The strange case of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Robert Stevenson in the Victorian Age: A protest against the depersonalization

Abstract

In the article, the authors touch upon the problem of moral choice in the works of Dostoevsky and Stevenson. Comparative analysis showed that Dostoevsky's character strives more towards the ideal of all-humanity and to the deeds within the framework of Christian orthodoxy. In “The Double” Golyadkin who was rooted in the tradition of folk perception of the world, tries to preserve his moral look and attempts to reach a new level of self-determination. Stevenson created his own artistic version of the fate of the dual hero. The successful Dr. Henry Jekyll himself gave birth to Mr. Hyde to enjoy the fullness of sinful temptations, but life did not succumb to the presumptuous correction. The moral choice of the heroes of Dostoevsky and Stevenson, due to various reasons, to reach the heights of success and sink to the very bottom, testifies to the futility of claims to spiritual emasculation of a person and depersonalization in the bureaucratic world.