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Literary Analysis of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson

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The city of London proved to be the sole dominant location in the 1800’s during the Victorian era in this novel. As the story unfolds in the classic literature novel, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” written by Robert Louis Stevenson, the magnificent city of London becomes a darker and mysterious location. The powerful city of London embodied the freedom and solitude required for the antagonist of the story, Mr. Hyde to hide his wicked behavior from the society as a whole. According to the history of the Victorian age, “Traditional ways of life were fast being transformed into something perilously unstable and astonishingly new” (1049). The population in England was growing at an astounding rate, illustrating the transition…show more content…
Initially, Utterson comes off as having a dull and shy personality, which is quite contradicting to his career as being a prestigious lawyer. Although, upholding a law degree promised the confidentiality of all of Mr. Utterson’s cases. “For he was undemonstrative at the best and even his friendships seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature” (1780). He believed that it is not a moral thing to talk about others behind their back. In addition, Enfield and Utterson’s conversation in the exposition of the novel illustrated the strict suppression everyone had to constantly obey: “He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years” (1780). Stevenson emphasized that you need to “play by the book”. This is important that the desire to preserve social reputation keeps us from doing these disgraceful things too much. Although, Utterson would love to engage in a casual drink as well as attend a theatre performance, but he cannot because of the respectable reputation he needs to constantly maintain. Ultimately, they are expected to hide and conceal their bad habits from the rest of the society, which shows that human nature has two sides to everyone. The rising actions of the novel occur when the antagonist, Edward Hyde, tramples and kills a man of the parliament on the dark
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