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STEVENSONS INFLUENCES jekyll and hyde
What was stevenson purpose of dr jekyll and mr hyde
Literary analysis essay over dr jekyll and mr hyde
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The novel Dr .Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Stevenson is a literary masterpiece that Follows the mysterious connection between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and with that connection, Dr. Jekyll’s internal struggle to control Mr. Hyde. In order to highlight the dichotomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson expertly uses the duality of light and dark as well as light and dark individually One half of this duality is given to Mr. Hyde, for he is the embodiment of the darkness and all of its many faces, such as night, and fog. This dark symbolism is used by Stevenson to show the evil half of Dr. Jekyll, the irrational, suspicious, sinful, lustful, and disfigured person that Mr. Hyde is. This dark imagery can easily be associated with Mr. …show more content…
Hyde, for all scenes pertaining to him contain a symbol of darkness; take for example, the first scene in which the expositional walk between Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield introduces the reader to Mr. Hyde through Mr. Enfield’s account of him “I was coming home from some place at the end of the world about 3 o'clock of a black winter morning... all at once I saw two figures... well sir the two ran into each other and then came the horrible part of the thing, for the man trampled calmly over the child's body left screaming on the ground”(3). This scene, beautifully crafted by Stevenson, set with the background of darkness, connects Mr. Hyde to darkness itself, by first associating his actions, both suspicious and disturbing, to a symbol that embodies both of these, darkness. Thus connecting the man and his following actions to this symbol. This well crafted connection created by Stevenson also allows him to create images foreshadowing Mr. Hyde using just this symbol. An example of this is in the testimony of the maid “A fog rolled over the city in the small hours, the early part of the night was cloudless, and the lane, which the maids window overlooked, was brilliantly lit by the full moon”(22) this symbol, although chronologically representing a later time it is placed here by Stevenson to give the reader prior to the knowledge that it is Mr. Hyde who killed Mr. Carrow Due to his early connection of Mr. Hyde to the symbol of darkness. Thus this scene perfectly foreshadows Mr. Hyde and the coming death of Mr. Carrow, all while adding another facet of dark symbolism (the symbol of darkness connected to death) onto Mr. Hyde. Dr.
Jekyll symbolically embodies light and its symbols, of order, superior standing, kindness, and the intellectual mind. Stevenson creates this by putting Dr. Jekyll in situations with light. This can be seen as all scenes that have Dr. Jekyll contain a source of light, most commonly in the form of fire. This is exemplified when we first meet Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Utterson goes to Dr. Jekyll’s house to find out why Dr. Jekyll would leave all of his will to Mr. Hyde, and saw, “He [Dr.Jekyll] now sat opposite to the fire...with every mark of kindness and affection”(19). This, along with two other images of fire in his house mentioned three page earlier, firmly connect the person and values of Dr. Jekyll to a symbol that represents them, light. This symbolism is also shown when Mr. Utterson goes to tell Dr. Jekyll about the death of Carrow “The fire burned in the grate”(29) this further perpetuates the symbolic connection of fire with Dr.Jekyll, but also shows the reader Dr. Jekyll’s state of being. He has, with the killing of Mr. Carrow almost extinguished the “light” and all of its symbolic connotations within himself; thus leaving his symbolic personification as embers “burning in the …show more content…
grate”. Stevenson also uses Mr.
Hyde’s symbol of darkness and Dr.Jekyll’s symbol of light to bring forth the dueling dichotomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through light and dark. This can be seen when Mr. Utterson and the police officer go to find Mr. Hyde’s house in the southern part of London to convict him of the murder of Mr. Carrow, “And great chocolate-colored pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was constantly changing and routing these embattled vapours”(24). Thus simply and symbolically showing the reader the “embattled” mind of Dr. Jekyll; with the “great chocolate-colored pall”, representing darkness and its “lowering over heaven” as the primal, evil, and sinful begin to overtake the kindness, order, and reason represented here by the light of heaven. These connected symbols can also be seen when Mr. Utterson and Poole go look for Dr. Jekyll, where they see “the great kitchen, where the fire is out and beetles were leaping on the floor”(44), thus symbolically showing the full extinguishment of the light within Dr. Jekyll and foreshadowing his impending
death. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a beautiful example of light and dark symbols in all of their many forms, as individual or together, to profoundly enhance the image of a character as well as his/her connection to other characters.
The criticism by Vladimir Nabokov, supports the claim that Stevenson uses symbolisms to express ideas and to create suspense. Finally Stevenson’s certain tone when he describes Hyde or the evil things the Hyde commit allowed him to express Hyde’s evil and created an unusual atmosphere. When Hyde was described he was described as small and the facial expression of his was very odd and hard to explain “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with some sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering somewhat broken voice” (Stevenson 16). After Utterson’s first encounter with Hyde, he is just amazed and shocked because of Hyde’s physical appearance. Also in their first encounter, the setting was very dark and gloomy which adds to the claim. Also the description of Hyde symbolizes Hyde’s evil. Hyde’s ugliness and his deformed face symbolizes his evil, his small size symbolize Jekyll’s evil side inside him that was repressed for so long along with the dark setting. Another symbolism used in the book is between Jekyll’s laboratory and his house. Jekyll’s house is described as a place of wealth and comfort but his laboratory is described as “a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the streets” (Stevenson 6). The wealthy house represents the respectable man Jekyll and the laboratory represents the corrupt Hyde. Normal people will not see the two structures as one just like how they won’t be able to see the relationship between Hyde and
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dual nature of man is a recurring theme. Jekyll constantly struggles with good and evil, the expectations of Victorian society, and the differences between Lanyon and Jekyll.
