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Robert louis stevenson the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde analysis
Strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde stevenson intention about the story
Suppression and repression in dr jekyll and mr hyde
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A study of Robert Louis Stevenson’s use of settings, characters and symbolism in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and MR Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson was born on the November 13th, 1850 in
Edinburgh as the son of Thomas Stevenson, joint-engineer to the Board of Northern Lighthouses. Since his childhood Stevenson suffered from tuberculosis. In 1867 he entered Edinburgh University to study engineering, but soon changed to law and then devoted his life to writing. He had a wife Fanny, whom he married in 1880. He ended his life as a tribal leader in Vailima, in Samoa before he died on
December 3, 1894. Stevenson died of a brain hemorrhage, aged 44.
The symbolism starts with his birth place Edinburgh, it has a new town and an old town,
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There are some phrase’s though that taking a bit of thinking about “the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled vapours” (page 23) What does it mean? Well I think that something is being disrupted in the air this phrase also has an example of personification in it ‘charging’ is personified. These are also examples of pathetic fallacy.
There is also a lot of violent and pessimistic vocabulary used about
Soho it is described as haggard and needs life putting back into it.
It’s a dismal, muddy and gloomiest place in London probably in the country. I think that Soho and London are like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Soho is the impure dismal extraction from London. So all the bad parts of London are put into this one area so that the rest of London is nice but we all know that I cant be completely pure. Soho and Hyde are the parts that we want to enjoy but we know we shouldn’t in Soho there might be prostitutes and Hyde might have take drugs they are things we shouldn’t do but that we
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In the Victorian era there was a lot of suppression and it’s like Dr
Jekyll’s evil has been suppressed into this one character but this evil is suppressed so much that it burst’s out even bigger than it was in the first place. I think this is also another use of symbolism because when you suppress something it becomes small and Mr Hyde is a very small person and has some of Dr Jekyll’s evilness in suppressed in him.
Mr Utterson is a very honest man and doesn’t let out other peoples secrets and is also the keeper of Dr Jekyll’s will which shows that he must be a very trusted man which you would hope he is as he’s a lawyer. I think he is also a very noisy man as he’s the one that see’s something through the window and he’s the one that goes and breaks down Dr Jekyll’s door to the laboratory. He is man that you become to like and is liked by others he is also a very respectable man most likely because he’s a lawyer.
Dr Lanyon is a man that likes to live life as a bit of a poser really very theatrical I picture him as the type of guy who is in ‘the’ bars and leads a very high class live in society also he would have all new nice clothes and the right friends a gentleman I also think that
town was just a small hamlet the only protection from the sea was by a
town they were heading to, he must come back to the pond and hide in
his whole life, and he feels as though he is to far distant from the town
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
well of not been there as he owned a pub outside of the town so he
Stevenson uses a combination of: horror, supernatural, moral messages, and mysteries. The use of horror captures us because it’s normally shocking and frightening to think about. When you combine that with mystery you get an effect that makes you feel edgy and nervous to read on but you want to read on because if you don’t you’ll never get the answers to your questions. His uses of moral messages is effective in keeping the reader’s interest because it will make the reader question and doubt themselves on things because they might feel more like Hyde than they would like to.
In conclusion, Stevenson expressed his thoughts on the attributes of loyalty, how friendship contributes to loyalty, and how his own life affected his writing on loyalty extremely well. His writing techniques were very creative, he truly has a skill for setting a deeper meaning.
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!
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.
To be given the proud name of a "spa town" the town would need to have
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the reader is given vivid (and often depressing) images of London's East End:
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...
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.
we deny our bad side. It looks at a doctor called Dr Jekyll who feels
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.