By Robert Lois Stevenson
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Lois Stevenson. It talks about how a scientist called Henry Jekyll divides the human soul into its good and bad side. By doing this, something unexpected happens with the potion and he kills himself and his “bad side” (which is called, Mr. Hyde). There are three themes that we took into account. 1. The duality of human nature. 2. The importance of reputation. & 3. The guilty vs the innocent.
1. The duality of human nature tries to show what the division of the human soul can symbolize. It symbolizes that we are made of supposedly “evil side” and a “good side”. In the story , Hyde starts to dominate Jekyll till he kills Jekyll. At the beginning, Utterson can not believe that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. Hyde's appearance makes him look like a primitive animal and also by showing how he reacts depending on the situation. "Between these two I now felt I had to choose. My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally shared between them. Jekyll (Who was a composite)" [...] "But Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll".
2. The Importance of reputation mainly talks about how Jekyll and Hyde try not to make the potion public and also, Hyde public. Jekyll only tell it to their two trully trusted friends, Utterson and Enfield. Utterson suspects Jekyll of hiding Hyde from the police from the murder because of his reputation and also of his friendship with Utterson. "But mostly to preserv the order" nd don't make everyone enter in panic. "My good Utterson" [...] " I believe you fully; I would trust you before any man alive".
3. The Guilty vs the Innocent explains the characters in a way that Hyde and Jekyll are the guilty ones. Jekyll can be guilty for making the posion but innocent for do not knowing that Hyde would kill him. Hyde is guilty for the murder of the little girl. Utterson, Poole and Enfield are innocents about being trully and trusty friends with Jekyll but they are guilty about not telling the truth. The most important things in the Victorian era is the reputation and being well-known in that time. "I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck".
Finally, the themes can show lots of details of the characters that are not written in the book. For example, they can explain why Utterson and Enfield never talked about Hyde or the potion. They show the division of the soul and which characters are guilty and which ones are innocent. These are some of the themes I think that are the most important ones. In my opinion the most important one, and complete is the one of the duality of human nature.
