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Mystery in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Mystery in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Mystery in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde takes place during a time in London when people flocked to the city for jobs which resulted in great competition and deceit. As the city grew in size with powerful men there became issues of appearance and reputation where men of high status began to dance with the devil allowing their evil nature to show itself. The social scene at the time required people to hide this evil nature so men and women began to create two sides of themselves so that they could maintain and uphold their reputation hypocritically. The text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde reveals human nature to have two sides; one represented by what a man claims and the other represented by how he/she acts. Throughout the text, …show more content…
As more people in London set out to impress one another readers find that what we see is not always what we get. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde exploits the well-to-do men and women, who come across as fine and upstanding citizens, to be hiding secrets from one another in attempt to maintain their reputations. An example of this behavior is found in the very beginning of the book as Enfield detail the account of Hyde running over the little girl. After this incident the girl’s doctor and family chased her to make sure she was okay then after seeing Hyde and his horrifying appearance they took the opportunity to blackmail him. With all of this taking place late at night it was easy for these community members to treat Hyde this was because there were few witnesses however if the incident took place in the daylight with many people around they may not have reacted the same way. The text provides many opportunities for readers to self-reflect on what he/she may have done in the situation and what the outcome may have been while also thinking of times when his/her actions may have been just as …show more content…
Many men and women want their work lives to be separate from home life, their religious life to be separate from social life, etc. and some with go to drastic measures to maintain this hypocrisy. The text The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde gives readers a chance to see extreme cases of hypocrisy in order to becomes aware of his/her two sides; the one represented by what he/she says and the other represented by how he/she acts. Jekyll and Hyde provide an extreme demonstration of the dangers caused by the hypocrisy of human nature while Utterson more closely aligns with how society truly
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.
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.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll, in grave danger, writes a letter to his good friend Lanyon. With Jekyll’s fate in Lanyon’s hands, he requests the completion of a task, laying out specific directions for Lanyon to address the urgency of the matter. In desperation, Jekyll reveals the possible consequences of not completing this task through the use of emotional appeals, drawing from his longtime friendship with Lanyon, to the fear and guilt he might feel if he fails at succeeding at this task. Through Jekyll’s serious and urgent tone, it is revealed that his situation is a matter of life and death in which only Lanyon can determine the outcome.
This essay will focus on how Robert Louis Stevenson presents the nature of evil through his novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. Using ideas such as duality, the technique used to highlight the two different sides of a character or scene, allegories, an extended metaphor which has an underlying moral significance, and hypocrisy; in this book the Victorians being against all things evil but regularly taking part in frown able deeds that would not be approved of in a ‘respectable’ society. This links in with the idea of secrecy among people and also that evil is present in everyone. The novel also has strong ties and is heavily influenced by religion. Stevenson, being brought up following strong Calvinist beliefs, portrays his thoughts and opinion throughout the story in his characters; good and evil.
The definition of a hero is subjective. Accordingly, Robert Ray believes the hero is able to be divided into three categories: the outlaw, official and composite hero. In most cases, a hero can be categorized into one of these categories. Through the examination of Jekyll and Hyde, the Batman movie from 1943, and film of Batman in 1989, qualities of the hero will be depicted as a function of time.
The reader is drawn to the plot of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through the literary devices Stevenson employs. Foreshadowing displays the sense of mystery throughout the novel, the foreshadowing of the actions of Mr. Hyde leaves the reader wondering what will happen next. The ironic nature of Dr. Jekyll relates to the reader as a person, no person is completely perfect and Dr. Jekyll exhibits the natural wants and desires of humans. The irony behind Mr. Hyde adds an enigmatic side to the plot. These two devices expose the readers to the complexity of the novel and reveal the inner meaning of the hidden details.
