have you ever felt as though you're living a double life do the different sides of your personality seem contradictory if so be sure that you're not alone people are complex and appearances can be deceiving if Duality or having opposite Parts is a fact of life then perhaps the question is this what do we do about our darker more Troublesome selves Robert Louis Stevenson knew all about duality in fact he found it quite useful from early on he described himself as myself and the other fellow it was this manic unpredictable other fellow that Stevenson inhabited when he was at his most creative but at what point did Stevenson feel himself his rational everyday self start to slip away that probably depends on which side of his personality he nourished the most in the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson explores the Dark Side of duality he asks some daring questions what if there was a way to physically separate our opposing sides and what would happen if we let our inner Devil Run free without consequences unlike other Gothic horror Shilling Shockers of its time Jekyll and Hyde is a novella or short novel that explores the monster Within Stevenson also depicts the way Duality permeates society and the cities we live in the story is setting or where all the action takes place is London in the late Victorian era it was a place where the mega Rich lived a stone's throw from the miserably poor not far from the ancient handsome houses of Leicester Square is the Dismal quarter of Soho this contrast or strong difference depicts London as a teeming multi-faceted Metropolis anything is possible in a place like that even Leicester Square itself has a dual personality this is where our protagonist or main character Dr Henry Jekyll lives behind its Grand facade Dr jekyll's Rich house has a Sinister back entry that bears the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence the visual imagery of this side of the building makes it hard to believe that it's the same house remember visual imagery is when words help us imagine a mental picture from what Mr Richard Enfield describes this place is a dump in fact he doesn't even realize it's the rear entry to DR jekyll's Property here's a fun fact the layout of Dr jekyll's house is a historical illusion or reference to the house of John Hunter a famous 18th century surgeon like Dr Jekyll John Hunter was a celebrated scientist who lived in Leicester Square Hunter needed a steady supply of cadavers or dead bodies to teach Anatomy so he paid grave robbers to deliver fresh ones via the dingy back entrance to his respectable London Home Gross it just goes to show you never know what someone or some place is hiding the Dual character of Dr jekyll's House cleverly symbolizes or represents the Dual nature of its owner he has a reputation in London Society for being the very pink of the proprieties this is an Old English idiom or peculiar expression that means Dr Jekyll is a much admired highly accomplished gentleman it's the perfect cover for someone who regularly unleashes the evil side of his nature Dr jekyll's Duality is foreshadowed or hinted at in his physical description as a large well-made smooth-faced man of 50 with something of a slidish cast perhaps when the story opens Dr Jekyll has been maintaining his horrid double act for years and hides his secret will the only person who suspects anything is his old friend Gabriel utterson the lawyer of course utterson could never have guessed that his old pal uses a mysterious self-manufactured drug that temporarily transforms him into Mr Hyde a dwarfish troglodytic ape-like fiend as Artisan tries to figure out what's going on with Dr Jekyll he theorizes that Mr Hyde is blackmailing him he imagines Mr Hyde stealing like a thief to Harry's bedside and making him pay through the nose for some of the Capers of his youth he worries that Dr Jekyll is suffering with the cancer of some concealed disgrace the metaphor of cancer conveys the fear of shameful secrets that could ruin a man's life remember a metaphor is when one thing is described as being something else even though it isn't literally true in these musings about Dr jekyll's past Stevenson gently alludes to homosexuality while he doesn't specify Dr jekyll's private longings he uses euphemisms to describe them euphemisms are words or phrases that are used to avoid being blunt or offensive they're necessary in this case because homosexuality in Victorian England was a sensitive topic in Dr jekyll's confession he recalls how he concealed his Pleasures from an early age had irregularities in his nature and hid them with an almost morbid sense of Shame becoming Mr Hyde allowed him to Spring headlong into the sea of Liberty the metaphor of the sea expresses Dr jekyll's expansive New Freedom and relief after the painful repression of his dual nature it's reasonable therefore to interpret the novella as an allegory for homosexuality in the late 1800s an allegory