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Jekyll and hyde theme essay
Jekyll and hyde theme essay
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde literary analysis
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How Does Stevenson Intend His Readers to Respond to Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde? What Methods Does He Use to Bring About These Responses?
Robert Lewis (later changed to ‘Louis’) Stevenson was born in
Edinburgh November 13th 1850, into an engineering family. Although he
had been plagued with illness all his life, after inheriting
tuberculosis from his mother, he enrolled at Edinburgh University to
study engineering, to follow in his successful father’s footsteps.
However he abandoned that road of studies and swapped to law, where he
‘passed advocate,’ although he had the education to practise law he
did not follow that either, because by this time he had realised that
he could and would write instead. To expand his horizons he would
visit France in the summer to be within the company of other artists,
both painters and writers. And his first publication was called
‘Roads,’ which was within a series of publications, all works about
travelling.
His first truly successful piece was ‘Treasure Island’ released in
1883, which truly launched his career. Later in 1886 he released ‘Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ which was also a huge success, as it was so
controversial and faced things that most people were too scared to
write about. This controversial behaviour had begun when he was a
young man by denying his faith, much to the surprise of his strongly
protestant parents, he ended up leading a bohemian life. Stevenson’s
experiences through life greatly effected his works, such as in ‘Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ the scene is set in London, yet based a lot on
Edinburgh, the luxurious and grand main city, and the dirty, grimy,
back street, underground scene as well. He used this to create an
effect on the reader, and to create the response that he wanted.
Stevenson used themes throughout the book, and there are a large
number of them, running the course of it, that influence greatly the
response the reader has to ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, and also reflects
themes running through society at the time. Some of the most prominent
themes being the parable of good versus evil, satanical references and
religion that intertwines throughout. ‘If I ever read Satan’s
signature upon a face, it on that of your new friend Mr Hyde.’ Mr
Utterson says that, oddly, to himself about Mr Hyde after refereeing
to Mr Hyde’s unnameable malformations; the use of ‘Satan’ means that
although Mr Hyde has nothing especially wrong with him facially or
physically, his deformity is in his soul, in his evilness. People
sense his dark nature and reflect it in how they view him. This gives
Stevenson then went on to put a scary touch to the story by telling us
Stevenson uses many literary techniques to create suspense and amuses the readers. He uses the literary symbolisms such as paradox and symbolism. However the most important technique is point of view and the changing of narrators throughout the book. Many critics such as Alice D. Snyder, Peter K. Garett, and Vladimir Nabokov wrote literary criticisms about Stevenson’s use of language. Lots of the evidences come from the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in order to support the critics’ claim. Peter K. Garett’s claim of Stevenson’s use of language is that the relation between Jekyll and Hyde is played out in terms of grammatical and narrative positions. Vladimir Nabokov’s claim was that Stevenson creates suspense and mystery by
In the first chapter of the book we are introduced to one of the main
Stevenson's Depiction of the Murder of Sir Danvers Carew in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
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.
Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of this novella has written it very cleverly, with certain techniques used that have a greater impact on the reader and ones that make it more than just any thriller/shocker. Every novella has a purpose to it and so does this story, the purpose of this novella has been made to narrative the reader and it is quite clearly reflecting the genre of the thriller/shocker. As well as this the novella has been made as a shilling shocker which depends on sensationalism and represents an immoral lifestyle that may include violence in extremity.
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.
Stevenson's choice of certain words in the novel is extremely pertinent to a homoerotic reading of the text. In some Victorian circles (and most certainly not in others), certain words had very explicit homosexual connotations.
The story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a confusing and perplexing one. R.L. Stevenson uses the devices of foreshadow and irony to subtly cast hints to the reader as to who Mr. Hyde is and where the plot will move. Stevenson foreshadows the events of the book through his delicate hints with objects and words. Irony is demonstrated through the names of characters, the names display to the reader how the character will fit into the novel. These two literary devices engage the readers; they employ a sense of mystery while leading the readers to the answer without them realizing the depth of each indirect detail.
One Victorian sentiment was that a civilized individual could be determined by her/his appearance. This notion was readily adopted by the upper classes and, among other things, helped shape their views of the lower classes, who certainly appeared inferior to them. In regards to social mobility, members of the upper classes may have (through personal tragedy or loss) often moved to a lower-class status, but rarely did one see an individual move up from the abysmal lower class. Although poverty could be found almost anywhere in Victorian London (one could walk along a street of an affluent neighborhood, turn the corner, and find oneself in an area of depravity and decay), most upper-class Londoners, who tended to dwell in the West End, associated the East End with the lower class.
“That in the agonized womb of consciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling. How, then, were they dissociated?” (Stevenson 57). This is our main character, Dr Jekyll’s, continuous inner monologue. He constantly wants to know why he’s the way he is and who the “polar twin” really is. Dr Jekyll switches between himself and Mr Hyde; one good and one evil. This can be supported numerously throughout the book. Two reasons to support this being that Dr. Jekyll shared the same handwriting as Mr Hyde; the other being that Hyde walked right over a child, harming the child, and continued walking without caring (“The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground,” Stevenson 11.)
How does Stevenson maintain the reader’s interest in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Stevenson keeps the readers interested by using the supernatural and horror side of things to make it scary because when the story first came out, they weren’t used to scary stories. He also uses mysteries to keep the readers wondering, guessing and wanting to know more. He includes moral messages in the story to keep people/the readers questioning themselves, wondering if they are more similar to Mr. Hyde than they think. Stevenson sets all the action in the story during the night.
In the novel “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” a number of
Plot: Dr Henry Jekyll, an upstanding surgeon in Victorian England, is frustrated in his desire to marry his beloved, Muriel Carew, by her pompous father who insists that he must wait eight months so as to marry on the same date that he married his wife. However Jekyll perfects a formula that allows him to let the animal side of his nature free. Taking the formula, Jekyll physically transforms into a bestial creature that he calls Hyde. Hyde roams the disreputable areas of London where he makes an innocent showgirl/prostitute his and keeps her in mortal terror. However Jekyll soon finds that he is unable to control Hyde’s appearances.
we deny our bad side. It looks at a doctor called Dr Jekyll who feels