Kyle Heslin-Rees

Darwin and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Literary genres which critics necessitate applied as a framework for interpreting the novel include religious allegory, fable, police detective story, sensation fiction, doppelganger literature, Scottish devil tales and gothic novel. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been the influence for The Hulk, Two-Face and the general superhero genre for the storys ties to a double life. This story represents a concept in Victorian culture, that of the versed conflict of humanitys sense of good and evil. 10 In particular the novella has been interpreted as an examination of the duality of human nature (that good and evil exists in all), and that the failure to accept this tension (to accept the evil or shadow side) results in the evil being projected onto others. 11 Paradoxically in this argument, evil is real committed in an effort to extinguish the perceived evil that has been projected onto the innocent victims.In Freudian Theory the thoughts and desires banished to the un informed mind motivate the behavior of the conscious mind. If someone banishes all evil to the unconscious mind in an attempt to be wholly and completely good, it can result in the development of a Mr Hyde-type aspect to that persons character. 11 This failure to accept the tension of duality is related to Christian theology, where Satans fall from Heaven is due to his refusal to accept that he is a created being (that he has a dual nature) and is not God. 11 This is why in Christianity, pride (to consider oneself as without sin or without evil) is the greatest sin, as it is the precursor to evil itself it overly explains the Christian concept of evil hiding in the light. 11 Various direct influences have been suggested for Stevensons interest in the mental condition that separates the sinful from moral self. Among them argon the Biblical text of Romans (720 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, precisely it is sin living in me that does it. ) the split life in the 1780s of Edinburgh city councillor Deacon William Brodie, master craftsman by day, burglar by wickedness and James Hoggs novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), in which a young man falls under the spell of the devil. Some readers have argued that the dual personalities interpretation is overly simplistic. Jekyll himself notes that a person may be divided into many more than two clean-cut personalities he expects that researchers in the coming(prenominal) will discover that a person is made up of many different selves.In his discussion of the novel, Vladimir Nabokov argues that the good versus evil view of the novel is misleading, as Jekyll himself is not, by Victorian standards, a morally good person. 12 One popular interpretation is the civilized versus animalistic approach. Other readers have argued even further that the split surrounded by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde represents the civilized and the animalistic version of th e same person. The description of Hyde as an almost prehuman creature and his actions that occur without thought, suggests that Hyde is more animal than man.Dr Jekyll on the other hand, can be seen as existing in a constant state of repression, with the only thing controlling his urges being the possible consequences imposed by civilized society. other common interpretation sees the novellas duality as representative of Scotland and the Scottish character. On this reading the duality represents the national and linguistic dualities inherent in Scotlands relationship with the widelyr Britain and the side language, respectively, and also the repressive effects of the Calvinistic church on the Scottish character. 13 A further parallel is also drawn with the city of Edinburgh itself, Stevensons birthplace, which consists of two distinct parts the old medieval section historically inhabited by the citys poor, where the dark crowded slums were rife with all types of crime, and the moder n Georgian area of wide spacious streets representing respectability. 131415 The novella has also been noted as one of the best guidebooks of the Victorian era because of its piercing description of the fundamental dichotomy of the 19th blow outward respectability