How Is the Duality of Human Nature Explored in "jekyll and Hyde"?

How is the duality of human nature explored in “Jekyll and Hyde”?

Robert Louis Stevenson believed that every single person around the entire globe had a duality to their personality. Stevenson had a puritan/Calvinist background; he was brought up to believe that original sin needed to be p urged from all human beings. Without this original sin, man would not be tempted to undertake any evil deeds. The unrealistic codes of Victorian society forced Jekyll to attempt to produce a chemical to exorcise the original sin from his body and consequently created Hyde. In “Jekyll and Hyde” Stevenson explores with the duality of human nature and how there is always an eternal struggle between the good and bad instincts of humanity.

In the novella of “the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” the idea of original sin is explored in great detail. Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines original sin as “the state of sin that according to Christian theology characterizes all human beings as a result of Adam's fall”. This definition therefore states that the idea of original sin originated from the Christian religion. According to Calvinist beliefs, all Homo sapiens inherit a corrupted or damaged human nature, with which the tendency carry out the work of evil is greater. By participating in the life of the church, each person's human nature is healed and it becomes easier to carry out moral actions. Stevenson was brought up by his father to follow these beliefs and clearly explores the idea of original sin throughout “the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Jekyll seems to follow the Calvinist beliefs and is a projection of the average human being born with original sin which needs to be purged from his nature. In the society that Jekyll lives in, it is extremely hard to follow the strict moral code without having the temptation to abandon these rules and therefore destroy his reputation within Victorian London. To stop himself from breaking these moral codes, Jekyll resorts to developing a potion to expel the original sin from his body, so therefore the temptations of the devil will be expelled as well, making Jekyll's life much easier. Jekyll, however, did not succeed in removing the original sin from his body and instead created a personality called Hyde; an entirety that is completely evil. The original sin within Jekyll eventually killed him by tempting him “into slavery” and later, into destruction. “The life of that unhappy Jekyll”, as it is described in the novel, would be much better if nature of his evil aspirations were extracted from him. Hyde cannot be driven out of Jekyll by his will alone because of the temptation located within his body to keep his “young lighter” counterpart. Towards the beginning of the story, Jekyll believes he is in control of his original sin by stating that “the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr.