Author’s note: Obviously over the course of this novella, duality of man or good vs. evil has proved to be a recurring motif. As soon as I picked up on this motif I felt motivated to write about it so here is my analysis of it!
Over and over again, duality of man can been seen as a significant motif in the Jekyll and Hyde novella. What Stevenson suggests through this motif is that every one man is in fact two entirely different people; one good and one evil. If the evil side is repressed long enough, it proves to be uncontrollable once it breaks loose. We definitely see this in Hyde throughout the story. He was always hidden in Jekyll, and then when he was finally created and released, he proved to be an uncontrollable force. Not only did Hyde cause pain and destruction, but he made Jekyll pay for it. Hyde’s acts haunted and made the reputable man feel guilty. Jekyll and Hyde are the same people, but opposites, which made Stevenson’s motif all the better.
At one point in the novella, Jekyll describes his life as a perennial war between each of his two sides—just like the classic matchup of good versus evil—thus the duality of man. Jekyll had to be careful not to give into his counterpart, or things could have been ghastly.
I agree with Stevenson’s motif, but I agree with it in a much weaker state. I believe that people have a good and bad side, but I would never like to believe that there are people with two sides as strong as Jekyll’s. Good or evil, there is still a side in you that is a lot different than the person you know. A side that has been left undiscovered. A side that is imperceptible. A side that wants out.
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