In the novel, Dr. Jekyll goes through a lot to keep up the pretense that he is a normal, functioning member of British society. The façade he puts up is no different than the façade that any normal person puts up every day. Everyone has a secret. Everyone has something that would get them ridiculed and shunned by society for, whether it be a drug addiction, a secret lover, or homosexuality. This essay will discuss the skeleton Dr. Jekyll is harboring in his closet, and why he went above and beyond to
Everything in this story has a Dual side, including the setting in London, London had streets that were respectable and others that were made of squalor and crime. In the story of Dr.Jekyll and Hyde characters hid their side and showed only one certain side, as a matter of fact a quote from the book that says “an ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy: but her manners were excellent..” (Stevenson Chapter 4 P 54). This quote is trying to convey a message of Mr.Hyde's keeper being oh so well mannered, but don't let her fool you she was an evil person. That quote was also trying to demonstrate good versus evil and how it is conveyed through the book. Hyde was taking control completely over Dr.Jekyll , Dr.Jekyll was sure that there was no way for him to regain his identity, and his only option was to flee. “I lingered but a moment at the mirror; the second and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen if I lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house.” (Stevenson Chapter 10 P 112) Dr.Jekyll’s
Jekyll plays man as a whole, good and bad, he was “wild” and also “smooth-faced” at the same time. Both characters lack vital emotional outputs that make humans socially, even though the psychopath is more cunning than the sociopath. “…lack of conscience, remorse or guilt for hurtful actions to others….There may be an intellectual understanding of appropriate social behavior but no emotional response to the actions of others” (“Psychopath vs. Sociopath” -- http://www.diffen.com/difference/Psychopath_vs_Sociopath). Both are social defaces, and cannot be helped; however to the naked eye, these two characters are savage. Both victims of anti-social disorder are lacking factors that make humans acceptably sociable, one lacking empathy while the other lacks sensibility. Diffen, a website, tells us, “Psychopaths…lack of empathy; no conscience…sociopaths…high impulsivity” (“Sociopathy versus Psychopathy” -- http://www.diffen.com/difference/Sociopathy_versus_Psychopathy). Dr. Jekyll shows no empathy by using and manipulating people close to him, and Mr. Hyde, as intended, has no sensibility to act with caution resulting himself in trouble for barbaric actions. This, in turn shows the comparison and contrast of the psychopathic creator and his sociopathic creation which in reality are two halves to a whole.
In the novel “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” a number of
One is something that Jekyll argues himself and links to the discussion of evilness. He explains Hyde's deformity as “Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil” and that a person is a mixture of a dark side and a good side.9 Notwithstanding, the situation if more complicated it seems. Hyde is not necessarily completely evil but the disgust comes from him being open about who he is and what he wants. In other words, Hyde “makes public the face of masculine desire...”10 By Hyde enjoying certain acts openly leads to people being disgusted about this frankness (for instance, the disgust for Hyde in The Story of the Door comes after the witness of him trampling the child) or that other Victorian men's secrets, who are involved in similar acts, are endangered by Hyde's exposing of those acts. Perhaps, this is the deformity that people cannot place where it is. It is not something physical, but an attitude and contrasting character than what men are expected to have. Martin Donahy sees the deformity as a contradiction in Hyde himself as he betrays his true character and class that do not reflect his clothing or speech.11 While Donahy focuses on class, one can argue that this idea is more than just class difference, he acts differently from what is seen as
... man. Society in the Victorian era was consisted of two classes, trashy and wealthy. Jekyll was expected to be a gentleman, but he wanted to have fun. This was the reason he created Hyde, so he could both be respected and have fun. He was delighted at the freedom he now had. Lanyon was overly contolled, but Utterson knew all men had both good and bad within them and could control it. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, the dual nature of man is a main theme.
Due to their concealed yet present inner evil, humans are naturally inclined to sin but at the same time resist temptation because of influence from society, thus illustrating a duality in humanity. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde focuses on how humans are actually two different people composed into one. The concept of dual human nature includes all of Hyde’s crimes and ultimately the death of Jekyll. Jekyll proposes that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and describes the human soul as a constant clash of the “angel” and the “fiend,” each struggling to suppress the other (Stevenson 61, 65). Man will try to cover up his inner evil because once it rises to the surface everyone will know the real...
The structure of Dorian Gray is similar to that of a play, chronological, but effectively split into two acts, connected with a short bridge. Stevenson’s novella, similarly, is split into a number of distinct parts, a first person, chronologic narrative recount of events, narrated by Mr Utterson, followed by a letter, written by secondary character Dr Lanyon and a testimony by Dr Jekyll, where all is revealed in a climactic denouement. The splits in structure, and use of different perspectives in both cases, reflect the double lives of their protagonists. The first part of Dorian Gray is an ode to Dorian’s beauty and innocence, and introduces Dorian’s impressionability, growing narcissism and his belief that “the gods have been good to [him].” Tonally, the first part of Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde is detached and straightforward, simply an account of Hyde’s crimes and Jekyll’s social respectability as a man “known for charities,” spanning a period of two years, with time jumps separating chapters. A similar, but much longer time shift is used in the bridge section of Wilde’s novel. This section, outlining Dorian’s descent into hedonism and debauchery, and his final, complete rejection of Victorian morality, lasts twenty years and serves to highlight just how youthful Dorian has remained, despite no longer being young and “cherubic.” And while in the first part of the novel the reader feels some connection
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. This novel was published in 1886. The presumably “gothic” novel was written and set in London, England during the Victorian era. This was a time of high moral stature, pride, wealth and prestige. It is primarily about a lawyer commonly known as Mr. Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Jekyll and the new profound hatred he has towards Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson for the most part had a bland and simple life. Haunted by his past demons, he sticks to a strict regimen to maintain his sanity and/or his stature (presumably). One of these set rituals, was his weekly yet silenced walk with his friend Mr. Enfield. During one of these episodes, Enfield recounts a gruesome tale of an assault involving a little girl and the now infamous Mr. Hyde, who tramples her and then disappears into a door on the street.