Victorian Era Literature Essay

Dr. Jekyll and Victorian Literature

England during the reign of Queen Victoria was a very rigid, prudish, and regulated society, very different from the world today. In Victorian England, there were very strict rules which dictated the behavior of the citizenry. Those who wanted to be accepted in proper society were heavily restricted in every aspect of their lives. There were restrictions on alcohol and other substances which lesser individuals might succumb to. There were restrictions on interactions with other people, particularly members of the opposite sex or with those who were in a different social stratum than themselves. For example, a gentleman did not consort daily with a servant, nor would a common gentleman be likely to consort with members of royalty or landed gentry. Some men accepted these rules and others were incapable of conforming. Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tells the story of a man who was unable to live with the conflict between his baser desires and the social dictum. The story exemplifies the Victorian era in its depiction of the servant/master relationship, the violence as presented in the plot, and of course the very duality of man that is at the center of the story's narrative.

Social standing is still an important aspect of society, but even more so during the Victorian period.During that time, there was a clear separation between the upper echelon of society and the lower levels. Although a servant might live in a home for as long as, or in some cases even longer than, their current master, they were never considered anything close to family or friends. A servant was to take the master's orders in all things and to never act in a way which would cast aspersions on the home and reputation of their employer. In one conversation, the lawyer Utterson is told by Dr. Jekyll's servant, Poole, that all the servants in the house were ordered to obey the offensive Mr. Hyde. Without emotion he says, "We have all orders to obey him" (Stevenson 27). Regardless of their own impressions of Mr. Hyde, the servants are forced to treat him with the same level of respect and servitude as the other master of the house. Even when the servants suspect Jekyll to be dead, they are not permitted by the rules of class to seek the police or medical attention. Instead, Poole goes to Utterson who remarks, "Very irregular, very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased" (69). Only a peer could possibly intrude on Jekyll's personal space without explicit approval by the….....