American Psycho and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, although written 105 years apart, convey a protagonist that ostensibly appears benign, yet internally both are morally degenerate characters. Whilst in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ Stevenson presents a morality tale in which Hyde is an escape from society for Dr Jekyll. Easton-Ellis in his post-modern novel ‘American Psycho’ instead, portrays the superficial tendency of society through the protagonist Patrick Bateman. In an interview with the New York Times in 1991 Easton-Ellis said he was ‘writing about a society in which the surface became the only thing. In both novels, the protagonists participate in malicious and spiteful acts against the accepted moral codes of their respective time, which result …show more content…
Stevenson throughout the novel conveys Hyde as a vindictive and vicious character who ‘calmly’ tramples on the people around him, his lack of morals is portrayed through his psychotic and uncontrollable malevolence who ‘like a madman’ has no restraint for his unwarranted anger. Stevenson regularly uses atavism to portray Hyde’s evolutionary tendency to revert to a primitive ape, the simile ‘ape like fury’ coveys the instinctive behaviour of Hyde and presents how he is spurred by frustration. The animalistic savagery is typical for the time; Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was meddling with matters of God and an attack on religion in the Victorian period - Hyde is enacting savage prehistoric impulses we all possess. The onomatopoeic sentence ‘bones were audibly shattered’ presents a realistic and expressive visual of Hyde’s inhumane strength and plays on the beast within a man, Modern Gothic novels typically play on fears and anxieties of the Victorian society which is intensified through the sensual language used to engage and horrify the reader. A
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.
Throughout the thriller-mystery story of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mr. Utterson, the friendly lawyer, tries to figure out the reason behind why Dr. Jekyll, his friend and client, gives all his money to a strange man and murderer named Mr. Hyde in his will. Readers learn from the ominous third person point of view the worries of Mr. Utterson and ride along in his search for Mr. Hyde. In R. L. Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he employs characterization, imagery, and weather motifs to construct complex characters and create eerie settings, which parallel the mood of the characters. Throughout the story, Stevenson characterizes Mr. Hyde as a strange man with odd features who nobody seems to like.
In this essay on the story of Jekyll and Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson I will try to unravel the true meaning of the book and get inside the characters in the story created by Stevenson. A story of a man battling with his double personality.
In many different types of stories, authors use their writing to critique stereotypes of their own countries, whether it be fiction or nonfiction. In both Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, they show the demise of a person and humanity. They both have prevalent themes of the struggle of power. Except, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are in a power struggle of self-control, while in War of the Worlds the struggle is of humanity and the outside world. Both worlds, personal and humanity-wise, are overcome by other forces also trying to gain power. Both are forced to succumb and give in to the struggles they face. For example, in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll struggles constantly with not allowing for Hyde to take over his life. He wants to keep his reputation clean, and he wants to be seen as a respectable man.
Stevenson’s most prominent character in the story is the mysterious Mr Hyde. Edward Hyde is introduced from the very first chapter when he tramples a young girl in the street, which brings the reader’s attention straight to his character. The reader will instantly know that this person is a very important part of this book and that he plays a key role in the story. This role is the one of a respectable old man named Dr Jekyll’s evil side or a ‘doppelganger’. This links in with the idea of duality. Dr Jekyll is described as being ‘handsome’, ‘well-made’ and ‘smooth-faced’. On the other hand, Mr Hyde is described as being ‘hardly human’, ‘pale and dwarfish’, giving of an impression of deformity and ‘so ugly that it brought out the sweat on (Mr Enfield) like running’! These words all go together to conjure up an image in the mind of an animal, beast or monster. During the novel...
Jekyll does deserve his final miserable fate because he commits several selfish deeds to the point where he brings his miserable fate upon himself. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses Jekyll to represent how man prioritizes by putting himself over others. Throughout the book, Jekyll’s two different sides are used to show that man is consistently selfish and will usually think of himself before others. Even though Jekyll has a good side and an evil side, both sides of him are selfish. Jekyll originally takes the potion for selfish reasons, Jekyll uses Hyde to conquer his own evil temptations, and in the end Jekyll gives into Hyde and completely gives up.
Stevenson had already created suspense before the chapter had begun through the knowledge we have of Mr Hyde. His character we know of links in to the ideas of Darwin. “And this was more of a dwarf”, Hyde is described as a dwarfish and primitive person, this Links in to the ideas of Darwin of how cave men evolved from apes and how we evolved from cave men. The fear of the Victorians is that since man had evolved from animals he has the same lack of control over emotions as animals.
wrong, a lot like the way Mr Hyde was thought of. So to Mr Utterson,
Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel ‘The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ was deeply influenced by his family and social background. Stevenson was born in a family with a history of doctors, lawyers and other standard occupations. He was taught wrong from right from a very young age by his nanny who was a very faithful Christian. Therefore, he received a good education in his childhood. These well-educated experiences restricted his behavior and forced him to perform formally which is similar to Dr. Jekyll delineated in his novel. Another influencing factor is Darwin’s theory of evolution. ‘The origin of species’ was published in 1859 in which Darwin stated that men are descended from apes. This made Stevenson believe that we all have human nature within our physical body and it has rationality that cannot be strangled. Another factor which have significant influence on Stevenson’s portrayal of the duality of man was Sigmund Freud’s psychological theory. According to Freud, everyon...
In both novels, the characters represent certain kinds of individuals in today's society. They encounterjealousy, as well as many other conflicts within themselves, and human nature. Ultimately, these two novels deliver the inner conflicts of our society.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a highly acclaimed novel, in which Jekyll is painted as the loving victim while Hyde is the murderous villain. In the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the fact of the matter is one is a psychopath born cold-hearted, while the other is a sociopath created by society. Anti-social disorder is at the crux of the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, which reveals the psychotic characteristics, deprived social relations, and *** of the psychopath, Dr. Jekyll, and the sociopath, Mr. Hyde.
In conclusion, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, represents many themes of duality in human nature. This is represented by the characters of Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Hastie Lanyon, and John Utterson. Some themes represented are the duality in conforming to societal conventions, curiosity, and temptation. Stevenson utilizes significant events including the deaths of Lanyon and Jekyll, and the transformations of Jekyll into Hyde to prove “that man is not truly one, but two” (125)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shared the same body, but they didn’t share the same personalities nor physical, mental and morally. In the story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” A man name Henry Jekyll turn himself into a monster named Edward Hyde. Dr. Jekyll made a potion to create Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde then does things that Dr. Jekyll would never do. Mr. Hyde would go out only at night and do unspeakable things. They are clearly two different personalities because of their physical, mental and moral differences.
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.
For centuries, humans continually uncover the tendency to find any motivation that allows us to get through each day which eventually plays a role in our actions or decisions. In the two novels of Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Mary Shelley, she has portrayed the driving factor of both main characters to be science rather than the nature of humans. Both books have similar plots as the primary events that take place are the results of catastrophic scientific experiments. However, as the reader begins to acknowledge the various attributes of each character, it becomes quite noticeable that the pursuing of science and knowledge has become their predominant motivation that allows them to strive further in their ideas. Although, while other readers may believe the idea that our human nature is what caused