Essay - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Appearing in Late Victorian Period...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

***** in late Victorian period, Robert Louis Stevenson's gothic novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is more a story of addiction to an unm*****ned substance than a str*****nge case of personality disorder. The novel has often been read as one concerning duality of character ***** to a l*****rge extent, this kind ***** interpretation w***** extended to the readers by Jekyll's own admission that his life could be studied as one "committed to a profound duplicity" (p. 122). But closer reading of ***** novel reveals ***** Jekyll's personality disorder was caused ***** severe dependency on some drug and is defined as a man ***** "destructive attachments" by Kavanaugh (1992, p.9). This heavy consumption of some psychoactive substance results in duplicity of personality which closely resembles author's ***** life. He was himself an addict ***** it is a documented fact that close addiction had caused some neurotic condition in th***** case as well. He died while preparing such ***** intoxicant for himself: "He [Stevenson] went down to the cellar to fetch a bottle of his favorite burgundy, uncorked it in the kitchen, and suddenly cried out to his wife: what's the matter with me, what is this strangeness, ***** my face changed?--***** fell on ***** floor. A blood vessel had burst in his brain and it ***** all over in a couple of hours" (Nabokov p. 204)

Many critics have read t***** ***** as a s*****ry ***** good and evil claiming ***** the novel is a "colloquial metaphor ***** ***** good-evil antithes***** that lurks in all men"[Saposnik, p.88] ***** that "we use the term Jekyll and ***** casually to suggest a split ***** or some conflict bet*****en someone's good and evil sides."[Gaughan, p.184]. But ***** study this novel as a moral parable would be equal to committing a grave injustice to its scope. ***** story is instead based on a man's hidden neurosis ***** by ***** chemical dependence but the reas***** we hear less about his ***** is because both the author and his characters are in denial of the truth.

Denial of ***** kind is common among addicts who are afraid to acknowledge dependence ***** they "fiercely resist admitting *****."[*****, p.65] This is also seen in the novel when ***** naively decl*****s to Utterson, "to put your ***** *****t at rest, I will tell you one thing: the moment I choose, I can be rid ***** Mr. Hyde" (p. 40). Jekyll honestly *****lieved th***** changing into Mr. ***** was some*****ing he could voluntarily control just like any addict ***** hope. Self-***** and self-reliance are nothing ***** illusions for someone who is dependent on a psychoactive substance. They like to believe that ***** in control of ********** lives but this is not true.

Jekyll consistently separates himself from Mr. Hyde believing that he was somebody else. ***** refuses to take responsibility for his behavior which is another sign of addiction. *****t one point he protests "*****t was Hyde, after all, ***** Hyde alone, that was guilty" [p.