Abstract
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, was an immediate success and had been revisited a number of times since its first publication in 1886. It can be considered as the Gothic tale par excellence. The Gothic genre started in the middle of the Eighteenth Century as a reaction against the Victorian society. Thus, I will attempt to show how Stevenson used the fantasy to criticize his society in this novella. To do so, the fantastic and gothic nature of the novella will first be stated, and then the fantastic theme of the duality of human nature will be studied. Finally, the criticism of Victorian society will be discussed. The fantasy genre appeared around the Middle Ages in Europe and in the Muslim world. Thanks to its popular characteristic, it found its way through the literature of all ages. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, belongs to fantasy since it displays almost all of its main features. Indeed, the novella involves a "physician-wizard", Dr Jekyll, and a "criminal-beast-devil", Mr Hyde.
