In Jekyll and Hyde Stevenson creates a profound sense of horror and terror, primarily through the appearance and behaviour of the character of Hyde, Jekyll's violent and dangerous creation. As a piece of Gothic fiction, the primary purpose of the novella is to horrify and terrify the reader but, in this case, Stevenson directs that horror and terror towards some crucial ideas that were provoking anxiety and concern in the Victorian period, namely the true nature of man, which had been called into question by Darwin's theories, the potential dangers of unchecked scientific experimentation and the terrifying possibility that society, despite the superficial appearance of civilisation and progress was actually devolving.