Furthermore

[Stephen Palladino]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a very interesting book, as you might already know it is a book about the human being. Stevenson was trying to get across in his book that no one is good or evil, just how in life nothing is really black and white, its more of a gray. This book also is about man trying to play god and when you play good you die.<br>

[Unregistered]

You are both entitled to your opinions and have mentioned some of the crucial factors in the novel. To add to them...<br><br>I think you meant that the ending was weak and not week. The story is entirely deliberate. The book would be seriously impaired if Steveson had thrust his opinions upon the reader through Utterson (his main narrator). He was questioning a great deal of issues that were emerging in Victorian Britain and encouraging the reader to think for themselves. Rather than Stevenson being lazy and hurrying the end, I think the laziness should be attributed to anyone who would rather Steveson told them what to think about these issues, instead of deciding for thmselves. However, there are clues scattered through the novel that give an indication of the author's opinions. For example, Dr. Jekyll's clothes do not fit Mr. Hyde (they are too big) which implies that Jekyll believes the evil part of our nature to be smaller and weaker.<br><br>Stevenson's desriptions mirror are an effect of the social restraint he comments upon in the book. He burned the first version he wrote because it was too graphic and then went on to write the second version, almost haunted by the memory of the first. This is very much the prevailing feeling of the story. It's not what the writer says, it's what he doesn't say. The horror and suspense are in the implication. This allows us to construct horrific scenes in our minds because there is no finite description of what really happened.<br><br>Certainly, the idea of God was challenged long before Stevenson's time. However, as a result of Darwin and Huxley's various publications on evolutionary theory and the origin of man, published in the decades preceeding Jekyll and Hyde, Victorian society was questioning religion in a way that society never had before.<br><br>It should not be forgotten that the novel is a comment on British imperialism and colonialism. Hyde is described as 'savage' just like the 'uncivilised societies being 'discovered' at the time. Neither should the importance of Scottish national identity be ignored. Stevenson, who was born, brought up and educated in Edinburgh set this book in London but the description are synonymous with 'Auld Reekie'. In addition, the idea of duality and the supernatural had long been a preoccupation of Scottish literature (see Barrie's 'Farewell Miss Julie Logan' and Hogg's 'Confessions of a Justified Sinner'). <br><br>The emergence of Freud's theories and an increased interest in psychoanalysis was also a major feature of Victorian society and should be considered when studying the novel.<br>