How is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thematically similar to gothic literature and how does it differ? In what ways is it more Victorian...

First, it's not really useful to think of
"Victorian" and "Gothic" as two competing elements in this work.
"Gothic" is a genre; "Victorian" is not a genre, but an umbrella term
describing works of all genres produced during a certain period of time. As such, there are
characteristics of Victorian literature which we can find in Gothic literature of the timeand in
romantic literature, drama, and so on, without making the text any less of its own genre.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a Victorian Gothic work. This puts it in a
specific genre of its own which reframes Gothic elements in a Victorian context. We can track
the similarity between Victorian, or fin-de-siecle, Gothic works (such as Dorian Gray,
Dracula, The Island of Dr. Moreau) and first wave Gothic works (The Castle
of Otranto, The Monk, Frankenstein), while also observing how elements of the
Victorian have changed what Gothic means.

Strong Gothic elements in Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde include:

1. Mystery and the supernatural.
   Perhaps the key component of Gothic literature, this is also key to this story. The mystery of
   the connection between Jekyll and Hyde maintains tension throughout the story, while Hyde's
   misdeeds are presented in a suspenseful way. Meanwhile, there's obviously a supernatural element
   in Jekyll's transformation (or is there? More on that below).

2. 
   

   Isolation. Dr. Jekyll works primarily alone, which is why he is able to achieve what he
   does, away from the prying eyes of society.

3. The
   setting as character. While the setting in this novel, Victorian London, is dissimilar to the
   moor and castle settings of early Gothic novels, it is described equally as if it is an
   important part of the plot and theme of the novels, and used to create .

Meanwhile, Victorian preoccupations which have made their way into the text
include:

1. Class. Victorian literature often explored
   questions of class and society; in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the tension between the well-to-do
   professional classes and the dubious lower classes is encapsulated in one person and his two
   halves. The "bad" part, Mr. Hyde, symbolizes the part of us we try to repress, or the
   part of society the upper classes like to pretend is not there.

2. 
   

   The tension between science and religion or the
   "when does a scientist
   become a man
   playing God"? See point 1 aboveat what point does science,
   sufficiently advanced, become something supernatural, and something with which mankind should
   not meddle? Dr. Jekyll meddles in affairs beyond his understanding, to his detriment. Note,
   however, that this science/religion question is not unique to Victorian literature, but had
   already been evolvingand seen as something to be explored in Gothic textssince Mary Shelley
   wrote Frankenstein in 1816.

Now,
as stated, "Victorian Gothic" is understood to be its own genre. As such, it has its
own particular defining features which show the influence of both Gothic literature and
Victorian preoccupations and which we can find in this text, such as:

1. Duality. The duality of man, and of society, is absolutely key to
   Victorian Gothic and can be found in all the major texts. While a man is seen to be respectable,
   on the one hand, some part of him is actually prowling the underworld of Victorian London. This
   betrays Victorian concerns about the hypocrisy of London, which, on the one hand, was a very
   class-focused, genteel society and, on the other, played host to Jack the Ripper and child
   prostitution. We also find duality explored in other Victorian textsthink The
   Importance of Being Earnestbut it's a defining feature of Victorian Gothic.

   
   

So, rather than asking what parts of this text are Gothic and
which are Victorian, it's easier to explore how it represents the revival of the Gothic genre
within a Victorian context.