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...
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