The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Dorian Gray The novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written by Robert L. Stevenson and first published in 1886. The years from 1837 to 1901 are considered the Victorian Era, so the novel is considered a Victorian novel. Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is written in the same era as Dr Jekyll and is a Victorian Novel as well. Having read the extracts of the novels and knowing what happens in the end, a comparison of the Victorian Era and the novels can easily be made. One of the major themes of these novels is the double personality that Dr Jekyll suffers from. When Dr Jekyll takes his metamorphosis potion, he becomes Mr Hyde who is pure evil, which is clearly shown in the extract of the novel. Mr Hyde is very impolite towards his old fellow colleague Dr Lanyon even though he willingly agrees to help Dr Jekyll by giving the potion to Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde represents the evil side of the personality where Dr Jekyll corresponds to the good side. This split personality isn’t any extraordinary theme considering other novels of the Victorian Era. Oscar Wilde wrote The picture of Dorian Gray where double personality is one of the major themes too. The portrait of Dorian Gray represents his inner beauty. The longer Dorian Gray stays beautiful on the outside the worse his personality gets. That’s why the portrait becomes so ugly in the end that Dorian had to destroy it. Another typical trait of the Victorian Era is the Biblical references. This is to be seen in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and in Dorian Gray as well. Dr Jekyll has a good side and an evil side which both try to eliminate one another. And it’s exactly the clash between doing what’s good and what’s evil that is a re... ... middle of paper ... ...vations and many people were impressed by this. Oscar Wilde and Robert L. Stevenson didn’t necessarily agree with Darwin’s observations, but they must have been impressed by the theory of evolution and animals undergoing a transformation. Dorian Gray and especially Dr Jekyll experience a metamorphosis every time he drinks his potion. So to sum it all up, both of the novels are very typical of the Victorian Era. They both had the same theme of double personality and their way of writing was very harsh and describing. They were both affected by Darwin and his studies since they brought doubt to God’s creation of mankind. But there’s nothing unusual in being affected by the contemporary literature or science. Even nowadays we’re affected by new studies and ways of writing. If we weren’t influenced by the modern studies, we wouldn’t have any progress in our society.
Essentially, the two men are complete opposites. Reputable and successful, Dr Jekyll was outlined “… [possessed] every mark of capacity and kindness” (Stevenson, 1978 pg. 14) . Paradoxically, Stevenson gave a man that hides from people the name Mr. Hyde. A couple examples of crimes which reflect his evil disposition include an incidence where he “trampled calmly over [a] child’s body and left her screaming on the ground,” (Stevenson, 1978 pg. 5) and his attack on Sir Danvers where “…with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway.” I did not, however, outline the severity of criminal events in which Mr Hyde (or in case Dr Jekyll) had triggered, as it would be too unbefitting to include in the
Profound Duplicity Exhibited by Jekyll as a Reflection of the Victorian Way of Life. Robert Louis Stevenson was a famous author during the Victorian era. He was born in 1850 and as a young child had many nightmares which he brought to life in his books. His nanny also influenced his stories. with her strong Calvinist beliefs.
As an introduction, Jekyll and Hyde,published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson, introduces the idea of the composite hero through the the mysterious Dr. Jekyll. Interestingly, in Dr. Jekyll’s confession letter, readers discover the villainous character Hyde is indeed Jekyll. Knowingly, Jekyll discovered his time as Dr. Jekyll was running out.
“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.
The archetypal theme of the repression of a desire is rendered in various ways in the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, with the repercussion of these subdued urges resulting in both favorable and adverse outcomes for the restrained individual. The novella takes place in the Victorian Era, a time where the suppression of vehement emotions and impulsive conduct was immensely urged, to the extent that it was considered an acquired behavior, as they believed an exposure of true expression would lead to the loss of a dignified demeanor, as well as a loss of morality. While this theory is reasonable, it is also indisputably inaccurate in certain instances. The repression of certain aspects, such as curiosity,
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are the same person all within the body of Dr Jekyll. He switches between the two willingly for science and his own personal desire. This can be proven in the last chapter of the book where we see
Stevenson Robert L., Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales. (USA: oxford university press, 2008)
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a major theme in the story is the duality of good versus evil. In the novel, a character by the name of Dr. Jekyll believes in the dual nature of human beings, for he states, “ With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both suffer; however, one from illness and the other from insanity. Mr. Hyde is a sociopath, and lives in it to the full extent as well as Jekyll being a psychopath. However, Hyde was created the way he was to portray a sinful side of Jekyll, while Jekyll was himself throughout, good and bad, to manipulate and gain in the harm of
...sner, Mary. "'A Total Subversion of Character': Dr. Jekyll's Moral Insanity." Victorian Newsletter Spring 1998: 27-31. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Vol. 228. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
... 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.
This guilt drives him to have “clasped hands to God…tears and prayers to smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds that his memory swarmed against him” (Stevenson 57). As a whole, the text demonstrates that Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego, Mr. Hyde, is the mastermind of pure malevolence who participates in activities that Dr. Jekyll cannot Jekyll experiences. For instance, Dr. Jekyll’s physical appearance begins to decline as he stops taking the draught. The text describes Dr. Jekyll’s physical characteristics as “looking deadly sick” when his is usually a “large well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness” (Stevenson 19-25). Not only does Dr. Jekyll’s health begin to decline, but also his behavior changes as well.
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll has a desire for splitting his personalities and taking pleasure in two different lives. A sinister, malicious, abnormal, small man would control one life while; an honorable, wise doctor would control the other life. Dr. Jekyll produces a potion, which allows
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novel about a man named Henry Jekyll who
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.