Ao3 Context
Religion
At the time, most of Victorian society would’ve been religious so Stevenson uses a universally recognized symbolism as religion invokes a feeling of tradition and history, making the text feel more serious. It also solidifies the theme of religion vs science and ensures the reader is aware of the juxtaposition.
In the Bible, transmorphism is briefly mentioned in: Corinthians 5:17 : “therefore if any man [be] Christ, [he is] a new creature; old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new”. It is implied that only Christ has the power to perform change in society and that it should be positive. However, this is clearly disregarded when Jekyll changes himself without Christ’s input and uses it for detrimental/destructive reasons.
Thomas Huxley was a scientist in the 1800s and advocated for Darwin’s theories. He coined “agonistic” which describes people who thought it wasn’t possible to know if there are God(s). He mostly relied on empirical evidence and believed faith and science were mutually exclusive. Another change to religious beliefs was industrialisation as new products became increasingly available so material comforts came to replace religion. Church influence was also decreasing as a law in 1821 allowed those who wanted to to dismiss a Catholic oath and 1841, only 40% went to church.
Science
Victorean society experienced significant advancement of technology and science, bringing a new era of prosperity though it was mostly limited to upper and middle class. The population increase from 8 to 30 million between 1800 - 1900 as well as the expansion of the railway