Victoria London as an Essential Element of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson in 'Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde' makes London in
the Victorian era an essential element of the story, Text Box: Text Box: because
London at the end of the 19th century was the centre of a massive
empire. It was the epitome of what other towns and cities should be
like. The gentlemen of London were the 'perfect' example of how
everyone should behave. A respectable gentleman was thought to be a
rational man, a good Christian, a responsible person. This was the
vital concept to the leaders of Victoria's Empire. This, however, put
extreme pressure on the gentlemen of London to be absolutely perfect;
they were unable to commit even the slightest sin. They were the
example to the entire British Empire; they were the role models of
gentlemen all around the world. One such gentleman in 'Doctor Jekyll
and Mr Hyde' is Mr Utterson: "[His face] was never lighted by a smile;
cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse." He seems to have no
emotions; he seems to be "backward in sentiment" and "lean, lost,
hungry, dreary". He didn't allow himself pleasures; "he drank gin…to
mortify a taste for vintages" and "he enjoyed the theatre, [but] had
not crossed the doors of one for twenty years". This repression and
denial of pleasures causes dire consequences for Doctor Jekyll. He was
born into a rich family, had a liking for the respect of others
(particularly the respected and the wise), and became a respectable
gentleman like Utterson. However, he felt the stress of the pressure
on the gentlemen of Victorian London; and we learn that as a young man
he indulged in...
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...nerous, kind, and
respectable, and the other may be wild, but they are both the same
person; and it is this that Stevenson believes the Victorians need to
face.
London is vaguely like a character too, one like Doctor Jekyll. A
character which has a lesson to learn: to avoid the animal or dark
side of your character is wrong. The darker side will break loose, and
wreak havoc, like Mr Hyde murdering Sir Davers Carew after being
'cooped up' for so long, having been "long caged". With "a more
furious propensity to ill…the spirit of hell awoke in [Jekyll], and
raged". The result was murder, just as it was in Whitechapel in 1888
when the Victorians were finally forced to face up to the violence
hidden in their society and, through Jack the Ripper's killings, the
ghastly conditions that many of their citizens endured.
Within every being exists temptations, whether it be quiescent or dynamic, which fluctuates from one individual to another. Commonly negative, temptations ascend from lesser qualities of man and expose an individual to develop even more reprehensible ambitions. The story of a one man’s dark wishes is explored in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. Properly termed, Stevenson perused the unnerving case of a respectable, proletariat-class doctor, who becomes associated and obsessed with Mr Hyde. It is this presence of the “duality of human nature that is created consistently throughout the Gothic Literature”.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll’s struggle between two personalities is the cause of tragedy and violence. Dr. Jekyll takes his friends loyalty and unknowingly abuses it. In this novella, Stevenson shows attributes of loyalty, how friendship contributes to loyalty, and how his own life affected his writing on loyalty.
“Man is not truly one, but two.” (Chapter 10 page 125) Stevenson tells his prospective to the world through Jekyll. In his everyday life he saw a continuous struggle. He saw two natures fighting for control, and the winning nature determining his or her place in the dichotomous Victorian society. In the Victorian London society you were either the virtuous upper class that did no wrong or you were the scum of the earth. Jekyll did not only show his prospective, but many of the upper class in this particular society. Jekyll wanted keep the success and reputation that he had, but he also wanted to be able to enjoy his pleasures without being criticized by society. He felt as though society restricted him, and he hungered for freedom. He wanted...
A few weeks later Jekyll hosts a dinner-party. Afterwards Utterson stays to discuss the will and the meaning behind leaving such an important lifestyle to Edward Hyde. Jekyll jokes with Utterson but eventually asks him to end the discussion and promise to follow his will exactly. Almost a years later there is an incident involving Sir Danvers Carew and a mysterious man that beat him to death. With Carew, there was a letter addressed to Utterson. He leads the police to the home of Hyde where no one is found. The murder weapon and a burnt checkbook are discovered but in the weeks that follow, there are no signs of Mr. Hyde. On the same day of the murder, Utterson again visits a very ill Dr Jekyll. Jekyll says he has ended the relationship between himself and
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson during the Late Victorian era. Although "this horror story owes its allegiance to Gothicism rather than realism, many critics suggest that Robert Louis Stevenson 's tale of a man split between his respectable public identity and an amoral secret self captures key anxieties of the fin de siècle" (Norton 1669). The Late Victorian era was “the state of mind prevailing during the final decades of the nineteenth century” (Norton 1668). In the story of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, there are some reflects of the breakdown of Victorian values that took there undergo of their citizen responsibility as a whole.
In chapter 4 the assault by Hyde was a completely spontaneous and vicious attack on an innocent old man. Hyde’s assault on Carew can be vividly depicted in the text. The text on page 28 reads, “And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman.” This snippet of text allows the readers to fully understand the complete bizarreness of this unfortunate event. Robert Stevenson uses the phrase, “And then all of a sudden”, to capture the impulsiveness of Hyde. The maid describes Hyde as a “madman” before he has even committed the crime. This crime was based merely on unknown anger, but this text uses the word “brandish”, which gives the readers the idea that he may have bee trying to intimidate the old gentleman before his attack.