is a narrative whose plot characters or setting are used to symbolize real world issues or events around the time Stevenson wrote The novella the law of England considered homosexuality a crime of gross indecency of course this did not prevent men from being gay all it did was force them to hide their sexuality live double lives and remain vulnerable to Blackmail that's why the law was nicknamed the blackmailer's charter interestingly the law only applied to men perhaps that's the reason why women are almost entirely absent from the text what do you think Stevenson's Masterpiece also deserves a broader psychoanalytic reading psychoanalytic literary criticism is a way of interpreting texts to understand the mentality of characters or even the composer Dr jekyll's final confession certainly is Food For Thought on the shocking contrasts within one's personality we know that Stevenson was aware of his own dual Consciousness in fact it's likely that his other fellow was the one who composed The novella Dr jekyll's lengthy confession gives Stevenson the latitude to explore the compelling idea of the Primitive duality of man we can go even deeper into Stevenson's personal context here having read law at the University of Edinburgh Stevenson would have been familiar with the historical debates around the essential nature of human beings what are we really like without laws and governments to keep us in check Dr jekyll's reference to The Perennial War among my members alludes to the contrasting theories of philosophers like Thomas Hobbes John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau according to Hobbes war is man's Natural State human life is short nasty and brutish and people are naturally selfish Mr Hyde embodies this pessimistic view while Dr Jekyll embodies the theories of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau according to Locke we are naturally tolerant and reasonable while Rousseau believed we are naturally healthy happy and good so which is it are we naturally good or bad the perfect Paradox of Dr Jekyll is that he believes he was radically both remember a paradox is where something seems like contradictory nonsense but actually makes perfect sense Dr jekyll's characterization or depiction as a double dealer speaks to the essential complexity of mankind as an educated scientist Dr Jekyll forms the firm belief early on that man is not truly one but truly two the high modality in this phrase offers a very certain and persuasive view of human duality Stevenson invites us to embrace this complexity as a law of nature rather than generalize or pigeonhole people as either good or bad we all possess excellent parts and lower elements that are bound together like incongruous Twigs this according to Dr Jekyll is the doom and burden of our life or the burden we must all carry but a real problem arises when we spend too much time nourishing the lower elements of our souls this is revealed in the novellas denumo or resolution where Dr Jekyll explains how he came undone Mr Hyde's Behavior whatever that entailed escalated from undignified to monstrous Dr Jekyll enabled his Polar twin and when thinking back on the things he did as Mr Hyde would lick the chops of memory the zoomorphic imagery in this description depicts Dr Jekyll as a big bad wolf in a human disguise remember zomorphic imagery is when words create a mental picture of something as having animal features the more Dr Jekyll licks his chops and Savers the memory of evil Deeds the darker and more unbalanced his soul becomes eventually the Transformations become automatic and Mr Hyde emerges as the dominant entity in an elegant biblical illusion or reference to the Bible pride is the deadly sin that finally tips the scales in Hyde's favor Dr Jekyll confesses to having a vainglorious thought about his active Goodwill compared to the lazy cruelty of other men as soon as this thought passes his mind he transforms into Edward Hyde in public you know what they say pride comes before the fall from this point Dr Jekyll is condemned and can only remain himself through great effort as of gymnastics to keep Mr Hyde at Bay Dr Jekyll must remain awake and constantly dose himself with the drug once a celebrated and distinguished gentleman Dr Jekyll is reduced to an isolated creature he has eaten up and emptied by fever languidly weak and solely occupied by the horror of his other self the hyperbole or exaggeration in this description is designed to strike Horror in the hearts of Stevenson's readers this is a shilling shocker after all it effectively prepares us for the catastrophe or the final action that completes this tragic narrative Mr Hyde's suicide it's a chilling end to a strange tale but perhaps it's not so strange after all if we all have more than one side to our personalities Which side will you nourish the most [Music] we hope you enjoyed this schooling online production [Music] for more easy lessons check out our other videos