1. The strange case of dr. Jekyll and mr. hyde
“All human beings are commingled out of good and evil.”

2. Victorian London – Social Classes
Victorian society was highly stratified; classes did not mix, and behavior, especially among members of the upper class, was expected to be exemplary at all times
The unrealistically rigid morality of upper class Londoners led many to live double lives
Upper class = they, along with their homes, were expected to be proper and elegant at all times

3. Victorian Style – Upper Class

4. Victorian London – Setting
London’s social classes led to divided communities
People were uncomfortable and often unwelcome in parts of town that were not inhabited by their own social group
Cavendish Square, the area in which Jekyll, Utterson and Lanyon live = wealthiest part of London
Only a few blocks away = ghettos, such as Soho where Hyde kept his residence

5. Victorian Style – Lower Class

6. Victorian Novels
Emulates the conservative values of Queen Victoria: earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic propriety, respectability, and restraint
Seeks to faithfully represent society and the classes; seeks to represent a large social world with a variety of classes
Attempts to be more realistic than Romantic works Often features a main character who strives to earn love or social status
Presents the human condition by following its characters' physical, emotional, and psychological quest
Characters are rewarded by being virtuous and punished for being otherwise

7. Robert Louis Stevenson
Born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland and died in in Samoa
Only child from a wealthy family
Ill as a child; spent a lot of time reading
Strict Christian and moral upbringing; theme of good vs. evil (strict repression of “evil” actions and evil thoughts)
As a student, liked visiting the ghettos of Edinburgh; would put on a false identity
Studied engineering and law in college but became an author

8. Robert Louis Stevenson
Based J&H from Edinburgh
Old Town = dirty, disease ridden, overcrowded, full of poverty
New Town = prosperous, middle class, clean, ordered
William ‘Deacon’ Brodie – well respected craftsman by day, criminal by night – hanged in 1788

9. Robert Louis Stevenson
Interested in what made up a person’s character: why they could be bad as well as good
Fascinated by the "dregs of humanity", something that the upper class pretended never existed
After a nightmare, Stevenson wrote the novella in just three days

10. Themes Good vs Evil / Duality of human nature Importance of Reputation
Jekyll asserts that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and he imagines the human soul as the battleground for an “angel” and a “fiend (evil spirit),” each struggling for mastery
Importance of Reputation
avoid gossip at all costs; they see gossip as a great destroyer of reputation
also reflects the importance of appearances, facades, and surfaces, which often hide a sordid (shameful) underside

11. Symbolic Names
Jekyll
“Je” = “I” in French
Kyll = kill
Hyde
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