Londons Social Class in Robert Louis Stevenson Strange Case of Dr. Jek

Londons Social Class in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeOne Victorian thought process was that a cultured individual could be determined by her/his appearance. This model was readily adopted by the focal ratio classes and, among other things, helped shape their views of the let down classes, who sure as shooting appeared inferior to them. In regards to social mobility, members of the upper classes may make (through personal tragedy or loss) often moved to a lowborn status, but rarely did one see an individual move up from the abysmal land class. Although poverty could be found al just about anyplace in Victorian London (one could walk along a pathway of an affluent neighborhood, turn the corner, and find oneself in an area of depravity and decay), most upper-class Londoners, who tended to dwell in the West End, associated the East End with the lower class. Writers like Henry Mayhew (London Labour and the London Poor) and Jack London (The mickle of the Abyss), and artists like Gusta ve Dore (London) and John Thomson (Street Life in London) - all chroniclers of the desperate conditions of those in the East End - helped enlighten many around world - specially those who lived just beyond the permeable boundaries of that notorious area - as to the needs of the citys unfortunate members of society. Their works called out - whether directly or indirectly - for close to sort of radical social reform, but there was little flying response. The East End continued throughout the 19th century to follow as a symbol for the deterioration of society and the degeneration of humanity. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the reader is given vivid (and often depressing) images of Londons East End devil doors from one corner. . . the line was broken by the e... ... desires (i.e., sexual opportunities). Those like Jekyll, however, who were of the upper classes and who harbored secret and socially forbidden desires, nonetheless had to control these desires in rule to mainta in an elite group appearance. As Henrik Hansen notes, A man was considered to be civilized if he was able to repress the animal instincts within him. . . and the Victorian elite could thus claim to be more civilized than the lower classes (par. 2). The novel, then, commode be perceived as a commentary not merely on the distinctions between these sides of London but also on the lie of the upper-class men who struggled to conceal their homosexuality and who, in spite of whatsoever rhetoric they spoke among their class against the End End, sought to fulfill their lusts in areas like Soho and Regent Street - where their anonymity would be almost certainly secured.