The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson as a Work of Horror Fiction
Horror fiction in the 21st century has evolved far from its origins,
to the extent where classic horror novels of the Victorian Era are
considered to be parodies of how people perceive horror today. The
novel 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", which stands
alongside classics such as Dracula and Frankenstein, is a powerful
ethical symbol that suggests the shadowy nature of human personality.
The reading of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to a modern audience would no
longer hold the ability to shock and scare the reader, whereas this
was its main aim at the time of the production. It is therefore
important to consider the ways in which the definition of horror and
how people recognise horror has changed over time. This essay will
establish the ways in which this has happened, and also comment on
aspects of the text which horrified readers of the 19th century in
England.
Firstly, this essay will comment upon the character of Mr Hyde. The
personification of Jekyll's dark, ungratified desires, Hyde creates
havoc and eventually overpowers his 'civilized' alter ego.
In the 19th century, Hyde's appearance and the behaviour he
demonstrates throughout the text would have stunned a 19th century
audience, as the manners he conducts were beyond the acceptable level
of society. Early on in the text, Hyde is described as 'some damned
juggernaut'. This was subsequent to the unpleasant incident in 'Story
of the Door' wherein Hyde commits an appalling crime, witnessed by
another character in the text. In this incident, Hyde intentionally
causes harm...
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...ques used.
In conclusion to this, I think that in the Victorian Era Dr Jekyll and
Mr Hyde would have been equipped with the relevant information to
shock and scare the audience in which it would have been aimed at. I
also think that each aspect of the text helped to achieve this, for
example through violence, the character of Mr Hyde, mystery and
suspense and setting and atmosphere. The fact is that Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde would no longer be relevant to a modern day audience as times
have changed dramatically, and how people perceived horror then, has
changed now. Although the text helped to define the key conventions of
a horror story, these alone are no longer shocking to a modern
audience as they would have been to those of the Victorian Era, The
genre has had to more on, and evolve to maintain its original purpose.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publishing, Inc., 1991.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. First Vintage Classics Edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of this novella has written it very cleverly, with certain techniques used that have a greater impact on the reader and ones that make it more than just any thriller/shocker. Every novella has a purpose to it and so does this story, the purpose of this novella has been made to narrative the reader and it is quite clearly reflecting the genre of the thriller/shocker. As well as this the novella has been made as a shilling shocker which depends on sensationalism and represents an immoral lifestyle that may include violence in extremity.
myself. Here, then, as I lay down the pen, and proceed to seal up my
“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.
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.
Innocence is a trap. It is strangled with the ideals of perfection and suffocates the cravings of curiosity. Goodness is expectant and evil is poisonous. However, good and evil resides in even the most innocent of people. Both are nefarious and pestilent to easily corrupt targeted souls in sinister actions. Both equate to uncontrollable factors. Goodness tends to covet the sensations of evil since it depreciates its own purity. In the oscillating novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, goodness was trapped by evil just as Jekyll was trapped as Hyde. Jekyll’s pure spirituality desired the holy richness of evil and all its wrongdoings. His laboratory experiments discovered his desire to feel the sensation of evil without truly being evil. His laboratory experiments discovered a way for him to escape. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fought the battle between good and evil proving the apparent strengths and weaknesses that overall transformed two souls into a single corpse.
Robert, Stevenson L. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publications, 2013. Print.
Page, Norman. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson." Encyclopedia of the Novel. Eds. Paul Schellinger, Christopher Hudson, and Marijke Rijsberman. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998.
In this essay on the story of Jekyll and Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson I will try to unravel the true meaning of the book and get inside the characters in the story created by Stevenson. A story of a man battling with his double personality.
To what extent can the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde be? viewed as a gothic novel? Jekyll and Hyde is a gothic novel. It was written by Robert Louis. Stevenson, he got the idea for the story after a dream he had.
Stevenson Robert L., Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales. (USA: oxford university press, 2008)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a riveting tale of how one man uncovers, through scientific experiments, the dual nature within himself. Robert Louis Stevenson uses the story to suggest that this human duality is housed inside everyone. The story reveals “that man is not truly one, but two” (Robert Louis Stevenson, 125). He uses the characters of Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Dr. Lanyon, and Mr. Utterson to portray this concept. He also utilizes important events, such as the death of Dr. Jekyll and the death of Mr. Lanyon in his exploration of the topic.
we deny our bad side. It looks at a doctor called Dr Jekyll who feels
Stevenson, Robert L. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Norton Anthology of