The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
R.L. STEVENSON 1886

Published in 1886, R.L Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is, along with Frankenstein and Dracula, one of the best-known stories of 19th-century British fiction. It is often remembered, by those who have read it or seen one of the numerous filmic adaptations of the novella, as the sensational dramatization of the conflict between good and evil within man. As you know, the names of the ‘two’ protagonists are also often commonly used to oppose good and evil in a wide range of domains. This opposition is not as clear-cut within the novella, as we will see. I would like to show first of all that Stevenson’s novella is as much a product of its time as it is a timeless story. It is to be seen as a post-Darwinian fantasy, and also as the product of the late-Victorian moral climate. The conjunction of these two elements is here fundamental. Then we will pay attention to the general structure of the novella.

1-A post-Darwinian fantasy. Stevenson’s novella reflects the anxieties engendered by Darwin’s theory of evolution, and above all by the idea that there is no clear boundary between men and animals. The traditional distinction between animals (subject to their instinctual drives and unable to resist them), and men (who are capable of control over their behaviour thanks to their rational thought and superior mental development) is contested by Darwin’s theory. It is on such blurring of boundaries that Stevenson built his story. Hyde embodies the instinctual in Jekyll, and Stevenson often uses animalistic imagery to describe him (‘ape’ is a recurrent word for example, see also ‘the animal within me licking the chops of memory’, chapter 10). But what is interesting here, what turns the novella into a ‘Darwinian nightmare’ is the fact that when put to the test, Jekyll fails to resist the instinctual demands embodied by Hyde. When he understands that he has to choose between his