Violence Theme in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Sample

Throughout the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, readers see a vivid depiction of violence. As the novel proceeds, the characters become increasingly comfortable with the brutality around them. The intense descriptions of violence can be seen with Hyde and Jekyll’s characters throughout the work, the regret subsiding as the novel continues. In addition to the two-faced persona of Jekyll-Hyde, another instance seen would be the town as a whole. It became easier for the characters to cope as the frequency of the murders increased. To gain a deeper understanding, linking this concept of subsiding regret to more familiar situations would be ideal. Thinking about personal experiences, and sympathizing with others’. In the enthralling novel, Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses imagery effectively in order to shape and reinforce the theme that as time goes on, the idea of immoral actions begin to seem less immoral in the doer's eyes.

Within this novel, imagery is used to portray a sense of relatability in order to engage the reader with the entire plotline. In order to commiserate with the situation at hand, the understanding of the diminishing of regret and morality, a link to the real world is necessary. Stevenson states “Street after street and all the folks asleep—street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church—till at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman.” (Stevenson 6). This quote, the use of imagery from the streetlights, represents the fear which Enfield had at the time. Illustrated by this quote, we can clearly see the clarity of relatability through emotion between the characters and the reader. The portrayal of this novel was the loss of immorality in a specific action being a human trait, not one that makes entities insane. The only fix to said action would be to keep individuals in check, not to be in the dark as Hyde was, understand boundaries, as if looking at someone else committing these actions. It is commonly guessed that the root of Hyde’s entire persona was Dr. Jekyll’s involvement in the medical field. The novel has been set in the Victorian Era, the medical methods not only being ineffective but also the epitome of gore and violence. The author of The Sedulous Ape: Atavism, Professionalism, and Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, Stephen D. Arata states,

If Jekyll and Hyde articulates in Gothic fiction's exaggerated tones late-Victorian anxieties concerning degeneration, devolution, and "criminal man," it invariably situ ates those concerns in relation to the practices and discourses of lawyers like Gabriel Utterson, doctors like Henry Jekyll and Hastie Lan yon, or even "well-known men about town" (29) like Richard Enfield. The novel in fact asks us to do more than simply register the all-too apparent marks of Edward Hyde's "degeneracy." It compels us also to examine how those marks come to signify in the first place. As Stevenson understood, one thing professional men tend to be good at is close read. (Arata 2)

With the help of the potion, the mind altering substance, Jekyll turns into his alter ego, Mr. Hyde. His violent tendencies had somewhat rooted from his profession. Arata communicates that an individual's personality is loosely co-dependent on their profession or career, Jekyll’s gore tendencies from work transferred to gore tendencies in his personal life. 

While being Mr. Hyde, he fulfills all his gory desires, more appropriately, his immensely immoral wants. The first murder that was seen in the novel, hesitation and regret had been present. Most importantly, he was worried, as he turned back into Jekyll. Stevenson writes,

We told the man we could and would make such a scandal out of this as should make his name stink from one end of London to the other. If he had any friends or any credit, we undertook that he should lose them. And all the time, as we were pitching it in red hot, we were keeping the women off him as best we could for they were as wild as harpies. I never saw a circle of such hateful faces; and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of black sneering coolness—frightened too, I could see that—but carrying it off, sir, really like Satan. ‘If you choose to make capital out of this accident,’ said he, ‘I am naturally helpless. No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene,’ says he. ‘Name your figure.’ Well, we screwed him up to a hundred pounds for the child’s family; he would have clearly liked to stick out; but there was something about the lot of us that meant mischief, and at last he struck. (Stevenson 7). 

Once Hyde turned back into Jekyll, he instantly had a sense of regret, not enough, though, that he could not continue living through his fantasies. Through the quote, Stevenson shows, through careful diction, that Hyde is somewhat worrisome, regret is present and visible. He had been fearful enough to pay the amount necessary in order for the bystander’s silence. As initially stated in the thesis, as time progresses, Jekyll finds it easier to transform all his violent desires to reality, his mental ease, especially. The author of Carrying On Like a Madman: Insanity and Responsibility in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Melissa J. Ganz, has written,

In the statement, Jekyll refuses to accept responsibility for Carew’s death, insisting that he was in a ‘‘fit of... delirium’’ (Jekyll and Hyde, p. 64) throughout the attack and could not control his actions. At the time, he explains, he had assumed the identity of his ‘‘second and worse [self]’’ (p. 62), the savage Edward Hyde. Although Jekyll’s argument appears blatantly self serving, his attempt to exonerate himself finds support elsewhere in the text. (Ganz 2)

Supporting the ideology of Stevenson’s use of mental ease in terms of immoral action as frequency increases, Ganz proves Jekyll’s initial regret as well as his regret subsiding by the end, trying to barter off responsibility as a fear response. The way Jekyll ends up transforming into his alter ego, Hyde - even without his potion in the later parts of the novel - shows how it is instinctual to be violent, to give into his vicious desires. Evidently, Jekyll’s fantasies becoming more brutal and more instinct-like as time goes on proves his morality has plummeted. 

Following the horrid death of the little girl, the town of London had been horrified. Stevenson had written, Hitherto it had touched him on the intellectual side alone; but now his imagination also was engaged, or rather enslaved; and as he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, Mr. Enfield’s tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures. He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child running from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams. Or else he would see a room in a rich house, where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams; and then the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart, the sleeper recalled, and lo! there would stand by his side a figure to whom power was given, and even at that dead hour, he must rise and do its bidding. (Stevenson 13)

As entailed from the quotation, Enfield had been initially disturbed by such an immoral action, it had almost been unheard of. It left him worrisome, so much so that he decided to solve the case, along with Utterson, taking matters into their own hands. Although many characters’ thoughts were not depicted within this novel, Utterson and Enfield tend to represent the majority, them stepping up and completing a task others had not had the pride to. As time went on, London calmed down about the scenario, slightly subtracting their fear as the repetition formed knowingness. By the time the very last murder had been commited, the action no longer feared the two as it did at the beginning, the knowingness had seeped in. A loose serial killer causes trauma, which is why London had not completely been over the homicides, to some degree the terror had lessened. Irving S. Saposnik, author of The Anatomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had written “London is the geographical location because it best represents the center of the normative Victorian world. The major characters are all professional gentlemen because their respectability provides the facade behind which their essential selves are allowed to masquerade” (Saposnik 2). Saposnik describes the utter instinct of London deciphering immoral news, relating to the murderous circumstances experienced to the novel. London’s initial fear is described as essential, the fear subsided by the end, though out of habit, not a changed mindset. Hearing negative news repetitively increases chances of being habituated to said news. 

The world in general lives by this thesis; the more commonly a task is done, the less of an impact it has on the doer. Stevenson proved the stated thesis by constantly portraying relatability throughout the novel, using imagery to communicate a number of human-like emotions. Fear had been throughout used to show regret, usually through imagery. The wrongdoer is ultimately convinced what they are doing is correct as the frequency of immoral actions increase, as Jekyll had and as Stevenson had shown. Like London, the people around the wrongdoer's actions become less horrified, trying to be sensible and contained about the situation. Just because it is common does not make it right and keeping individuals’ morality rates in check in order to keep lifestyles morally and personally correct, is blatantly vital.