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Free analytical essay on the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hydeby robert louis stevenson
How stevenson creates mystery and tension in the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde
How stevenson creates mystery and tension in the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde
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Recommended: Free analytical essay on the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hydeby robert louis stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was immediately popular among readers, due to its terrifying introduction of “double-identities,” upon its release in 1886. While there has been much debate over Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as being representative of two separate bodies or, alternatively, two beings within one body, the resolution of two separate identities is clear. Mr. Hyde’s identity is the socially marginalized, racially charged, and devolved physical embodiment of Dr. Jekyll’s fear of growing class separation and “biological degeneration and racial decline, sparked by Darwin’s evolutionary theory” (Sborgi 149).
The year 1859 saw the publication of Charles Darwin’s surprise success, On the Origin of Species,
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Dr. Jekyll is, immediately, a character the audience recognizes as well-educated, socially respected, and nearly beyond reproach – the culmination of Victorian idealism. However revered, Dr. Jekyll is at unease with himself and states that, “a certain impatient gaiety of disposition” has long haunted him, dividing his social perception from personal feeling (55). “In order to absolve himself of guilt and resolve his existential crisis, Jekyll turns to the outer limits of science” (De Ciccio 11). In his laboratory, Jekyll devises an elixir that separates his dual-nature and creates the nefarious Mr. Hyde to act upon his primal, animalistic desires “for his own pleasures” (Stevenson …show more content…
With the publication of Darwin’s Origin shortly before Stevenson’s novella, the world-stage had been set to pseudo-scientifically reason fearful social issues. This predominant social fear was not of an integration of “lesser” and “greater” races, but of a regression of a “greater” race into a “lesser” one. It is hard to argue if Stevenson’s novella would have been as popular among “white” literary masses if Hyde would not have been compared to a dark, violent, and degenerate race. The overnight success of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as Gothic Terror is attributed, in part, to a marrying of Science Fiction and the Age of Enlightenment by preying on the newly formed evolutionary fears that appeared to carry scientific
The novella, ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. The author was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850. His family included engineers, scientists, a professor of philosophy, and a religious minister. The scientific and religious sides of Stevenson's family reflected in both his personal life and in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (disapproval between Dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll). In 1859 Charles Darwin published his famous book called the ‘Origin of Species’ which highly opposed the religious beliefs at the time; the novella itself was also published at such a time when there was extreme controversy between religious and scientific principles. The sense of conflict being created through disapproval portrays duality that the Victorians had at the period; it is almost as if they were in a dilemma and confusion in deciding which element of sanity to maintain. Stevenson wrote the story to articulate his idea of the duality of human nature sharing the mixture good and evil that lies within every human being. In the novel Mr Hyde represents the evil ...
Veeder, William. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after One Hundred Years. Eds. William Veeder and Gordon Hirsch. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde” is a novella written in the Victorian era, more specifically in 1886 by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. When the novella was first published it had caused a lot of public outrage as it clashed with many of the views regarding the duality of the soul and science itself. The audience can relate many of the themes of the story with Stevenson’s personal life. Due to the fact that Stevenson started out as a sick child, moving from hospital to hospital, and continued on that track as an adult, a lot of the medical influence of the story and the fact that Jekyll’s situation was described as an “fateful illness” is most likely due to Stevenson’s unfortunate and diseased-riddled life. Furthermore the author had been known to dabble in various drugs, this again can be linked to Jekyll’s desperate need and desire to give in to his darker side by changing into Mr Hyde.
Stevenson truly voices the anxieties and fears of the late Victorian age, and such can be seen throughout his novella, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the late eighteenth century. Stevenson identifies the double standard of society that he explores through the two characters, Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. Peri Bradley, in Monstrous Makeovers: Transforming 'Monsters’ into Beauty Queens, affirms that ‘each culture and each era creates its own monsters that embody and express the fears and anxieties specific to the environment of that particular generation.’ Within his novel, Stevenson alludes towards the concealment of vice which in turn creates an environment of hypocrisy, leading towards the cultivation of monstrosity. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde truly captures the Victorian era in the way that it has configured the monster and reconstructed the setting of the narrative. Traditional Gothic conventions, such as the use of distant and foreign locations, have been dismissed as Stevenson replaces it with the dark geography of contemporary London; which in turn, literally and metaphorically reinforces the duality in the psychology of late Victorian Britain. An equally significant aspect is Stevenson’s narrative style, which dismisses the omniscient narrator prevalent in the Gothic genre; this allows him to employ conventions involving a scientific nature which explores monstrosity of a different kind. Through this, Stevenson explores evil as an internal element that lies at the heart of human nature itself. The evolution of monstrosity has therefore evolved since Polidori’s construction of the monster; Stevenson highlights society’s creation of its own monsters in its own likeness whilst
Dr. Jekyll reflects on the “hard law of life” (Stevenson 42) which is governed by religion. Because religion always calls man towards pure intensions and the good, also away from atrocious pleasures, Dr. Jekyll wants to remove the bad within him to have a completely pure soul. At first he tries to conceal the other side of himself, but now to his defense, the time has come to indulge in his pleasures. His reasoning is to further his knowledge or relief himself from sorrow and suffering (Stevenson 42). With this decision, he now starts to deviate from his respectable image in society and starts to show the attributes of an
The late eighteen hundreds was a time of abundant scientific discoveries, medical advances, and drug outbreaks (Wolf). Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson united all three happenings into a single novel. Stevenson grasped the fear of the Victorian people and the unfamiliar concepts and findings of scientific advances to create the novel as a horror (Wolf). Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the first authors to truly explore and inquire in the concept of the duality of man and how it affects us and our society Wolf. Stevenson’s mystery evolving into science fiction novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, fully elaborated on the deep dark side a person could conceal: “Poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is that of [Mr. Hyde] your new friend” (Stevenson 30). Wishing to rid the world of evil is a complex concept which in the end has shown to miscarry (Wolf).
