The Way Robert Louis Stevenson Uses Literary Techniques in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' is a novella that was
written an 1886 and has gone down in history as one of the most famous
works of gothic 'horror' fiction. The term 'Jekyll and Hyde
personality' is used in society today to depict someone with a dual
personality who is a kind of schizophrenic, describing someone who
lives a double life of outward morality and inward iniquity. At the
time when the book was written, Victorian society on the surface was
extremely civilised and was dominated by strict codes of conduct,
polite manners and repressed sexuality. Great social emphasis was
placed on duty and decorum and the book explores the outlook and
manner of the Victorian people, and their 'obsession' with keeping a
highly regarded, highly respected society governed by strict codes of
conduct and polite manners. The importance of the church and marriage
was greatly emphasised, as was the following of the expectancy to
behave morally at all times. The Gothic nature of the book is shown in
Stevenson's vivid descriptions and dark imagery such as 'the most
racking prangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea and a
horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or
death.'
The story was enormously popular with its Victorian audience showing a
fascination with the 'other side ' of life. Stevenson reflects on this
'expectation of respectability' in the text, a lot of the characters
have professions that were seen by society to be significant and
dominating such as a Doctor and a Politician. This shows us that he
was s...
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...shows us that Hyde's brand of evil consists of, not just a lapse from
good but a decent into the far reaches of evil.
Robert Louis Stevenson uses literary techniques to illustrate the
social points he is trying to convey by continuously drawing out
attention to the difference of peoples attitudes to life in and out of
the social limelight. He outlines the duality of human nature, that we
lead a double life, one of 'outward morality and inner iniquity' and
the social importance of obeying the 'rules' expected of them. At the
time the book was written Victorian upper class Society was very
repressed, they found it difficult to express feelings and always kept
their feelings from others. Stevenson uses this 'inwardness' to
portray the difference between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde even though they
are in fact the same person.
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
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.
myself. Here, then, as I lay down the pen, and proceed to seal up my
wrong, a lot like the way Mr Hyde was thought of. So to Mr Utterson,
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.
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.
The Notion of Good and Evil in Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The book entitled The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in the year 2000. published in 1886. Although in the book Stevenson does not ever state the exact year, it was at the time recognized immediately as a grand. work.
we deny our bad side. It looks at a doctor called Dr Jekyll who feels
To what extent can the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde be? viewed as a gothic novel? Jekyll and Hyde is a gothic novel. It was written by Robert Louis. Stevenson, he got the idea for the story after a dream he had.
The Victorian era was a time of unprecedented technological advancements, with people being scientific, but superstitious. They held fears that technological advancements would corrupt their civilization as they knew it and create monstrous beings. Stevenson in his novella, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde creates a link between good and evil and the notion of this being contained within a single body. During this period in history, Victorian England attempted to assert its western civilization over many parts of the world, leading people to be intrigued by allegedly savage cultures. By examining the superficial existence of the upper middle class of the day, Stevenson highlights the hypocrisy of the social strata at the time. He explores the dichotomy
According to the author every person has good and bad inside of him. There is a continuous battle between the two forces, when the bad force won Dr. Jekyll committed suicide which is a lesson for us to keep the good force always on the outside and inside of us to live in harmony and peacefully.