How far does Robert Louis Stevenson novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reflect on 19th century fears about science?

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Robert Louis Stevenson novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reflect on 19th century fears about science?

I'm not certain I fully understand or agree with your question/statement. While Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde might be considered science fiction, I think it had more to do with good & evil and psychology than true "science". I wish I could be more helpful with an answer to your particular question.

The only reference I could find when searching online about 19th century and science is the following quote from Wikipedia.

"However scientists in the closing decades of the 19th century, within a post-Darwinian perspective, were also beginning to examine various biological influences on human morality, including drug and alcohol addiction, homosexuality, multiple personality disorder, and regressive animality."

Being very much a SF aficionado, I agree with Lydia that Jeckyll isn't really SF, although it is better placed there than in any other genre (Fantasy would be a good place, but that genre has been co-opted by stories that involved imaginary beings, magic, and a suspension of the laws of science and physics.), and Jeckyll had more to do with good & evil and psychology than true "science". However, it must be taken in consideration that we are speaking not of today's attitudes, but of the attitude of the late 19th Century, a time in which science 'breakthroughs' were coming regularly, and often went against previously held beliefs. Society at that time was torn in a dichotomy of beliefs. The new science, with all its benefits, was also something not understood completely and novelty is often feared. Remember, too, that many new "sciences" were introduced around the time; phrenology came about at that time, and even electricity, whose existence was known to the general public for less than 100 years, was not understood. (I think that electricity was first installed in the White House during Harrison's time in office, about 1890, and the First Family made the servants turn the lights on and off; they didn't want to touch the switch.) So there was a fear of science. Also important to remember is that science means no only the 'hard' sciences, but the social sciences. Freud was just starting to make his observations at this time. The knowledge of hemistry was also burgeoning, and the work of Dr. Jeckyll was not something that could be so easily dismissed as it would be today. (It is not that prople wren't intelligent then, just that they had less known facts to use in making decisions and drawing conclusions. Imagine how today's medical theories and practices will seem to the general populace in 2107.)


A very well-worn cliche in both literature and SF movies, even up to the 1970s, is that "There are some things that Man is not meant to know." In the late 19th C, that view was more prevalent. Jeckyll and Hyde reflected that sentiment at that time, and it is in that light that it must be viewed.
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A few of the views stated in the 19th Century -

It would be impossible for man to safely travel at 60mph in a train; women would faint because of a lack of oxygen, and even strong men might swoon.

Things that frightened a pregnant woman with child might cause defects in the unborn child, viz. the Elephant man.

Primative tribes practiced magic that civilied men couldn't understand, but could suffer the negative effects from.

Life could be spontaneously generated. (Leaving a dead animal carcass would magically produce maggots.)

I agree with the two who have posted above. In Victorian times, people were very concerned about drug use. Opiates, hallucinogens and other mood-altering drugs were taken by people in all social classes, and responsible people were concerned. And drugs had been around for thousands of years; they were not part of the new science. It was a drug that changed Jekyll into the monster, Hyde.

You might even say that the drugs of that time were closer to magic and witchcraft than to science.

I found this interesting.

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ~Arthur C. Clarke~