Context

• • Stevenson rebelled against the stern and conventional morality of his father, which he considered to be genteel hypocrisy of the wealthy in Edinburgh society
  • The idea of the novella stemmed from a nightmare and was strongly influenced by the repressive societal norms that plagued society
  • Published the novella in 1886
• • This rebellion against hypocrisy is reflected in the novella in the duplicity between Dr Jekyll and MrHyde: one is a respected gentleman in society whilst the other is a degenerate
  • Stevenson completely indicts any ideas of respectability and the weight it holds in society through undermining rigid social constructs. The whole novella contains ideas of 'respectability' with the horrifying reality - respectability is a façade that most feel they have to uphold
• • Victorian London was plagued with very restrictive and repressive 'social norms'
  • Britain at the time was seen to be a pinnacle of excellence and it was deemed as the 'progressive era'
  • There was mass hypocrisy within London
• • The Victorians were infatuated with the idea of the 'The Victorian gentleman' Yet, prostitution and frequent drug use was common in society
  • Stevenson critiques the encouragement of repression, creating Hyde as a physical embodiment of the detrimental impacts of upholding strict social norms - the beastly amoral presentation of Hyde can be seen to be a consequence of mass repression of instinctual desires.
• Physiognomy - a pseudo-scientific theory that suggests one's character can be judged through their outward appearance
• • The appearance of physical abnormality was an implication that there was something wrong according to God, society, and nature. If a person was viewed as 'other', outside of normalcy, this often isolated one to a position of ridicule and fear
• • Stevenson conforms and rejects the idea of physiognomy within the novella. He adheres to it through his portrayal of Hyde - Hyde is presented as having a "deformity", making him appear detestable" in his appearance. His physiognomy, as suggested by Victorian society, indicates his depraved nature.
  • However, Stevenson juxtaposes this through his presentation of Jekyll. Jekyll's physiognomy gives no indication about his duplicitous nature
• Freud's psychoanalytic theory

  • id - animalistic part of man where most of our basic urges derive from
  • Ego - the mediator between the id's wants and what is socially acceptable
  • The superego - the part which adheres to the moral and social conventions we have learned over our lifetime
• • Hyde can be seen to be representative of the id: he demonstrates the instinctual and basic human desires - his aggression and acts show no indication of understanding morals
  • The ego could be seen to be Utterson, he tries to mediate between Jekyll and Hyde in trying to control the Id's desires (Hyde's) through his investigation, whilst also mediating between the superego (Jekyll)
  • The superego is Jekyll. He is extremely socially aware of what is and isn't socially acceptable. He understands moral and social conventions and tries to upkeep this
• Darwinism

  • most significant revelation was that humans have evolved from apes, which can be seen physically through the comparison of their features
  • The concept of Darwinism completely undermined biblical ideas of God creating the universe
  • The idea of Darwinism also elicited a lot of fear within Victorian society as many started to think, if mankind has derived from animals, then we must all have these animalistic instinct that is uncontrollable and amoral
• Darwinism

  • Darwinism is clear throughout Hyde's ape like actions and appearance: his violence is done with "ape-like fury" suggesting these primal links. He makes Hyde appear that he is regressing back into his primitive form - the ape form Darwin speaks of in his novel