Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Themes

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde creates a tension between the world of reason and science and the world of the supernatural, and seems to suggest the limits of reason in its inability to understand or cope with the supernatural phenomena that take place. Jekyll confesses at the end of the novel that he has been fascinated by the duality of man and has taken to both chemical and mystical methods to try to get to…

Dr. Jekyll confesses to Utterson that he has for a long time been fascinated by the duality of his own nature and he believes that this is a condition that affects all men. His obsession with his own darker side gives the novel its plot but also its profound, psychological implications. Even before the climax of the story in which it is revealed that Hyde and Jekyll are the same person, the duality of their…

Utterson and Enfield’s Sunday walk is a comforting, habitual practice of theirs, but as they pass the fateful street with the strange facade jutting out before them, their quiet is ended. This begins the pattern in the novel of innocence being rudely interrupted by violence. First, the little girl is trampled by Hyde. Then the maid witnesses and is shocked into a faint by Hyde's murder of Carew. The maid also effusively describes…

Like many stories of Robert Louis Stevenson’s era, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shows a world dominated by men and most of the featured characters are male. The streets of London, where all this violence takes place, are painted by the writer as a masculine society, particularly full of academic, well-educated men who keep in each other’s confidence and entertain a certain level of professional respect. Utterson and Jekyll are old friends, for example, and…