What Is The Theme Of Vampirism In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

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Merriam-Webster defines ‘parasite’ as ‘an organism that lives in or on another organism and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host 's expense’. Now when one reads this definition generally a picture of a miniscule insect that sucks our blood and can perpetually give us Lyme disease is pieced together – but, fair reader, is there something more to this definition? In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella this study of a parasite and a host is taken to a much bigger scale; showing how a parasite may not just be an insect but the evil that lurks within in every human being. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson explores the theme of vampirism through Hyde’s feeding upon Jekyll until he totally consumes him. It is expressed …show more content…

This finally leads into the larger scale parasitism – otherwise known as vampirism. This idea of vampirism is also brought in through Chapter 3: Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids where he mentions “… the figure of the vampire, the cannibal, the spook, shows up again and again, whenever someone grows in strength by weakening someone else.” (Foster 17). Although Hyde does not suck Jekyll’s blood like most would think, he physically and mentally eats away at Jekyll until there is nothing left but to give in. As his life steadily ticks away, Jekyll is consumed with fear of his other half, and taunted mercilessly by images of awful deeds. Jekyll can no longer seek refuge in sleep or rest as even just falling asleep in his chair will trigger the transformation spontaneously. This lack of rest begins to gnaw away at Jekyll physically in his older age thus making it more of a laborious effort to fight off Hyde. The poor doctor now has no choice but to become extremely dependent on the potion as the last defense against Hyde. The parasite has now sucked the host dry of his physical and mental power leaving no other option for …show more content…

All of humanity, even the one reading this paper, has had thoughts of doing things that are far from that of a saint, and although most do not act upon these thoughts there are those who have; those who kill out of spite, those who commit unspeakable acts against men, women and children, those who to everyone else are frightening and fearful and thus locked away from

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