Scottish Literature Stevenson’s Message The well-known novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, describes a monster created by science. Dr. Jekyll concocts a potion in attempt to isolate the good and evil sides of human nature. When he drinks the concoction, he is transformed into his beastly nature. He becomes all that we can imagine as evil and physically appears just as misshapen. In the narrative we find the ghastly appearance a symbol for something more. This creature referred to as Mr. Hyde acts in ways that others consider monstrous. Mr. Hyde tramples a little girl and beats an old man to death with a wooden cane. At the end of the story, our main character is hunted down and found on the floor of his lab having committed suicide. In our narrative we find the creature, Mr. Hyde, described similarly by many people. These people who catch a glance of him notice unnatural features that can't quite be described. The figure is inexplicably unnatural looking. His face and body give the impression of being severely deformed. During conversation, one of the men investigating the mystery surrounding Dr. Hyde attempts to describe the man: "He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point. He's an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir; I can make no hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment" (11-12). This quote gives three main qual... ... middle of paper ... ...sen. The recommendation we take from this book is to always insure that our actions and thoughts are taking us in the direction we want to live. Works Cited Brantlinger, Patrick. "An Unconscious Allegory about the Masses and Mass Literacy." Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: an Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Performance Adaptations, Criticism. New York: Norton, 2003. Print. Gould, Stephan Jay. "Post-Darwinism Theories of the Ape Within." Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: an Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Performance Adaptations, Criticism. New York: Norton, 2003. Print. Stevenson, Robert Louis. "How I Came to Be Such a Student of Our Penny Press." Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: an Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Performance Adaptations, Criticism. New York: Norton, 2003. Print.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. First Vintage Classics Edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publishing, Inc., 1991.
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”.
Stevenson focuses on two different characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but in reality these are not separate men, they are two different aspects of one man’s reality. In the story, Dr. Je...
Robert, Stevenson L. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publications, 2013. Print.
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.
appearances and reputations, and involves an individual who lives a double life of outward pity and secret corruption. Jekyll uses the ugly deformed Hyde as his body doubled’. The ‘Beast Within’ is studied in this book.
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...
“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde” is a novella written in the Victorian era, more specifically in 1886 by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. When the novella was first published it had caused a lot of public outrage as it clashed with many of the views regarding the duality of the soul and science itself. The audience can relate many of the themes of the story with Stevenson’s personal life. Due to the fact that Stevenson started out as a sick child, moving from hospital to hospital, and continued on that track as an adult, a lot of the medical influence of the story and the fact that Jekyll’s situation was described as an “fateful illness” is most likely due to Stevenson’s unfortunate and diseased-riddled life. Furthermore the author had been known to dabble in various drugs, this again can be linked to Jekyll’s desperate need and desire to give in to his darker side by changing into Mr Hyde.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “It is much easier to suppress a first desire than it is to satisfy those that follow.” This is certainly true in the situation of Dr. Jekyll, as the temptation of becoming Mr. Hyde becomes stronger as he continually surrenders to the wickedness that is constantly misleading him. Mr. Hyde is never contented, even after murdering numerous innocents, but on the contrary, his depravity is further intensified. The significance of the repression of a desire is a prevalent theme throughout the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, as the inability to repress one’s curiosity can lead to a fatal end, whereas the repression of a desire that can no longer contain itself, or the repression of confronting a guilty conscience, will conclude in a tragic ending and in this case specifically,
Mr. Hyde is the monstrous side of Dr. Jekyll from their book “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” In their story, Dr. Jekyll is a brilliant scientist who has created a formula that turns him into Mr. Hyde. It is stated that, at some point, Dr. Jekyll became addicted to the potion. Though it is unclear what would cause the addiction, since it would be Hyde who would experience the “high” and not Jekyll himself. Hyde is the contrast to Dr. Jekyll, and is considerably more brutal and immoral. Modern incarnations depict him as becoming incredibly muscular after the transformation, though in the original work it is only implied that Hyde is stronger, retaining his previous physique. It is consistent that Hyde is shown to be ugly, perhaps even deformed.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are two horrific tales of science gone terribly wrong. Shelley?s novel eloquently tells the story of a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who creates a living monster out of decomposed body parts, while Stevenson?s novel describes the account of one, Henry Jekyll, who creates a potion to bring out the pure evil side to himself. Although the two scientists differ in their initial response and action to their creations, there are strong similarities between their raging curiosity to surpass human limitation, as well as their lack of responsibility concerning their actions. These similarities raise an awareness of human limitation in the realm of science: the further the two scientists go in their experiments, the more trouble and pain they cause to themselves and to others.
Klin, Candyce. “Darwinism as A Cultural Issue” Cedar Crest College, 2 June 2001. Web. 17
Mr. Hyde is purely evil. He is described to be smaller, younger, ugly, and hairier; he is considered to be villainous and evil. Stevenson compares him to a monkey. The monkey symboliz...
The evil side, Edward Hyde, could enjoy all the wicked pleasures and execute all of Dr. Jekyll's angry, and vengeful wishes, yet, Dr. Jekyll does not have to be afraid of his conscience. Since Mr. Hyde was pure evil and was affected by science, Stevenson tells his readers that science is evil through Hyde's actions, and through the characters like Utterson whose descriptions of Hyde is immense horrifying. As he says, Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression of deformity without any namable malformation, he had a displeasing smile,., and he spoke with a husky whispering and somewhat broken voice,. God bless methe man seems hardly human! (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pg.20) Like Frankenstein, the words "evil, satan, and devilish" were all used to describe Mr. Hyde.