Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I have been reading the book Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The book was written by Robert Louis Stevens on during in the 19th century. This book was written during a time where Victorian society had a lot of strong moral values. These codes were very strict and controlled every aspect of the Victorian lifestyle. People in these times believed to settle things verbally rather than aggression so fighting was looked down upon. People looked upon this kind of behavior as a sin and of course they looked down upon sins as well. The upper class Victorian society believed that everyone kept to this moral code that they had. People in this time believed that people with very high status were very moral and did not cause any sins. However, this book was also written during a time where there was a lot of hypocrisy around and people. The underbelly of this society showed what Victorian society was really like. Though it's polite and well-groomed exterior, we find people committing sins and going against the moral codes. These sins were however well hidden from the society and although they acknowledged some of the 'evil' that was happening, they still just shrugged it off saying that only the people committing 'evil' were the 'sick individuals'. The 'sick individuals' also seemed to belong to the lower class society. Victorian people were very physiognomous as they judged people by their physicality and the word 'sick' seemed to describe the lower class society very well according to Victorian times. We know now that it wasn't just the lower class individuals committing sins, but they weren't individuals either. Robert Luis Stevenson explorers this very well and shows that the upper class can be evil too. Stevenson used 'Hyde very well to hide Dr Jekyll's evil side well. Even the name is ironic. The upper class society had seemed to 'Hyde' all this very well. They kept their upper society life 'clean' but they had another side that committed sins. That is what 'Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' is all about. The author (Stevenson) had based this book on people in this era. He believed in the duality of man, which meant that every person had two sides to their personality. He believed that one side of a person would be nice and colorful whereas the other would be rude and dark. Stevenson who was brought up in upper class society, was fascinated with lower class society. With this, he seemed to become angry at what Victorian society was like and this is echoed in Jekyll. The book 'Frankenstein' heavily influenced Stevenson heavily as the
The time period plays an important role that pushes Jekyll to create the potion, so he can do the sins everyone has within. Evil which is not associated with wealth is hidden, and Hyde takes advantage of this. He uses his position, and makes the best of it to get away with his misdeeds. In the movie Hyde and Jekyll are shown hurting women; the director uses this to create a different kind of evil, that is more universally understood. The audience is either a female, or has a female family member. While watching the movie he wanted to make the audience despise Hyde and want to help Ivy and Beatrix. Ultimately the nature of evil, and the split of Jekyll’s identity lead to his
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 ...
Thus in conclusion, the concept that texts are a reflection of their context is applicable in Robert Stevenson’s novella: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. This is due to the values of the nineteenth century Victorian England such as technological advances, reputation and masculinity being reflected through the main characters of the text through Stevenson’s use of literary devices support.
To conclude the way that Stevenson has described Hyde and what Jekyll has done in most parts he has related it to the devil which in Victorian times was considered very dangerous, even though today he’s not considered that powerful it would still make a big impact. Stevenson has been successful in using many elements of a shocker/thriller to write a novella with a much deeper moral significance because every aspect of the story relates back to the Victorian morals of 1837 till 1901 and for a 21st century reader some parts of the novella will make them think what is really happening around them now and whether it is right or not!
The story illustrates this in the two characters of Dr Jekyll. and Mr. Hyde. Mr Hyde is on the evil side of Dr Jekyll, but he is restrained from being. wholly evil by Victorian society. Looking closely at Dr Jekyll.
...d Mr. Hyde, despite being placed in a setting where it would have been difficult to disregard, generally depicts the lower class as nonexistent in humanity, ignored in favor of characters higher on the scale of living. He gives the antagonist a home and appearance similar to how the impoverished would live to contrast the “good” of the protagonist, who is well-educated, prosperous, and accepted by society. Robert Louis Stevenson failed to give the poor in Victorian London society proper representation within the novel, and rather made the appearance of an educated male to be one of the only accepted individuals within the Victorian society.
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.
individualism, organised religion and sexual morality are all very strong. All this meant that each person had a very strong superego: Mr. Hyde. was someone, or something that had no superego or ego. He was like a child: he took what he wanted when he wanted it. Despite the morality of the time, there were a lot of doubles.
Penny Fielding highlights his point of view on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that the novel paints ‘a damning portrait of society defined by repression and its inevitable twin, hypocrisy’. Fielding also insists later that the relation between repression and hypocrisy is one theme of this novel that cannot be overlooked. This opinion can be approved of a truth after reading the novel. Repression and hypocrisy run through the whole story which reflect on descriptions of every character. In this essay, I will focus on the repression and hypocrisy that appear to be connected in the novel by analyzing the background and main characters. Especially, I will quote some fragments from the novel to discuss in details.
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.
... 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.
acts to a man of his status. This idea of there being two sides of
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...
Some individual characters do not typically exhibit a clear perception of their intentions and sometimes their selections and behavior do not naturally reflect their prearranged moral compass. In that event, these characters are assumed morally ambiguous. Their morals are not clearly depicted as they stray the reader from labeling them as solely good or solely evil. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, there are two opposing identities striving for superiority in existence. Dr. Jekyll justifies that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” as he envisions people’s conscience as the realm for an “angle” and a “fiend,” each competing for dexterity. By looking at the two split identities of Jekyll and Hyde, and seeing how they reflect
There is duality to human nature and character flaws in everyone that we meet in life. “All creatures are flawed, but out of the flaw may come the universe” by Marguerite Young is one of my favorite quotes that describes the characters so well. There are flaws to every creature and from all of our flaws we make up the whole universe. The characters in the novella aren’t perfect either. Mr. Utterson was a longtime friend of Dr. Jekyll and he was someone who never showed emotions, even though he was a trustworthy and honorable man. He was portrayed, as the ideal Victorian man who was a God-fearing man, wasn’t a man who enjoyed parties so much, reserved in his thoughts. Mr. Utterson was a high honored man on one side, but on the other side he has very strange walks with Enfield. Even the most ideal and “perfect” man has character flaws.