How Robert Louis Stevenson Builds and Maintains a Sense of...

How Robert Louis Stevenson Builds and Maintains a Sense of Mystery and Suspense in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886 after waking from a dream in which he recalled a fine bogy tale. The book was published in the same year and its likes had never been seen before. It gave a chilling insight into the murky depths of both experimental science and the duality of the human mind. These two fields of study were both in their infancy at the time so the novel was delving into the unknown, which instantly creates mystery about the text, this was the key to the success of the book, in my opinion. In the writing of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson set a standard†¦show more content†¦He knew that with each year science was advancing further and further into the control of genetics and it is my opinion that he used his novel as a warning as to what he believed could happen should we become too fond of playing God. It only takes one step too far before you cant go back, as Jekyll discovers in the book and as scientists are beginning to discover in the twenty first century. The novel is based strongly on a theme of discovering the unknown and exploring the hidden self. Jekyll is held in high regard by his peers and begins to feel trapped by the constant expectations he is forced to conform to, he longs to walk amongst those who carouse and womanise in the name of good fun and high spirits and be excepted as one of them. Yet he still wishes to reap the rewards of a powerful social standing. In short, he craves the best of both worlds. He fulfils his needs in the concoction of a draught that changes his mental and physical state to that of Mr Edward Hyde, a foul and loathsome being with no care or love of the purity of the soul or well being of his fellow man, a being often described as Satan like. As he spends more and more time in the savage world of Hyde, Jekyll begins to lose control and finds himself changing when his mind is most vulnerable, when he is asleep. The experience of going to sleep as one person and