Stevenson and Conrad: The Duality of Human Nature

Conrad also employs the literary device of symbolism to further display the theme, the duality of human nature in his novella Heart of Darkness. Three major examples of symbolism are evident in this novella. These examples include, light and dark, the Congo River, and ivory. Similar to Stevenson, Conrad uses light and dark symbolism throughout his novella. Yet curiously in Heart of Darkness, light does not symbolize genuine goodness nor does dark symbolize pure calamity. Marlow proves this when he

is shown to further demonstrate the theme, the duality in human nature. Personification is defined as the ascription of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of a theoretical quality in human form. Stevenson uses personification to figuratively make London come alive. Mr. Utterson comments on the scenery by saying: “the fog still slept ... lamps glimmered like carbuncles” (Stevenson 1959). Stevenson further describes the city through the literary

aspects of human life. In 1859 Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, a work that opposed the traditional way of perceiving religion. Candyce Klin author of “Darwinism as A Cultural Issue”, states that The Origin of Species proposed the theory that all living creatures had to compete within their own preconditions in order to survive. This may be why the controversial issue of the duality of human nature has been found at the heart of many Victorian works. The theme of the duality of man can

there the craze for duality spread from Germany to the rest of the world. (Grook, 1982:13). This German word, which literally means "double-goer" is brought into the language and simultaneously into the literary tradition as a term used first by the novelist Joann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825). His novel Siebenkas (1796) tells the

Both Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, and The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, are set in the Victorian era and demonstrate societal norms being altered for one’s own benefit. In Heart of Darkness, there is an element of change when one enters a new society, and once that change is made it cannot be undone. In The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, being both an accepted member of society and having the ability to execute repressed desires