Comparing Anxiety and Drug Use in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Sign

Anxiety and Drug Use in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Sign of the quartette The life experiences and writings of the Victorians are peppered with anxiety. External influences such as brush change or fear of change can produce unease, as seen in the their anxious attitude toward Darwinism and colonialization, which greatly influenced the political, spiritual, and psychological landscape of nineteenth century England. However, for Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes and Robert Louis Stevensons Dr. Jekyll, anxiety springs from an inherent source the human sound judgement and its many urges. For Jekyll, the anxiety is fueled by a desire to heap free his evil urges for Holmes, the throttle valve is his proclaimed boredom with everyday life. Jekyll and Holmes agitate with their separate anxieties and reach similar solutions. Both the doctor and the detective cull a drug to alleviate their anxiety. The unsuccessful outcomes that these chosen drugs produce speaks to the Victor ian notion that anxiety could not be conquered. The people who lived and died under nance Victoria not only engaget with anxiety in their own lives, unless also fortified their literature with it. Doyles The Sign of Four and Stevensons The Strange skid of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explore two distinct anxieties and the consequences of using drugs to alleviate them. For both Holmes and Jekyll, an internal anxiety plagues their actions and thoughts. An aversion to boredom troubles Holmes, while Jekyll struggles to come to terms with mans soprano nature (Stevenson, 42). Holmes defends his drug use by declaring My mind... rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, overhaul me work, give me the to the highest degree abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am... ...fer from constitute an inability to deal with internal factors, while the Victorians suffered from an inability to deal with external factors. For Victorians, anxiety over entertaining the impossible stem med from Darwinism and colonialization, which was the catalyst for the dreaded fear of the other. If Holmes and Jekyll turned to drugs in the face of anxiety, what did the Victorians turn to? perchance the rampant use of laudanum and opium was an attempt at easing the anxieties of a nervous culture. One could turn to science, religion, or technology for comfort, but most likely these areas would simply cause more anxiety. No matter what the dish out is, it is clear that the anxiety of the Victorians carried over into their literature. Without this cultural trait the world whitethorn never have been introduced to the insane Dr. Jekyll or the brooding Sherlock Holmes.