Themes

Duality Duality means having two sides, and it is the duality of human nature that is explored in Jekyll and Hyde. The idea central to the story is that all people have good and evil inside them and are capable of both, but have a choice over how they behave. The novel shocks the reader by presenting Jekyll and Hyde as two separate people, and then revealing that they are the same person, showing us the duality of Henry Jekyll’s nature. Jekyll admits that whilst he is a good man and a well-meaning Doctor during the day, someone who heals the sick, in his youth he had shameful urges and “sordid pleasures”. He describes almost being trapped by his aspirations to become a Doctor, that he could not give in to these desires, to the point where he had to develop a double life. He tells Doctor Stevenson at the end of the play, that he was “equally” himself in both parts. But he had desires to separate these two lives, “twins” as he calls them, and devised a potion to separate his inner duality, to create an outward duality – two separate people. Appearance and reality is another duality explored, which also links to the theme of Victorian Morality. Dr Jekyll’s house is a symbol of his duality, with its smart front door with a shiny knocker, and its shabbier back door to which Mr Hyde has a key. Science and Religion In Victorian society, religion would have been very important to people, and as a result people may have been afraid of medical and scientific developments which questioned their religious beliefs. In 1859, Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species which proposed that evolution is how mankind developed, and this shook Victorian society leading to it being banned. Religion would argue that God made us perfectly in his image, but Jekyll is trying to control his own self, and through science, create a different self altogether. Jekyll’s actions could be seen as a rejection of religion and instead, embracing the developments of science and medicine.

Victorian Morality The figure of a Gentleman was very important in Victorian society as an upstanding member of the upper classes, and someone who was morally and ethically just. Good behaviour, dress and manners were all parts of being a Gentleman, as was maintaining a good reputation. Dr Jekyll embodies the ideal Gentleman in his appearance, dress, manners and silky-smooth voice. But underneath this outward morality, the immorality of Mr Hyde lurks. Due to the strict social conformity, gentlemen would have had to hide their more shameful urges, such as alcohol, gambling and sex. This morality is explored and questioned in the play, by characters such as Enfield who is only a witness to the crime because he too was on the streets at 3am, and more obviously in the ‘despicable’ immoral behaviours of Mr Hyde. The theme is further embodied by the Chorus of Gentlemen who on the surface appear to be upstanding members of the upper class, but who spit, snarl and whisper their echoes of Hyde. Gender and the Patriarchy In the original novel, nearly all the characters are male, with the exception of minor characters such as the Girl who is the first victim, and nearly voiceless, disappearing on the same page as she appears. In this adaptation, the gender balance has been re-addressed, with Dr Stevenson, an invention of the playwright, taking centre stage as a protagonist alongside Dr Utterson. The gender roles of the Victorian society are explored as Dr Stevenson is judged and literally looked down on by her male ‘superiors’ in the medical lecture hall. She is referred to as ‘Miss’ rather than Doctor, as the male characters minimise her experience and expertise. The Gentlemen in the Chorus represent the patriarchy, a systemic and toxic male privilege that haunts the stage, the novel and the society. In this adaptation, the Matron and the Girl also take centre stage alongside Dr Stevenson, becoming her co-investigators. They watch, judge and comment as the Gentlemen fail to catch the murderer in their midst, perhaps because, as Neil Bartlett explains, “they are either consciously or unconsciously on his side”. Class Due to the Industrial Revolution, large numbers of working class people had moved to the cities to live and work, leading to over-crowding, poor living conditions and poor health. In this adaptation, there are stark differences between the upper class characters such as the doctors and lawyers, and the working class characters such as the servants and sex workers. Different classes lived in different parts of the city, and the Gentlemen would not be seen in the working class slums -except for at night, when they would secretly travel to the more salubrious areas of the city to satisfy the desires they could not admit to in public. In the play, Mr Hyde has his own lodgings in Soho, a very different place from Dr Jekyll’s home, which is described as “shabby” “dismal” and “a nightmare”. There is a fear of the lower classes from the upper classes, embodied in the characters’ fear of Mr Hyde.