Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde “has left such a deeply painful impression on my heart that I do not know how I am ever to turn it again” -- Valdine Clemens
That which is willed and that which is wanted can be as different as the mind and the heart. The Victorian age in English Literature is known for its earnest obedience to a moralistic and highly structured social code of conduct; however, in the last decade of the 19th Century this order began to be questioned. So dramatic was the change in thought that Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (published in 1883) and Doyle's The Sign of Four (published in 1890) can be used to display this breaking away from strict social and moral standards. Stevenson's character Mr. Utterson can be used to personify the earnest social morality that the Victorian age is known for, while Doyle's protagonist Sherlock Holmes personifies the shift to more individualistic pursuits. In their search for answers, Mr. Utterson and Sherlock Holmes exhibit very different motivations for investigating: the fulfillment of social and moral obligations, and personal satisfaction, respectively. This can be shown by comparing and contrasting these two characters' reasons for getting involved, their methods of dispensing information during their investigations, and their results at the cases' conclusions.
The characters' actions in the first paragraphs of each of these works is very revealing; Sherlock Holmes is injecting himself with cocaine and Mr. Utterson is described as having resisted the theater (that he enjoys) for over twenty years. From these beginnings, it is obvious who the pleasure seeker is and who adheres to a strong sense of morals. Although Mr. Utt...
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... Valdine. The Return of the Repressed: Gothic Horror from The Castle of Otranto to Alien. Albany: State University of New York, 1999. Print.
Doyle, Conan. The Sign of Four in The Complete Sherlock Holmes Barnes & Noble, Dayton, New Jersey, 1988.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales Of Horror. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
Works Consulted
Charyn, Jerome. “Who Is Hyde?” Afterword: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Bantam Books. Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1981. 105-114.
Hume, David. “Of Moral and Social order.” An Introduction to Philosophy. Ed. G. Lee Bowie, Meredith W. Michaels and Robert C. Solomon. 4th ed. Harcourt College Publishers, 2000. 348-352
Mighall, Dr. Robert. A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction: Mapping History’s Nightmares. Oxford University Press, 1999. 166-209.
Stevenson focuses on two different characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but in reality these are not separate men, they are two different aspects of one man’s reality. In the story, Dr. Je...
Gates, Barbara. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Victorianweb.com n. pag. Web. 3 Apr 2011.
The major characters in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison were Pecola Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, Claudia Mac...
Borderline personality disorder is a hard-mental disease to diagnose, according to The National Institute of Mental health the definition of borderline personality disorder is: “… a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning. These experiences often result in impulsive actions and unstable relationships” (pg 1). When we look at that definition alone this is a very vague description of the disorder that anyone that is experiencing just a rough time in life, can be diagnosed with this mental disorder. Roughly about 3 million Americans are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder a year. To find out who really has this mental disorder we should look at case studies,
According to the DSM-5, Personality Disorders are characterized by “impairments in personality functioning and the presence of pathological personality traits”. Borderline Personality Disorder is one of ten personality disorders listed in the DSM-5. The DSM-5 lists several criteria that must be met in order for someone to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. They are quoted as follows:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson during the Late Victorian era. Although "this horror story owes its allegiance to Gothicism rather than realism, many critics suggest that Robert Louis Stevenson 's tale of a man split between his respectable public identity and an amoral secret self captures key anxieties of the fin de siècle" (Norton 1669). The Late Victorian era was “the state of mind prevailing during the final decades of the nineteenth century” (Norton 1668). In the story of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, there are some reflects of the breakdown of Victorian values that took there undergo of their citizen responsibility as a whole.
In conclusion, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, represents many themes of duality in human nature. This is represented by the characters of Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Hastie Lanyon, and John Utterson. Some themes represented are the duality in conforming to societal conventions, curiosity, and temptation. Stevenson utilizes significant events including the deaths of Lanyon and Jekyll, and the transformations of Jekyll into Hyde to prove “that man is not truly one, but two” (125)
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde London: Longmans, Green & co. 1886 Print
The history of BPD can be traced back to 1938 when Adolph Stern first described the symptoms of the disorder as neither being psychotic nor psychoneurotic; hence, the term ‘borderline’ was introduced (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15). Then in 1960, Otto Kernberg coined the term ‘borderline personality organization’ to describe persistent patterns of behavior and functioning consisting of instability, and distressed psychological self-organization (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15).
Diagnosis is extremely hard with borderline personality disorder because so many of the symptoms overlap into other mental illnesses. The DSM-IV has distinct criteria. The National Institute of Health lists the following as the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder: a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self image, and affects and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts as indicated by five or more of the following:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by author Robert Louis Stevenson is a novel about a man who
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.
The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles by John Smith, portrays the enormous troubles the settlers were faced with by the Native Americans. He explains how he was captured by Indians and also saved by a young Native American girl, Pocahontas. He vividly describes the ceremonies and rituals of the Natives performed before his execution. However, the execution never occurred due to the tremendous mercy showed by the king’s daughter who blanketed John Smith’s body her own. Pocahontas went on to persuade the Native Americans to help the settlers by giving them food and other necessities. Despite her efforts to reach peaceful grounds, her people were still bitter and planned an attacks on the colony. Nevertheless, Pocahontas saved them once again by warning the settlers of attacks. Pocahontas went on to marry an Englishman and traveled to England. She resembled the prosperity and good that was to be found in an untamed land.
Shmoop Editorial Team, ‘Mr. Gabriel Utterson in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ Shmoop University, Inc., 11 (2008) < http://www.shmoop.com/jekyll-and-hyde/mr-gabriel-utterson.html> (accessed December 6, 2013).
Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Katherine Linehan. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: an