Robert, Stevenson L. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publications, 2013. Print.
Page, Norman. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson." Encyclopedia of the Novel. Eds. Paul Schellinger, Christopher Hudson, and Marijke Rijsberman. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998.
As Jekyll reached adult hood, he found himself living a dual life. He had become more curious in discovering his other side. Jekyll insists, “Man is not truly one, but truly two” (125). This eventually led Jekyll into the scientific interests of separating his good and evil side, and he finds a chemical concoction that transforms him into a more wicked man, Edward Hyde. At first, Hyde was of pure impulse, but in the end, he became dominate and took control over Jekyll. Jekyll had never intended to hurt anyone, but he was aware that something could potentially go wrong. Jekyll presumes, “I knew well that I risked death, for any drug that so potently shook the very fortress of identity… utterly blot that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change” (127-129). One could say this makes Jekyll equally as menacing as Hyde. Jekyll couldn’t control the imbalance between the two natures. Jekyll foolishly allowed his evil side to flourish and become stronger. This is shown when Jekyll has awoken to find that he has turned into Hyde without taking the solution. Jekyll says, “But the hand in which I now saw, clearly enough in the yellow light of a mid- London morning…It was the hand of Edward Hyde” (139).
Towards the end of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, readers discover more about Henry Jekyll's battle of reason versus emotion. The novella revealed how Jekyll, most of his life, battle between upholding his family’s and his reputation, and being able to do activities he found enjoyable, but were improper for his status. Jekyll was ashamed by his behavior and even admitted "the worst of my faults was a certain impatient gaiety of disposition . . . ." He knew the things that brought him pleasure were undignified, but he could not resist the strong emotion. So, Jekyll tries to solve this internal struggle by creating the potion that turns him into Mr. Hyde. Jekyll believed at first that he fixed the issue because as Hyde he could
Robert Louis Stevenson’s thrilling novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ends with the statement from Dr. Jekyll explaining why he chose to experiment with changing his own identity. Jekyll reflects on the idea that he was born to be rich, respected, and good, with “every guarantee of an honourable and distinguished future” (Stevenson 75). Dr. Jekyll admits his struggle with living up to these expectations of having to carry his head high, as he has had to conceal his pleasures to do so. His account for creating Hyde is so that he can experience living the evil parts of himself, the parts that his culture taught him to hide. This theme of a society built around fixed identity is present
In Robert Luis Stevenson’s, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dual nature of man is a recurring theme throughout the book. As the story is introduced, Jekyll is perceived as a civilized, dependable man. Mr. Utterson. a close friend of Dr. Jekyll, describes him as, “a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness—you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection” (220).
Throughout the story of “The Strange Case Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, presents his idea of the duality of man- where Dr Jekyll and Hyde have a dark, wicked side within them, where evil is held in waiting to surface, but they hide it away, they pretend it does not exist, and they keep it tame. He presents this idea by using two protagonists, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, who are actually the same person. One of these characters signifies the normal side of a person represented by Dr Jekyll, who is a typical upper class person, and the other, Mr Hyde, a deformed man, signifies the purest of evil.
...he acknowledged that humankind is irrevocably bound to this earth along with all of its fellow inhabitants, Dr. Jekyll sought to split apart these conjoined and codependent worlds and cast out the corrupted animal – Hyde – in his heart. Philosophically, Jekyll commits a grave and unforgivable crime against human nature, yet even Kant, the grand architect of idealistic systems, would scoff bitterly at the futility of Jekyll’s project from its very inception. Without the contamination of the samples, an “unknown impurity” (Stevenson 61), Jekyll could not have made the transformation to purify himself work in the first place. But the ultimate irony of Dr. Henry Jekyll’s tragic tale is that his mission is actually a complete success: in destroying the animal within, he destroys himself utterly – man and animal – both a senseless sacrifice upon the altar of science.
In the narrative, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson makes a critique about how the expectation of men’s role by society restricts and limits men to identify their self. For instance, Dr. Jeyll creates two separate identities in order to enjoy the pleasures of life. Dr. Jekyll represents a respectable, successful, noble man in society, especially through his career as a doctor that describes the ideal Victorian men, while, his second identity as Mr. Hyde is savage, dwarfish and deform, which is labeled out of the norm in society. Dr. Jekyll illustrates a re...