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Joshua M. Woods Escape In Duplicity: Wilde vs. Stevenson

In Both Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest and Robert Louis Stevensons The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the main characters of each story involve themselves with superfluous double lives. Dr. Henry Jekyll is to Mr. Edward Hyde just as Algernon Moncrieff is to Bunbury and Jack Worthing to Earnest Worthing. Although it is debatable as to whether all of these original men had sinister intentions or shining intentions, the same underlying cause is analogous to all: a desire to escape the everyday norms of their realistic lives. Living these double or fabricated lives landed these men into the waters of hypocrisy as they tried to dry themselves of their real world problems. In both of these stories, there is a strong Victorian sense of society that comes into play: fashion and style rather than practical and logical. The amount of description in both narrative settings adds to the effect of the society at the time. A man of great scientific pursuits was Dr. Henry Jekyll as he tried in his greatest hour to separate the dual-nature of man into two separate entities. Jekyll wanted to purify the idea of being dual-natured in the context of having an evil and good side: served in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound mans dual nature.(Stevenson 56) The eventual permanent transformation was somewhat a lesson to be learned in the sense that nothing had the power to shape nature unnaturally. With his experiment in the beginning, he had given into temptation as he was unsure about testing the powders, ultimately producing inadequate results: alas! too evident, my discoveries were incomplete.(Stevenson 58) Many other subtle idiosyncrasies occurred displaying the theme of dual-nature such as Dr. Jekylls estate entrances: it was extremely elegant on one side versus its bleakness and morbidity on the side of the laboratory entrance. Like Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Uttersona man of few wordswas a lawyer who prided himself on honor when it came to doing

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the right thing. Such pride as the opening of a letter in a specified manner contrasted with his hypocritical stalking of Mr. Hyde ungentlemanly: From that time forward, Mr. Utterson began to haunt the door [to Hydes dwelling] in the by-street of shops. (Stevenson 10) With Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest, it is a lot more apparent that the author is satirizing societal members living double lives. For instance, when Algernon Moncrieff says Well, one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life... I happen to be serious about Bunburying, the idea in itself is quite ridiculous. (Wilde II-61) Societal norms are satirized such as the accounting of the quality of liquor that is to be found in a bachelors pad versus a married couples residence. The amount of hypocrisy in the story can be found hand in hand with blatant oddities in how they are introduced, such as in Algernons speech: I dont play accurately, ...but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for life........, speaking of science of life, have you got the cucumber sandwiches... (Wilde I-1) Algernon is the type of person who Bunburys to escape the tedious everyday problems set forth in the life of a bachelor gentleman. Like Algernon, Jack Worthing has a Bunbury by the name of Ernest Worthing. Both of these figments of men are related to the original man such as brotherhood; yet it is ironic in the hypocrisy unveiled by Jack when he states I have no brother, that I never had a brother, and that I dont intend to have a brother, not even of any kind.(Wilde III-73) With this dialogue, it reveals the flaw of contradictory thoughts due to the fact that he referred to Ernest Worthing as his brother whenever he left the country to go into the city. This life was of leisure and for him to come out and contradict himself in the end is quite hypocritical. Rules of conduct as well as societal norms were governed in the day by strong Victorian modules. Whether it is honor, scandal, marriage, bachelorhood, truth, friendship, or style vs. logic, Victorian motifs governed how people acted in society. To the point, Wilde alludes to honor as a thing of high merit, while Wilde satirizes it into a thing of commonplace interest that anyone can

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achieve; Utterson sticks to his morals and logic while a person such as Algernon is in debt, born to a poor mother, finds out about an illegitimate brother, yet is still somehow born into wealth, be it poor wealth. Algernon detests marriage as a long and boresome contract while someone of greater judgment such as his Aunt Augusta Bracknell would give such credit that a long engagement give[s] people the opportunity of finding out each others character...(Wilde III-73) With Stevenson, Enfield and Utterson look down their noses upon gossiping as shown in the first chapter, while with Wilde, Gwendolyn and Cecily openly gossip as if it adds sensation to their lives. For Jekyll in the form of Hyde, a scandal would ruin his life, whereas the scandal surrounding Jack Worthing and his abandonment in a suitcase left at a train station has given him the same poor wealth that befits Algernon, making something of his life like he always wanted to find. Victorian motifs ruled societal norms while many men of the period evidently had double lives in which they were able to escape the treachery of tedious lifestyles that would have otherwise bored them to death. Through Wildes and Stevensons insights, we are able to get a better understanding of how society dealt with such understandings. Wilde provided a satire to project such outlandishness while Stevenson had wrapped in seriousness with his high detail and strict Victorian influence.