Robot Says…

Victorian popular fiction, including "Shilling Shockers" and "Penny Dreadfuls", played a significant role in shaping the literary landscape during the time Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. These formats were known for their sensational, thrilling, and often morally complex narratives, reflecting the anxieties and fascinations of Victorian society. This context helps readers understand the novel's appeal to Victorian audiences.
The duality of human nature explored in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde resonates with themes commonly found in Victorian popular fiction, such as the conflict between civilisation and savagery, as well as good versus evil. This is epitomised by Mr Hyde, whose "ape-like fury" and "troglodytic" appearance reflect fears of degeneration and the loss of humanity, themes often explored in "Penny Dreadfuls".
Writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, known for Sherlock Holmes, and H. Rider Haggard, author of Allan Quatermain, often focused on puzzles, mysteries, and hidden truths. Similarly, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde centres on the unravelling of a mystery, with Mr Utterson acting as a detective figure. The text conveys this suspense through lines such as "If he be Mr Hyde, I shall be Mr Seek."
Victorian readers were fascinated by the idea of science and its potential dangers, a theme also explored in works like Professor Challenger stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dr Jekyll’s experiments with his transformative potion delve into this fascination with science, as well as the moral implications of pushing scientific boundaries: "I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life."
The sensational nature of "Shilling Shockers" and "Penny Dreadfuls" often included grotesque and horrific elements, which are mirrored in the descriptions of Mr Hyde and his actions. For example, the violent murder of Sir Danvers Carew is described as a "storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered," evoking the graphic and shocking style of these forms of literature.
The novel's exploration of Victorian anxieties about reputation and morality is contextualised by its connection to popular fiction. Victorian characters like Sherlock Holmes were admired for their moral clarity, whereas Dr Jekyll embodies the tension between maintaining a respectable public image and harbouring darker desires: "My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring."
By understanding the cultural context of Victorian popular fiction, readers gain insight into how Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde both aligns with and transcends the conventions of its time. Stevenson uses the framework of a sensational, thrilling narrative to delve deeply into complex psychological and social issues, making the novel both a product of its era and a timeless exploration of human nature. </aside>

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