This paper highlights several problems that emerge during the Victorian age, a time of many changes and difficulties in England. During the Industrial Revolution, living conditions changed dramatically; as a result the economy to change from agricultural to industrial. The Victorian Era was also marked by immense progress and tremendous achievement. New values were placed on religion and faith in a society that was unrealistic for women. Robert Stevenson’s novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is being told through a third party, Mr. Utterson, who is the lawyer for Dr. Jekyll. There are no major female characters in this story. While women struggled for liberation from a male dominated society, Victorian men felt threatened by the feminist who sought personal liberties. Stevenson’s novel was influenced by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Stevenson pays homage to her at various points in his novel. Mr. Hyde’s rebellious nature threatened the balance of equality in English society. The escalation of horror in The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mr. Hyde depends on the oppression of women. The more oppressed women became, the more horror the characters experienced. In Robert Stevenson’s novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he channels Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, by leaving the voice of a woman character absent which alienates femininity, showing hypocrisy through the male characters and the influence of purity and sinful.
Within the text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson portrays a complex power struggle between Dr. Jekyll, a respected individual within Victorian London society, and Mr. Hyde a villainous man tempted with criminal urges, fighting to take total control of their shared body. While Dr. Jekyll is shown to be well-liked by his colleagues, Mr. Hyde is openly disliked by the grand majority of those who encounter him, terrified of his frightful nature and cruel actions. Throughout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson portrays the wealthy side of London, including Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll, as respected and well-liked, while showing the impoverish side as either non-existent or cruel.
Victorian morals are significant in the establishment of duality due to the moral conflict it initiates. Stevenson introduced the theme of duality not merely because of contrasting characters and an appealing storyline. Present evidence indicates that Victorian society was constantly disturbed by an inescapable sense of division (Saposnik 88). The presence of two opposing personalities conflicted with the Victorian conscience. Likewise, Victorian society feared the type of behaviors and person represented by Jekyll and Hyde. Hyde is considered the "brutal embodiment of the moral, social, political, and economic threats which shook the uncertain Victorian world" (Saposnik 100). Everything about Jekyll was eerie and defied the Victorian ethics from his physical appearance to his inconsiderate actions. The setting also played an important role with Victorian morals. London was a location where virtue and vice was most clearly present. This is where evil battled the good of Christianity. London was the center of the Victorian world and was the great arena of moral conflict as well....
The Victorian Era lasted from (1837-1901), this era would drastically change society into the modern way of life. Throughout the era, came change within medicine, industry, science, cultural life and social manners. With the help of key characters we are able to see how a man should act in the era with different aspects. In the novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, he is able to give us an insight of the Victorian lifestyle with the help of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Utterson, and Mr. Enfield each one representing a different norm.
The novel ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in the Victorian era, which had a very different culture from today. The book was first published in 1886 in England and it brought success to the author. The Victorians had strict moral codes to live under as middle class people and had to be well respected to be considered as a good person. The character’s reputation emerges throughout the novel as an essential tool to success in the society of the era. Another Victorian value expected of them was to live a life without any sin and to obey the Bible as literalists. However, this only prompted people to keep certain thoughts secluded, behind closed doors instead of eliminating them.
Despite being published in 1886, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson remains to be recognized and referred to as one of the initial studies of the duality of human nature and mans struggle between two natural forces – good and evil. The story takes place during the Victorian Era in which society is already somewhat constrained and cruel and explores the human struggle between being civilized and facing the more primitive aspects to our being. According to author Irving S Saposnik, “Henry Jekyll’s experiment to free himself from the burden of duality results in failure because of his moral myopia, because he is a victim of society’s standards even while he would be free of them.” Henry Jekyll, an English doctor faces duality when he comes into battle with his darker side. Creating a personification under the name of Edward Hyde in order to fulfill his desires, Dr. Jekyll feels as if he will be able to control the face that he wants seen to public vs. the one in which he wants to keep more private. “Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me, and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.” (10.1) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a story about how people are scared to acknowledge personal duality so they keep silent and in this case, create a personification in order to fulfill evil desires without thinking through the consequences of such actions.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a tale that everyone is familiar with, or at least heard of; one of the earliest fictions of a character with a split personality. Based on the 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the 2015 adaptation Jekyll and Hyde produced by ITV in the UK alters the main tale while retaining the theme of dual personalities.
Stevenson is not only revealing human nature’s deeply intertwined double nature; he is also castigating Victorian hypocrisy. The doctor could not unite his role as a respectable and famous doctor with his passions and secret instincts, so he did not accept the multiple sides of his personality and tried to separate them, without success. The clash becomes the image of the contrast between oppression and pure pleasure, between firm control and too much freedom. Robert Louis Stevenson strives to portray and explore man’s inner dual between the need for evil satisfaction and the rigid moral contract of society. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are one fictional cause of the detrimental effects of subduing one’s innate desires and conforming to the social norm.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886 (About R.L.S). The concept of the book came from a nightmare Stevenson had (About R.L.S). His wife Fanny woke him up from a screaming terror and he said, “I was dreaming a fine bogey tale; why would you wake me?” (About R.L.S). He started writing furiously in bed the following morning. In three days he had completed the first draft of the book. When Stevenson finished, he read the story proudly to Fanny, but Fanny’s reaction was strange. In a rage, Stevenson threw the first copy into the fire; he rewrote the story as an allegory in another three days (About R.L.S). Stevenson would later state that it was the worst thing he ever wrote (Study Guide & Essay). The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sold forty thousand copies in Britain during the first six months, and brought Stevenson more attention than he had previously ever known (Study Guide & Essay). Even with all the fame that Stevenson received, he was still deathly sick and at times was