Robert Louis Stevenson Stevenson was born in November of 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. At 17 he enrolled in the town’s university for engineering, but soon found he wanted to be a writer. He met his wife, Fanny, who lived in California. Stevenson ventured over to her and wrote a book about it. He wrote a couple books from his own experience at this point. He then began writing short stories, then children’s books. Then, around 1885, he began to write romances and novels. Stevenson goes on an expedition around the Pacific. This experience inspired many books, and moved him into a darker style of writing. He died in December 1894. Character List Doctor Jekyll: A very respected and hardworking man of older age. Jekyll has a great public image in the town. He is friends with Doctor Lanyon and Utterson. Jekyll struggles to suppress his darker side and looks for a release of this energy. This comes from his experiment in the form of Mr. Hyde. Jekyll then fights to keep Hyde in check and his good side prominent. Mr. Hyde: Hyde is a very small and odd-looking man who is always described negatively. This is because he is pure evil, and the outlet of Jekyll’s dark energy. Hyde commits many crimes and murders and does not regret anything or ask for forgiveness. Mr. Utterson: A highly respected lawyer in the town who is very loyal to his clients. Mr. Utterson is friends with Jekyll and Lanyon, and also Mr. Guest. Utterson helps Poole reveal the truth about Jekyll and Hyde. Utterson is a man of reason and is strict with his rules and principles. Doctor Lanyon: A friend of both Jekyll and Utterson, Lanyon is a respected doctor. He is also very skeptical about the world as Utterson is. Lanyon writes about his discovery... ... middle of paper ... ...ssons of the classic story. Below are a couple sample topics: A. Discuss the importance of the themes to the story, especially dualism and reputation, but also some others. B. Discuss the ways in which Jekyll plays God and the consequences he receives for doing so. C. Discuss the lesson to be taken away from the story. Journal topics 1. Describe someone frightening. (looks, actions, posture) 2. What and who would be in your will? 3. Describe fictional deaths. Why would the author write them exactly so? 4. Theorize the possible reason for Jekyll’s seclusion. 5. If you thought a loved on was in possible danger, would you risk your own safety for theirs, or get help so you could have a better chance? 6. If you had to trust one person with your biggest secret, who would it be and why? 7. What are your two sides, and which would you choose if you could only be one.
Robert Louis Stevenson shows a marvelous ability to portray. He depicts the surroundings, architectural details of the dwellings, the inside of the houses, the instruments and each part of the environment in detail. He even specifies that the laboratory door is “covered with red baize” (p.24). Not only does he offer a precise picture of the setting, but also he draws accurately the characters. About 200 words are used in order to describe Mr. Utterson the lawyer (p.5). Dr.Lanyon, the gentleman who befriends Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll, is described as “a healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white.” (p.12). Each of the characters are described according to their importance in the novella. Each of them except
When Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll are first together in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson describes Dr. Jekyll as, "-a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast, perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness-- (12)." We are also told that Dr. Jekyll has a handsome face (13). Through the text, we learn that Dr. Jekyll was a hardworking, likable gentleman with a deep interest in science.
Mr Hyde is the evil side of Dr Jekyll, but he is restrained from being
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.
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
Mr. Hyde is the monstrous side of Dr. Jekyll from their book “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” In their story, Dr. Jekyll is a brilliant scientist who has created a formula that turns him into Mr. Hyde. It is stated that, at some point, Dr. Jekyll became addicted to the potion. Though it is unclear what would cause the addiction, since it would be Hyde who would experience the “high” and not Jekyll himself. Hyde is the contrast to Dr. Jekyll, and is considerably more brutal and immoral. Modern incarnations depict him as becoming incredibly muscular after the transformation, though in the original work it is only implied that Hyde is stronger, retaining his previous physique. It is consistent that Hyde is shown to be ugly, perhaps even deformed.
