The Polarity of Good and Evil and Victorian Society
In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, the themes of good versus evil, the duality of man and Victorian society are perpetual. Further, the Law of Polarity is a universal law that states that everything has an opposite and everything exists as a result of positive and negative forces. The Law of Polarity applies to different aspects found in the book The Law of Polarity is evident in the good and evil aspects of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Victorian society.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are a manifestation of the Law of Polarity. For example, the novella tells, “Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written …show more content…
The poles of Victorian society are the socially acceptable actions and undesirable secret behaviors. Contemporaries of the Victorian age struggle with the conflict between doing enjoyable hobbies and adhering to socially acceptable statues, for example, “[Utterson] [enjoys] the theater but has not crossed the doors of one for twenty years” (3). The unwritten code of socially acceptable actions has been in effect since the beginning of civilization. It is a part of human nature to develop desires to participate in activities outside of standards set to govern behavior. Further, similarly to the Law of Polarity, there is not an absolute point where an action veers from being socially acceptable to socially unacceptable. As a result of this, contemporaries of the Victorian age, especially Utterson and Jekyll, attempt to conceal their socially questionable desires; this results in the formation of Jekyll’s double identity. Similarly to the Law of Polarity, socially acceptable actions and undesirable secret behaviors are similar in nature: they are constructs in place that influence societal perception. They appear opposite, but in actuality they are two extremes
In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, the themes of good versus evil, the duality of man and Victorian society are perpetual. Further, the Law of Polarity is a universal law that states that everything has an opposite and everything exists as a result of positive and negative forces. The Law of Polarity applies to different aspects found in the book The Law of Polarity is evident in the good and evil aspects of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Victorian society.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are a manifestation of the Law of Polarity. For example, the novella tells, “Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written …show more content…
The poles of Victorian society are the socially acceptable actions and undesirable secret behaviors. Contemporaries of the Victorian age struggle with the conflict between doing enjoyable hobbies and adhering to socially acceptable statues, for example, “[Utterson] [enjoys] the theater but has not crossed the doors of one for twenty years” (3). The unwritten code of socially acceptable actions has been in effect since the beginning of civilization. It is a part of human nature to develop desires to participate in activities outside of standards set to govern behavior. Further, similarly to the Law of Polarity, there is not an absolute point where an action veers from being socially acceptable to socially unacceptable. As a result of this, contemporaries of the Victorian age, especially Utterson and Jekyll, attempt to conceal their socially questionable desires; this results in the formation of Jekyll’s double identity. Similarly to the Law of Polarity, socially acceptable actions and undesirable secret behaviors are similar in nature: they are constructs in place that influence societal perception. They appear opposite, but in actuality they are two extremes