Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer who published a novella called The Strange Case of Henry and Jekyll in 1886. It is about a doctor called Henry Jekyll who separates himself into two beings. Through his investigations of the human psyche, Jekyll discovers that he is not simply one being, but that he is made up of two parts, good and ill. Being ambitious and hubristic, he believes that he can break this dualism and transcend it, failing to realize that these two parts must be subject under the same body so that they can be controlled. This is what leads to his downfall.

Jekyll has identified that he is not a one-natured abstract being, but a two-natured complex one, which must be subject into the same body to be controlled. It is “a hard law of life, which lies at the root of religion and is one of the most plentiful springs of distress” (Stevenson 1675). This is of course the obvious truth that man is not perfect, but that he struggles with good and bad, and indeed the bad can dominate and cause him to do terrible things. Religions were created so that the struggle could be controlled and people could have morals to strive for. The metaphor of a water spring works here because although water is good because you can drink it for life, it can also be bad: the water can cause flood, drowning or crushing people. So it is an element with a multifaceted nature. The spring provides the water for the plant of religion to grow to solve this problem, so although it is unsettling for Jekyll, it can be said to give some good in so far as it provides religion to control it. Good and ill are “provinces […] which divide and compound man’s dual nature” (Stevenson 1675). Through this, the two parts of the body are controlled as they should be, and the metaphor of the province works because while provinces are different parts of a country, they are still both subject to that one country and it’s laws. If they are not, then there will be chaos, as happens later in the story.

Jekyll’s hubris makes him believe that he can break up this duality. He says that he was made to be obsessed with this through “the exacting nature of my aspirations than any particular degradation in my faults” (Stevenson 1675). Jekyll is saying here that in his view, it was not a defect or vice that drove him to try to split his dual personality, but rather his natural curiosity and search for knowledge, something that he has always had. It was his destiny. While admitting he is a “double dealer”, he further justifies this by saying “both sides of him were in dead earnest” (Stevenson 1675). Jekyll’s animal and rational natures are unmovable in their struggle, making him feel dead inside. He believes only splitting them can bring back life inside him. The “direction” of Jekyll’s studies led towards the “mystic and transcendental, reacted and shed a strong light” on the war among his members. (Stevenson 1675) The use of the word “direction”, and his later discovery of his dual personality which has him “doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck”, characterizes him in a voyage gone wrong. He has found the “light” he was looking for, which should have taken away the death inside him, but his discovery of the truth has come too late. A ship is made up of many parts, but it can only function as one: if it is split in half in the sea, it will sink and become a shipwreck. In the same way Jekyll destroyed himself when he split his personality.

Jekyll has discovered that he is a complex being with two natures. But what he ignores is that they must be subject to the same body to be controlled, and his obsession with separating the two of them is what leads to his downfall. This also applies to all people: they are also complex beings with many natures and experiences, which cannot be separated from each other. Mental illness is a big example of a bad part of nature. Rather than suppressing it or trying to separate it from the person, one should seek help from a doctor and/or psychologist to reveal these problems so that they can be solved.

Works Cited

Black, Joseph et al. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: One-Volume Compact Edition, The Medieval Period through the Twenty First Century. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2015. Digital.