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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde literary analysis
Dr jekyll and mr hyde literary analysis
Dr jekyll and mr hyde literary analysis
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The Relevance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Today The novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was written in 1886. It was set in Victorian society in London. Stevenson was Scottish and came from a strict protestant background. The genre of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is gothic horror. Stevenson was fascinated about the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution suggests that we were once ape-like creatures, this upset many religious people. Many Christians believed that we came from Adam and Eve. Christians didn't like the fact that we were once animals, they thought it suggested negative things. This suggests that man has two sides, a good side and a beast-like side. This is incorporated in the novel. This book was written in Victorian England. In Victorian England there was a belief in physiognomy, this means your character was reflected in how you look. In Victorian England there were high moral standards, if these high moral standards were not followed you could be isolated from the society. There was also a belief that evil only exited in sick individuals. The themes of the novel are good verses evil and duality, this symbolises the society of the time. An example of this is Jack the Ripper; he was a serial killer who never got caught. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is about repressed desires and what happens when we deny our bad side. It looks at a doctor called Dr Jekyll who feels restricted in society so he takes a potion to relieve pressure however this reveals his bad side and releases the beast within him. Some elements of this novel seem coincidental. For example when Utterson ... ... middle of paper ... ...ictorian people would think you are a good person. Stevenson uses effective descriptive techniques; he builds up a calm, relaxed picture, and then shocks us with sudden violence. An example of this is in "the Carew murder case" chapter, first we are given a description of the maid then we are given a description of the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. Stevenson uses archaic, old fashioned language. An example is when it says "troglodytic" this means trolls. The book is relevant today because in the same way that Jekyll is addicted to Hyde, people in modern society are addicted to alcohol and cigarettes to relieve pressure. The message in this book is if we ignore our evil side it will return with more vengeance which you wouldn't be able to control. I think this book links in very well with Victorian society.
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 fact, we are not so we use the “immune system” to comfort ourselves through self-deception. In order to keep in comfortable safety lines that boost our own confidence in learning, we try to gain control of the input and output of our thinking. However, by trying to maintain positivity, we may mask our inability to comprehend, thus deceiving ourselves by believing that everything is still in control. Consequently, we do not attempt to solve the problem. This method of self-consolation utilizes the “immune system” to explain the problem, “we may refer to the processes by which the psychological immune system does its job as ‘tactics’ or ‘strategies’, but these terms - with their inevitable connotation of planning and deliberation - should not cause us to think of people as manipulative schemers who are consciously trying to generate positive views of their own experience” (Gilbert 131). When things are out of control or the unexpected happens, we automatically explain or find excuses to interpret the situation. We look for excuses that lead to positive outcomes, no matter how unpleasant it really is. Because we subconsciously want to interpret that we are still in control, we find ways to manipulate the truth to qualify that truth. Once a “reasonable” explanation is conjured, we consciously believe it is the truth because we can decrease the negative impact of the event. Even though the truth has been made up, we
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.
Perils of Addiction Exposed in Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The values, standards, and expectations of the upper-middle class in the 19th-century Victorian society were conservative and strict; the pressure to earn prestige and achieve upward mobility in social rank required men to sustain an image of propriety and respectability in public. These obligations often created a longing to divert from the personality facades they had to keep, and from the ideal behavior and polite manners that were expected of bourgeois society men. Some would fulfill their wishes by leading a secret double life that allowed them to temporarily escape from societal responsibilities and restrictions. In more private settings, men would partake in sinful pleasures, such as alcohol or drug abuse, and they were free to behave more loosely than they could under the rigid public persona they were forced to hold in order to protect their reputations. In the introduction to the Oxford edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Emma Letley describes the desire to escape from the "Calvinistic confines of nineteenth-century bourgeois" society, and relates that Mr. Stevenson himself "would use a benign doubleness to deal with the pressures of high bourgeois existence" and assumed an alias to become one of the "heavy-drinking, convivial, blasphemous iconoclasts. . ."
Texts are a representation of their context and this is evident in Robert Stevenson’s novella: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, where many values of late nineteenth century Victorian England values were reflected through the themes of the novel using language and structural features. These values included: technological advances, reputation and masculinity and are demonstrated in the text through literary and structure devices as well as the characterisation of the main character.
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.
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 ameliorates the impact of unpleasant events and reduces the possibility of getting a mood disorder, diminishing the consumption of drugs. Gilbert explores some experience—failed marriages and lost jobs for example—that is able to trigger psychological defenses and shift the blame onto somebody else so as to make people feel better. “When experiences make us feel sufficiently unhappy, the psychological immune system cooks facts and shifts blame in order to offer us a more positive view” (Gilbert 136). The phrase “cook facts” means playing around with facts and fabricating evidence. Gilbert points out that it is not that case that the psychological defense is triggered whenever people have a sense of depression, resentment, vexation, or dissatisfaction; in other words, the psychological immune system falsifies facts for the purpose of delighting people only when there are large-scale assaults on their happiness. Likewise, Watters mentions that corporations utilize marketing strategies in order to alter and manipulate consumers’ attitude towards depression. Kirmayer’s presentation conveys that “cultural beliefs about depression and the self are malleable and responsive to messages that can be exported from one culture to another.” (Watters 519). With the expansion of cultural exchanges in the world, how people consider
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 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.
Addiction is a behavior that leads to actions that not only hurt others but is ultimately a path to one’s own self-destruction. From the beginning of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, it is clear that Dr. Jekyll never had complete control over the drug or Mr. Hyde; however, once Hyde commits suicide in order to dodge punishment, we know how awful Jekyll’s addiction to Hyde had been. Jekyll was so far out of control of Hyde that Mr. Hyde had the ability to end both of their lives simply because Hyde did not wish to be punished.
Innocence is a trap. It is strangled with the ideals of perfection and suffocates the cravings of curiosity. Goodness is expectant and evil is poisonous. However, good and evil resides in even the most innocent of people. Both are nefarious and pestilent to easily corrupt targeted souls in sinister actions. Both equate to uncontrollable factors. Goodness tends to covet the sensations of evil since it depreciates its own purity. In the oscillating novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, goodness was trapped by evil just as Jekyll was trapped as Hyde. Jekyll’s pure spirituality desired the holy richness of evil and all its wrongdoings. His laboratory experiments discovered his desire to feel the sensation of evil without truly being evil. His laboratory experiments discovered a way for him to escape. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fought the battle between good and evil proving the apparent strengths and weaknesses that overall transformed two souls into a single corpse.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a scientist, Dr. Jekyll, creates an alter ego using a draught in order to escape the harsh views of society. As Mr. Hyde, he commits heinous crimes against citizens and becomes addicted to the perception of freedom from Victorian laws. Best stated by Norman Kerr about addiction, “there is an inebriety derangement of the mental faculties, so that the consciousness, perception, reasoning, power, and conscience are impaired” (Kerr 138). The character Dr. Jekyll illustrates the condition of addiction in the Victorian era through the motifs of the obsession with appearance and duality.