Contrast essay on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

The duality of mankind, or the belief that the human mind is made up of a good and evil part, has always been a matter of great interest for many philosophers, psychologists and writers. Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr.Hyde is a unavoidable classic on the subject; for its portrayal of both nature in the persons of Hyde and Jekyll is efficiently drawn in the symbolic descriptions, and the significant critic that is …

…but also leads to the destruction of the society and the individual. Stevenson also explores how the repression of the Victorian society leads to the release of that dark side, due to the will to break free from the value of respectability. Thus, we can ask ourselves if this value and the dynamic of repression that was taking place at that time weren't partly responsible of the crimes that were committed in the Victorian era.