RLS “Fun” Facts
 His first great writing success was Treasure Island, a thrilling
story of a swashbuckling pirate named Long John Silver.
 RLS has a good claim as the inventor of the sleeping bag,
taking a large fleece-lined sack with him to sleep on his
journey through France.
 RLS was very interested by the idea that a man could possess
two contradictory personalities – one good and one evil.
 This idea is said to be modeled by the late 18th century case of
Deacon Brodie, a respectable Edinburgh businessman by day and a
gambler/adulterer/armed robber/ murderer by night.
 RLS wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in three days after awaking
one night from a nightmare.
In each of us, two natures are at war the good and the evil. All our lives the
fight goes on between them, and one
of them must conquer. But in our
hands lies the power to choose - what
we want most to be, we are."
-Robert Louis Stevenson
Victorian England
Victorian morality supported sexual restraint, low
tolerance of crime, and a strict social code of
conduct.
Victorian prudery sometimes went so far as to deem
it improper to say “leg” in mixed company.
Historians now regard the Victorian era as a time of
contradictions – the outward appearance of dignity
and restraint together with the prevalence of
prostitution and child labor.
A Sign of the Times
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution came out in 1857. (The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde saw instant success in
1886.)
 Interestingly, Hyde is described as “apelike” and as moving “like a
monkey” in the novel.
 He is also described as “troglodytic,” or like a cave man, comparing
him to the first man or “natural” man.
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychotherapy, lived at the
same time Jekyll and Hyde was published.
 Freud named the conscious part of oneself the ego.
 He named the unconscious part of oneself the id.
 He also labeled the superego as society, ethics, and morals.
 Stevenson was on the cutting edge of science to be writing about
division in the human mind.
A Sign of the Times (continued)
 Drug use and abuse was increasing during Stevenson’s time.
 A popular drug of the time was opium (a highly addictive drug). It
was frequently prescribed, even to children to help them sleep.
 Connection: Edgar Allan Poe had a problem with opium. He even
referenced an “opium-eater’s dream” in his poem “The Raven.”
 Stevenson was said to be using cocaine when he wrote The Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Duality of London
 Cavendish Square, the area in which Jekyll, Utterson, and
Lanyon live, was the wealthiest part of London.
 Only a few blocks away, one would find ghettos, such as
Soho, where Hyde kept his residence.
 Soho was a part of London known for its immigrant population.
 People tended to keep to the main thoroughfares because a
“wrong turn” could land you in the ghetto and exposed to
theft or worse.
 Also, due to the emphasis on society and social class, people
tended to stay in their own neighborhood
 Many Londoners led double lives though, attending church and
working in the wealthy part of London and participating in “other
behaviors” in ghettos like Soho.
First Interpretation: Born Evil
RLS had a strict Christian and moral upbringing. The
idea of good vs. evil was one the was quite familiar.
Adam & Eve vs. Serpent
Cain vs. Abel
Thomas Hobbes thought that humans were
naturally bad and would be animals in a “state of
nature”
In Christianity, original sin says that people are born
inclined toward evil and struggle to be good.
Second Interpretation: Society Makes us Evil
Context: Takes place in Victorian Era (1837-1901) in London,
England
Members of the upper class in Victorian times were especially
expected to behave virtuously. They, along with their homes,
were expected to be proper and elegant at all times.
Victorian society was divided.
Social classes did not mix, and behavior, especially among
members of the upper class, was to be exemplary at all times.
The unrealistically rigid morality of upper class Londoners led
many to live double lives.
Second Interpretation: Society Makes us Evil
The Enlightenment view was the people are born blank slates.
 Society shapes the person into good or evil
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychotherapy, believed that
human beings are powerfully influenced by impulses they are
not aware of.
Personality:
 Freud said there were three parts to a person’s psychology
 Ego – the conscious part of oneself (adult)
 Id – the unconscious part of oneself (childlike)
 Superego – society, ethics , and morals
 To many readers, Hyde represents Dr. Jekyll’s subconscious desire to
be freed from society’s restrictions.
 People need to repress desires for society to work.