which meant that every person had two sides to their personality. He believed that one side of a person would be nice and colorful whereas the other would be rude and dark. Stevenson who was brought up in upper class society, was fascinated with lower class society. With this, he seemed to become angry at what Victorian society was like and this is echoed in Jekyll. The book 'Frankenstein' heavily influenced Stevenson heavily as the