The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde - 1822 Words

The Use of Space in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) is widely regarded as one of the most prominent works of Gothic fiction. The story has over the years become ingrained into the collective human consciousness, providing a cautionary, often-sensationalised tale of the mysteries of human nature and of our dual capacity of being simultaneously good and evil. As a genre, Gothic fiction is deeply complex and convoluted. Since its inception, it has come to encompass various forms, even divided into subgenres such as urban gothic, space gothic, post modern gothic, post colonial gothic and so on. However, no matter how varied the†¦show more content†¦This essay shall look at how the source of the horror in Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde emerged from the confines of the human mind. It shall look at how developments in the sciences of biology, psychology and criminology in the late 19th century helped inspire a new source of gothic horror: the depths of human consciousness. Duality in Mind and Space The fact that Stevenson chose to set his story in London, not his native city Edinburgh, says a lot about his desire to question the norms of society at that time. By the late 19th century, London had become one of the world’s greatest cities, the largest in terms of population and the centre of the British Empire and heart of global commerce and culture. In Stevenson’s novella however London is a city marred with social contradictions: on the one hand the excess of wealth and high Victorian respectability, and the other hand social and economic divides characterised with extreme poverty, exploitation, prostitution, and crime. Both sides inhabited the same space but had two completely separate entities. In the story, London retains the qualities of gothic spaces, the dark eerie castle passageways and dungeons now replaced by the fog covered narrow streets of Soho. As Utterson narrates: A great chocolate-colored pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these assembles vapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, Mr Utterson beheld a marvellous number of degrees and