Duality

• Duality


  The theme of how a person can simultaneously possess conflicting personalities
• The novella is concerned with how an upstanding member of society can become a savage criminal
• Stevenson shocks the reader by first presenting Jekyll and Hyde as two separate characters and then revealing that they are the same person
• The theme of duality is not confined only to the characters of the novella; Stevenson presents a Victorian London divided between strictly defined 'reputable' areas which are in close proximity to areas of poverty
• All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: 'Stevenson'
• Commingled


  The merging of two words 'combined' and 'mingled' to emphasise how it is impossible for humans to be only good or only evil, there will always be aspects of both in everyone's personality
• Man is not truly one, but truly two: 'Dr Jekyll'
• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde


  The most obvious form of duality within the text, representing the conflict between Dr Jekyll's innermost desires and his outward presentation of himself
• Duality of purpose


  Jekyll is divided between his duties as an upstanding member of society and his basal instincts
• Juxtaposing imagery


  • Stevenson uses this to emphasise the disparity between the morals of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• Juxtaposing imagery


  • "that child of Hell had nothing human; nothing lived in him but fear and hatred"
• Child


  Connotations of innocence, juxtaposed with "hell" which is a cess-pit of sin and is symbolic of corruption and evil
• The observation that Mr Hyde "had nothing human" evokes fear and hatred in a contemporary reader who would have been terrified of the idea of 'devolution'
• Antithesis


  • Stevenson uses this to show that the duality of human nature cannot be isolated, e.g. "Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other"
• The juxtaposition between good and evil implies that the two elements are in a delicate equilibrium
• Stevenson's description of Jekyll and Hyde


  • "[The] man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of proprieties, celebrated too, and one of your fellows who do what they call good"
• Plosive alliteration


  • Used in "pink of proprieties" to demonstrate the cruelty present also in Jekyll's behaviour
• Dr Jekyll starts to lose control over Mr Hyde


  Suggests there is fluidity between the state of being good and bad
• This too, was myself: 'One of Jekyll's closing remarks, showing his awareness of the duality in human nature and his admittance of his commitment to "a profound duplicity of life"'
• Stevenson's description of London heightens the sense of duality within the text, with alternating descriptions of the city having "an air of invitation" and buildings being "sinister"
• Structure and language


  • Stevenson uses these to explore the duality of the city, particularly through contrasting the old town and the new town
• Third person narrator and multiple narratives

  • Stevenson uses these to tell the story, adding to the horror of the text and showing the reader multiple ways of looking at everything
• Epistolary form


  • Stevenson uses this to add to the multiple narratives in the text
• Phrases such as "double dose" and "double dealer"

  • Point out to the reader that there is duality in everything, emphasised by the alliterative consonants used
• Intrinsic duality


  Several characters, such as Hyde's maid, inhibit a form of duality, with a conflict between outward appearance and innermost voice
• The duality of good vs evil in Hyde's maid is similar to the conflict between Jekyll (one's desired outermost expression of morals to society) and Hyde (one's innate repressed desires, that exceed the bounds of society)
• Enfield's behaviour


  • Potentially involves dubious activities, happening at night/in the dark which symbolises secrecy through the obscurity of darkness
• Colour imagery


  • The reader's associations with the colour "black" would cause them to be suspicious of Mr Enfield who appears to be hiding something under the guise of darkness