evil" paradigm. However, unlike in earlier gothic works, there is no allusion to priests or monks as players on the side of "evil." In fact, the absence of religion and religious restraints appears to be an element of Stevenson's theme: Jekyll, acting on the doctrine of Rousseau, which is to follow one's "nature," unmoors himself from the restraints traditionally made available by religious conviction. Jekyll, being a man of science, rather than of theology, puts to test the doctrine that divorced the old world from the new, and what he finds is that the doctrine is not good. While the earlier works of gothic horror (like The Monk) pointed out corruption within the clergy, Stevenson's gothic work appears to do the opposite: it points out the corruption in Naturalism: "I not only recognised my natural body from the mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers that made up my spirit, but managed to compound a drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and a second form and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me because they were the expression, and bore the stamp of lower elements in my soul" (63). Stevenson's Jekyll ultimately learns that what had been deceptively identified as "natural" was nothing more than the attempt to legitimize fallen human nature. It is this fallen human nature that Jekyll believes he can legitimately embrace (without the "grasp of conscience" (67) as he says) through his transformation into Hyde. Just as Rousseau sought to transform fallen human nature into something untainted by what the medieval world had called Original Sin, Jekyll attempts to transform from a human with a conscience into a human without a conscience.

What Jekyll learns, of course, is that -- as Dostoevsky would write the same...

Oscar Wilde would come to state virtually the same thing in Dorian Grey, and Stevenson places himself in their company. Hyde proves himself to be a man who can trample an innocent or commit murder without remorse: his exterior also reflects his interior. Far from being free and happy, Hyde looks a like a monster: decrepit, revolting, and ugly. When Jekyll's fancy is satisfied and he realizes how base he has been in his soul to allow himself to be seduced into thinking he could be free of conscience, he swears off becoming Hyde any longer. But, as he has already opened the door to the evil, he finds it harder and harder to resist, in both his physical and spiritual aspect. This is what frightens him: he fears Hyde will take over his very being -- and the story tragically proves his fear correct: the body of Hyde is found in the clothing of Jekyll.
In conclusion, the tale of Jekyll and Hyde thus became synonymous with the battle between good and evil, which is essentially what is at the root of the gothic horror paradigm. Stevenson plays with the gothic paradigm by presenting the complete and utter personality shift between the good man of "science" and the evil man of nature. The twist is that both are aspects of the same man, and in that sense Jekyll follows in the footsteps of Frankenstein. What Stevenson effected was a stark presentation of the repercussions of giving into the false ideology of naturalism. That same doctrine that had caused Shelley's wife to write her gothic horror masterpiece still lurked under the covers of Victorian England -- and Stevenson saw it.

Works Cited

Stevenson, R.L. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. NY: Barnes and Noble

Books, 2003.