Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Term Papers

The significance of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde being set in the city takes on several forms.  The anonymity of a major metropolitan area, along with the ability to hide secrets among the masses, makes Jekyll and Hyde a classic modernist novel.  The duality of Jekyll and Hyde allows for the contrasts of personality, night and day, good and evil to remain ambiguous and exist in the city verses the respective closeness of a rural setting.

The main characters of the novel represent many urban aspects.  In the late 18th Century, the profession of Physician was one of the highest regarded positions in society.  Medicine was evolving rapidly with new cures and new money that was concentrated in the larger cities.  For Dr. Jekyll to successfully practice experimental medicine, he would need to be in a larger city, near the money. Stevenson made this point in his description of Cavendish Square where Dr. Lanyon practiced.  It was considered “that citadel of medicine”.

The rise of the Bourgeoisie in London created social classes and elitism within hierarchy of London’s wealthiest professionals. The secrets of the bourgeoisie were held in the hands of doctors, due to the rise in syphilis and other socially embarrassing diseases like gout, doctors were privy to sensitive, potentially socially threatening information.  Therefore, few were quick to criticize or question the behaviors or strange comings and goings of a doctor such as Jekyll. 

London itself had a life of its own that added to the mystery of Jekyll and Hyde.  The ominous air that London provides as a background for the novel adds to the depth of characterization of the grim and bleak lows that Jekyll had sunk to while catering to the high society of the city.  Much like Dickens used London to convey the poverty of humanity, Stevenson uses it to denote an active presence of prosperity and industrialism in phrases such as "vast hum and clatter of the city", "the low growl of London from all around" and "London hummed solemnly". 

The vast maze of city streets in Jekyll and Hyde is Hyde's mode of transportation in the night.  The cauldron of closed doors along dark city streets gives a detached atmosphere of modernism and the secrets of the men that perpetuate progress.  Stevenson attempts to show that beneath the cleanliness and respectability is a maze of closed doors that hide secrets just as devastating as Jekyll's.  Beyond the doors of homes, the secrets are extended to the commercial shops that look like "rows of smiling saleswomen" that are not what they seem.  The detachment of the city gives partial excuse to Jekyll in not taking responsibility for his two natures.

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