To conclude the way that Stevenson has described Hyde and what Jekyll has done in most parts he has related it to the devil which in Victorian times was considered very dangerous, even though today he’s not considered that powerful it would still make a big impact. Stevenson has been successful in using many elements of a shocker/thriller to write a novella with a much deeper moral significance because every aspect of the story relates back to the Victorian morals of 1837 till 1901 and for a 21st century reader some parts of the novella will make them think what is really happening around them now and whether it is right or not!
Stevenson uses many methods to achieve and sustain an atmosphere of mystery and suspense in the novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He does this by using a clever sense of setting, vocabulary, surroundings and the manner of his characters which are used to describe and slowly reveal the appearance of Hyde . Some of these are highlighted in the depiction of the Dr Jekyll’s house, such as Mr. Enfield's story, Henry Jekyll’s will and the meeting with Hyde.
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...
Within the text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson portrays a complex power struggle between Dr. Jekyll, a respected individual within Victorian London society, and Mr. Hyde a villainous man tempted with criminal urges, fighting to take total control of their shared body. While Dr. Jekyll is shown to be well-liked by his colleagues, Mr. Hyde is openly disliked by the grand majority of those who encounter him, terrified of his frightful nature and cruel actions. Throughout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson portrays the wealthy side of London, including Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll, as respected and well-liked, while showing the impoverish side as either non-existent or cruel.
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde becomes Jekyll's demonic, monstrous alter ego. Certainly Stevenson presents him immediately as this from the outset. Hissing as he speaks, Hyde has "a kind of black sneering coolness . . . like Satan". He also strikes those who witness him as being "pale and dwarfish" and simian like. The Strange Case unfolds with the search by the men to uncover the secret of Hyde. As the narrator, Utterson, says, "If he be Mr. Hyde . . . I shall be Mr. Seek". Utterson begins his quest with a cursory search for his own demons. Fearing for Jekyll because the good doctor has so strangely altered his will in favor of Hyde, Utterson examines his own conscience, "and the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded a while in his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there" (SC, 42). Like so many eminent Victorians, Utterson lives a mildly double life and feels mildly apprehensive about it. An ugly dwarf like Hyde may jump out from his own boxed self, but for him such art unlikely creature is still envisioned as a toy. Although, from the beginning Hyde fills him with a distaste for life (SC, 40, not until the final, fatal night, after he storms the cabinet, can Utterson conceive of the enormity of Jekyll's second self. Only then does he realize that "he was looking on the body of a self-dcstroyer" (SC, 70); Jekyll and Hyde are one in death as they must have been in life.
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...
...ve duality of man;… if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” Thus, Stevenson creates in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, two coexistent, and eternally opposed components that make up a “normal” individual. However, here, good and evil are not related but are two independent entities, individuals even, different in mental and physical attributes and constantly at war with each other. Evil now does not require the existence of good to justify itself but it exists simply as itself, and is depicted as being the more powerful, the more enjoyable of the two, and in the end ultimately it is the one that leads to Dr. Jekyll's downfall and death. Stevenson creates the perfect metaphor for the never-ending battle between good and evil by using Jekyll and Hyde. However, this novella is perhaps one of the few that truly show the power of Evil.
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 in his will to a strange man and murderer named Mr. Hyde. Readers learn from the ominous third person point of view the worries of Mr. Utterson and ride along for his search of Mr. Hyde. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, R.L. Stevenson employs characterization, imagery, and motifs of weather to construct complex characters and create eerie settings, which parallel with the mood of the characters.
The reader is drawn to the plot of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through the literary devices Stevenson employs. Foreshadowing displays the sense of mystery throughout the novel, the foreshadowing of the actions of Mr. Hyde leaves the reader wondering what will happen next. The ironic nature of Dr. Jekyll relates to the reader as a person, no person is completely perfect and Dr. Jekyll exhibits the natural wants and desires of humans. The irony behind Mr. Hyde adds an enigmatic side to the plot. These two devices expose the readers to the complexity of the novel and reveal the inner meaning of the hidden details.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. In the novel doors lead to the beginning of change and often lead to significant changes in the plot. This is shown by Dr. Jekyll’s cabinet doors, when the door is closed it is still thought that Dr. Jekyll is good, but when it is opened it revels Dr. Jekyll’s true nature which is Mr. Hyde (Stevenson 33). This is also the case in this metafiction. In the novel doors are also often a representation of good and evil. This is shown by the two descriptions of both Dr. Jekyll’s and Mr. Hyde’s door. When the novel’s narrator tells us that the doctor's home is part of a ''square of ancient, handsome houses,'' and that its door ''was a great air of wealth and comfort.'' (Stevenson 10) this is representing the good side of Henry Jekyll. In this metafiction when Henry walks through the doorway he releases and evil within
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)
When Jekyll first turns into Hyde, he feels delighted at his newfound freedom. He states: "... And yet when I looked upon /that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, /rather of a leap of welcome..."(131). Now he could be respected as a scientist and explore his darker passions. Stevenson shows duality of human nature through society.
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.