Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be read in a number of ways through any number of different lenses, which makes for a versatile novella, and an interesting read for just about anyone. It also makes for a great novel with which to learn literary analysis. Using The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde one can see how Freudian psychoanalysis, though it had not been so developed at the time of the novel can intersect with homosexual undertones, and how the manifestations of the repressed can come to light when the subject of homosexuality is not properly addressed. The novella was published in1886, placing it in terms of history toward the end of the Victorian era. The Victorian
This is not to say that there are no women present in the novella at all, but however the way in which they are introduced and portrayed is interesting in itself. The heart of the novel is an all male cast of characters, and they all are of certain esteem. Utterson is a lawyer, Jekyll and Lanyon are doctors, and all of the men that are depicted in the novel are well known men around London. There are very few women present at all throughout the novel, in total we see about 4-5 instances in the novella where a woman is present. “As far as the plot is concerned, in the community of celibates Stevenson created, none of the male characters has the slightest relationship with a female friend or relative. The few female characters appear only ephemerally and their names and background remain mysterious to readers.” (Shuo 124) The women that are shown, happen to have no names, and are in professions such as maid and housekeeper. The audience is introduced to no female characters in relation to any of the male characters, no wives, no sisters, no mothers. In fact, in one instance of the female representation, it is a representation of the violence against women. This happens when Hyde meets the child in the street, and subsequently tramples her and leaves her “screeching on the ground.” Though she is not seriously injured, it severely scars her mentally, as she is a child of only about eight or nine
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
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
In total, the female characters are always victimized because of their qualities and gender. In conclusion, by destroying the female characters, Mary Shelly alludes to the idea that women are always in victimized positions in society. In conclusion, most of the female characters are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited.
The time period plays an important role that pushes Jekyll to create the potion, so he can do the sins everyone has within. Evil which is not associated with wealth is hidden, and Hyde takes advantage of this. He uses his position, and makes the best of it to get away with his misdeeds. In the movie Hyde and Jekyll are shown hurting women; the director uses this to create a different kind of evil, that is more universally understood. The audience is either a female, or has a female family member. While watching the movie he wanted to make the audience despise Hyde and want to help Ivy and Beatrix. Ultimately the nature of evil, and the split of Jekyll’s identity lead to his
For it is a commonplace of our understanding of the period that the Victorian writer wanted above all to “stay in touch.” Comparing his situation with that of his immediate predecessors, he recognized that indulgence in a self-centered idealism was no longer viable in a society which ever more insistently urged total involvement in its occupations. The world was waiting to be improved upon, and solved, and everyone, poets, included had to busy themsel...
“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.
All three of the main women’s roles are marginalized and reduced in importance, the entire plot of the poem rests on Morgan le Fay, who is introduced at the end of the play with a handful of lines, Lady Bertilak, who is reduced to how the men around her feel about her, and Guenevere, who is another extremely important character mentioned only in a few lines.
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.
Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’
Benjamin Franklin once said, “It is much easier to suppress a first desire than it is to satisfy those that follow.” This is certainly true in the situation of Dr. Jekyll, as the temptation of becoming Mr. Hyde becomes stronger as he continually surrenders to the wickedness that is constantly misleading him. Mr. Hyde is never contented, even after murdering numerous innocents, but on the contrary, his depravity is further intensified. The significance of the repression of a desire is a prevalent theme throughout the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, as the inability to repress one’s curiosity can lead to a fatal end, whereas the repression of a desire that can no longer contain itself, or the repression of confronting a guilty conscience, will conclude in a tragic ending and in this case specifically,
...Piercy badgers the reader with Comstock's view of women (mostly in the descriptions of his dutiful wife and obedient daughter) to illustrate his sexism, however, the belabored point begins to fall flat and instead leaves the character feeling one-dimensional. Likewise, even men initially introduced to the reader as pro-feminist, like Theodore Tilton, meet with a predictable sexist ending. These men were no doubt chosen to embody the patriarchal society of then and today, but the unyielding portrayal began to feel overwhelmingly oppressive (perhaps her intent) and a novel so based in realism, on that point, began to feel contrived, therefore unrealistic. Nevertheless, Piercy compares and contrasts the experiences of the characters', offering them up to the reader, perhaps in hope that similarities can be identified and a feminist dialogue can be started or continued.
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.
Penny Fielding highlights his point of view on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that the novel paints ‘a damning portrait of society defined by repression and its inevitable twin, hypocrisy’. Fielding also insists later that the relation between repression and hypocrisy is one theme of this novel that cannot be overlooked. This opinion can be approved of a truth after reading the novel. Repression and hypocrisy run through the whole story which reflect on descriptions of every character. In this essay, I will focus on the repression and hypocrisy that appear to be connected in the novel by analyzing the background and main characters. Especially, I will quote some fragments from the novel to discuss in details.
Jekyll himself. Dr. Jekyll is a symbol of both the good and the bad in mankind, while Mr. Hyde represents pure evil. For instance, when Dr. Jekyll is himself, he is seen as a respectable man who is adored by his colleagues: “he became once more their familiar quest and entertainer; and whilst he had always been known for his charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion” (Stevenson 29). However, when Dr. Jekyll transforms to Mr. Hyde his morals are quickly disregarded. An example of this occurs when Mr. Hyde murders Sir Danvers, shortly after Dr. Jekyll submits to the temptation of changing to Mr. Hyde: “instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me…with a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow” (Stevenson 56). Even though the carnal side of Dr. Jekyll enjoys the incident, this event also illustrates the conscience side of Dr. Jekyll because in the mist of this brutal murder, he begins to feel guilty for committing the crime. 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
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.
Can you imagine Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein, the great work of literature, without, for example, such female characters as Mrs. Margaret Saville, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Justine Moritz? In this case the novel will have no meaning. All the women help to develop the plot, and without them Frankenstein will lose its spirit. Although these heroines have a lot in common in their characters: they are all strong-willed, kind, careful, and selfless, at the same time, each of them is unique, and each plays her own role in the novel. Mrs. Margaret Saville is the woman to whom the narrator tells the story. Elizabeth Lavenza is the beloved of Victor Frankenstein. Justine Moritz is the heroine who is accused by mistake of murdering William and executed instead of the fiend. There is close connection between the female and male characters, and if we break it, Frankenstein will have no sense. The author of the novel, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, characterizes the women in the same way as the men, and shows that they are independent players. So, the female characters in Frankenstein are as important as the male ones.