Essay On The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

In Great Britain, during the Victorian era, a new law named Labouchere Amendment was put into effect. This criminalizes homosexuality with a sentence of life imprisonment or death. This new law forces many people who are gay into hiding. Those in hiding would live double lives. Some are married to the opposite sex, others remain single throughout their livelihood; causing them to be heterosexual by day and a homosexual by night. Some like Oscar Wilde remain open about their sexuality. Which led Oscar to be imprisoned for 2 years of hard labor. Robert Louis Stevenson focused on this cultural issue in his novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, through figurative language (. Through this Stevenson posits that if one hides one’s authentic self it will lead to a double life that will cause one’s life to end in destruction. To begin, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde provides information on Dr. Jekyll’s sexuality. Stevenson’s novel focused on the “cheval glass”, since it represented a feminine object (42). Others wondered what “Jekyll [would] want with it” since it was as noted before a feminine object (Stevenson 42). The cheval glass (mirror), especially in the Victorian era, was seen that only women would be using it. Men were seen not to care about their appearance. Therefore, wouldn’t need a mirror. Homosexual men are seen as feminine. Which emphasizes a reason for them to have a mirror. Evidently, Jekyll having the mirror proves that Jekyll is homosexual