The story takes place during the Victorian age, a time when there were only two categories of people: good people and bad people. There was no way that one man could be considered acceptable without suppressing his evil side almost entirely. The reason that Jekyll restrained his evil side for so long was because of this dichotomous Victorian society. Most people, including Jekyll’s friends, Lanyon and Utterson, are content to stay molded in this ideal. However, Dr. Jekyll soon became tired of this hypocritical mindset and stated that he “it was rather the exacting nature of my aspirations.
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.
Though Hyde is pure evil, Jekyll is not pure goodness; he is still the same old conflicted mix of both good and evil. To cover his tracks, Jekyll rented a room for Hyde, opened a bank account in his name, and explained to his household servants that Hyde was to be allowed to freely come and go through the house. Hyde was even made Jekyll’s sole heir. At first, Jekyll delights in having his alter ego. Through Hyde, he can live out his fantasies of doing whatever he pleases, with no consequences, seeing as how he has but to drink the potion to make Hyde disappear. No accountability for Hyde’s
Henry Jekyll’s innermost vices, but since he held himself to an extremely high standard of moral excellence, he needed to find another way of releasing. He creates Hyde as his way of getting these primal urges out. During this time period, the focus on reputation and credibility was huge, and this is how men were judged. He had many urges that he was internally repressing, as a result of existing in the Victorian era, which was well known for how incredibly stuffy and repressed it was. Jekyll was widely respected in the community as a doctor and he had many friends, so it is understandable that he didn’t want to lose his reputation, which came first for men of his social standing in this time period. He went to great lengths to create and cover for Hyde, including renting a place for Hyde to live, and making a bank account for his alter ego. The creation of Hyde turns out to be way more sinister than Jekyll initially imagined. Hyde’s own name is a pun, as he is the part of Jekyll that he must keep hidden away for fear of
his double, Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll is a caring person. Mr Hyde is evil. It
Mr Hyde represents the evil side of the personality where Dr Jekyll corresponds to the good side.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a little different then Frankenstein in a way that the monster isn’t identified as a monster as much for his appearance as he is for his actions. Dr. Jekyll was a scientist and as a scientist he had to keep and good name but he didn’t want to be good he want to be bad. So, he decided he would have two personalities. Thinking that if he had two personalities he could be good and evil. He made a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. So, He could do all those bad things that he wanted to do but then had a way to cover it up by saying it was someone else. But, eventually this plan got out of hand yes, he had two personalities of Dr. Jekyll being the good doctor and then Mr. Hyde being the murder, but he started no being able to control when he was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He fears that he will turn into Jekyll permanently. Society doesn’t except this because your not supposed to be two different people. Trying to be two different people is monstrous because that just doesn’t happen and him to think that is okay is monstrous. Also, for him to murder people makes him a monster. By Dr. Jekyll’s friend starting to get suspicious about this situation drive Dr. Jekyll to worry then, he turns back to Mr. Hyde and thinks it’s a good idea to kill himself. So, society drove his monstrosity to kill himself, which made him to continue to be a
Robert Louis Stevenson was the only child of Thomas and Margret Stevenson. Thomas Stevenson was a Scottish lighthouse designer and meteorologist. He designed over thirty lighthouses in and around Scotland during his lifetime. Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 13, 1850. Stevenson had weak lungs since birth. When he was two, a woman named Alison Cunningham joined the family to become his nurse. She had an impact on Stevenson which he later dedicates, A Child’s Garden of Verses to Alice after she passed away. Stevenson was bedridden when he was a young boy. He later, fought through the
Two individuals, who would seem so different, are more alike then one might think. The similarities between the two are undeniable. Both Characters are from England and from roughly the same period. The two characters may live differently but require the same fulfillment. First you have Dr. Jekyll whose a pillar of his community, a well-regarded man of wealth and proper upbringing, the host of many social functions, competitive, and is described as " a large, well made, smooth faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish cast" (12). Still with all of his financial, business, and social successes Dr. Jekyll is alone, and hides behind his only true power, knowledge.