Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
While not every scholar and critic fully buys into the theory that Robert Louis Stevenson (often known as "Louis" in reference works) was "obsessed" with religious themes and images. Most scholarship focuses on why the author highlighted the characters as he did, and the obvious juxtapositions. But clearly, Stevenson did indeed frequently allude to spiritual and religious themes, sometimes using subtlety, other times using stark language or even foisting his wordsmith talents on vulnerable readers through shocking images. The obvious themes of good vs. evil are there constantly, but within those themes an alert reader can detect Stevenson's seeming rebellion against the dogma he was raised with. This paper will point to those references and allusions and will also provide background into Stevenson's troubled life -- which is a vitally important key to understanding why he referenced spiritual and religious topics.
Stevenson's Family and Upbringing
Raised in a strict puritanical environment (his parents were devotees to the Presbyterian congregation), Stevenson rebelled against his parents' wishes for him, to become an engineer. Calvinism was a philosophy that put God's sovereignty at the highest place possible in society. God was all powerful and absolute, according to the Calvinist dogma, and everything had been predetermined by God, which apparently was a turn-off for a creative writer with a wild imagination like Stevenson. No doubt the writer felt as if the religious doctrines that the 19th century European middle amounted to social repression. It seems likely that Stevenson was repelled by what he believed was a kind of moral dichotomy -- people didn't live up to their high-minded religious standards -- and the result can be seen in the weirdness and depravity of Mr. Hyde.
In his childhood he had some rough times with his health. His mother Margaret, daughter of a Presbyterian minister, had a respiratory problem which apparently had been passed on to Robert. When Robert was having his "painful coughing spells," his mother would stories read to him early mornings. "…Because many of the stories were about hell and damnation and were told when he was feverish, he was often tormented by nightmares"...
These experiences may well explain Stevenson's antipathy towards organized religion, and, his use of religious references as irony, or perhaps protest as well.
Spiritual and Religious References in Stevenson's Book
W.J. Dawson explains that there are novelists that have "a religious sense, and those who are destitute of it" (Dawson, 1896). Those with a sense of religion and spirituality tend to "spoil their art by making it the abject vehicle of something they want to teach," Dawson explains (p. 2). In other words, novelists with a religious agenda are actually being didactic in their use of a religious theme. Those without a sense of religious tend to "…fail of the most difficult success, because when they come to the greatest episodes of life they lack spirituality" (Dawson, p. 2). Some sense of spirituality, in other words, is needed for this second category of writer.
As to Stevenson, Dawson says the author "belongs to neither of these classes" because he never professes that he has "…anything to teach," and he is not tempted to become didactic. The one thing that Stevenson focuses on in his work is to tell the story as thoroughly and as completely as he can; as Dawson explains, in "a most perfect manner."
And even though Stevenson does not fall into either of the two categories mentioned above, his ethical views are found in his essays and in his novels he shows he is a "moralist or nothing" (Dawson, p. 2). Indeed, Stevenson can "…rarely escape the pressure of those profound and serious thoughts which constitute religion"; the "subtle element of religion" helps to give his "great scenes" the power that has been recognized through the years (Dawson, p. 2).
Dawson asserts that it isn't so much the story of Jekyll and Hyde that holds readers "spellbound," it is in fact "the moral drama" which the story brings to the fore. The mystery of "human sin" and the intricacies of "human motive" give the story spiritual power.
On page two of the book, the lawyer Mr. Utterson stated that "I incline to Cain's heresy…I let my brother go to the devil in his own way." This passage references Genesis Chapter 4; Cain killed his brother Abel and God wondered…
