Strange events lead London attorney, Gabriel John Utterson, along a path of gruesome discovery, about good and evil, friendship and deceit. For a man who attempts to stay away from life’s disruptions, when Utterson finds himself in the midst of dangerous circumstances he loyally confronts evil to protect his friend. When he does, he discovers that it can sometimes be very hard to separate evil from good. Even though he was described as being ‘long and lean’ with a ‘rugged countenance’, Utterson was considered ‘somehow loveable’ (Stevenson 1) he was not one for spontaneity, and enjoyed a steady schedule, one of his favorite events was an evening walk. While on one of their regular Sunday evening strolls, Utterson along with his ‘distant kinsman,’ Richard Enfield, Enfield related a disturbing story to Utterson. As they approached this certain area of town, where thriving shops stood out in the surrounding ‘dingy neighborhood.’ As they came to a certain unsightly door leading into an unkempt, seemingly neglected, two-story building without windows, Enfield recounted the story of an early morning adventure he was involved in with one of the area’s inhabitants. According to Enfield, a man by the name of Hyde, who he described as having a ‘black sneering coldness’ had deliberately trampled over a young girl after they collided at a street corner. Enfield said Hyde simply continued his journey, without regard to the screaming child laying in the street so Enfield said he ran after him, this evildoer and brought him back to face his punishment. This punishment consisted of a bribe, where in a strange manner, the funds were obtained from a friend and client of Utterson, Dr. Henry Jekyll. Saposnik suggests that in the midst of the Victorian... ... middle of paper ... ...on 19). In the midst of these strange circumstances, loyal, steadfast attorney Gabriel John Utterson finds himself trying to protect one friend and grieve the gruesome murder of another, all apparently at the hand of the unlikeable Mr. Hyde. Scientific experimentation and choices made by Jekyll not only caused injury and death, but also brought realization to Utterson that not everything or every person can be so easily plugged into separate columns, one labeled good and the other evil. Works Cited Saposnik, Irving S. “The Anatomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 11.4 (Autumn 1971): 715-731. Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 126. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 May 2014 Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. London: Heinemann U.a., 1924. Print
In Henry Slesar’s classic story “The Right Kind of House”, an old widow named Mrs. Grimes puts her tattered home up for sale with an asking price far more than it’s worth. Her real estate agent assumes she needs the money, living alone and all, but in reality, Mrs. Grimes has a complex plan to locate the man who murdered her son Michael, using the family house as bait. She then hopes to due justice to her son by ending the life of his assassin. Throughout this tale, Mrs. Grimes is best described as willing and clever, as she used her unconditional love for Michael and unsuspected intelligence as motivation to find and kill his murderer, putting herself in danger to succeed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” utilize character responsibilities to create a sinister plot. For Hawthorne, protagonist Young Goodman Brown must leave his wife at home while he partakes in a night journey. For Poe, ancillary Fortunato covets a pretentious manner towards his wine tasting skills, and after being ‘challenged’ decides to prove his expertise by sampling Amontillado. Hawthorne and Poe showcase a theme of darkness but differ in their approach to the setting, characters, and fate of entrapment.
In fact, there was such a multitude of faults that “at night the lights and the infilling darkness served to mask the exposition’s many flaws” (254-255). This statement is extremely ironic to the beliefs of good versus evil, also mentioned as light versus dark. The fact that the darkness, or the evil, hides the flaws of the exposition serves to explain how darkness and immorality is needed to succeed in something as ambitious as the World’s Fair. Larson proves to his audience how momentous figures and events could not be possible without a lack of morality. Likewise, with this ironic statement, he demonstrates how said immorality is dismissed by the public. Irony is also used to convey the true nature of men as opposed to how they let themselves be perceived. Through the entirety of the book, Holmes is a metaphor for such irony. He is described in every scene in which he is present as “charming” and “warm,” but in reality he was a sociopathic serial killer. Others saw him only the way he presented himself, which was approachable, for he kept all of the darkness that festered inside of him hidden. To elaborate on Holme’s manipulative ways, Larson tells a specific story of Holmes taking two children to Indianapolis. When he bought an apartment, he requested help to set up a large wood stove in the house. When asked why he
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publishing, Inc., 1991.
Showalter, Elaine. "The Not So Strange Addiction of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Haunted Mind in Victorian Literature. Eds. Elton E. Smith and Robert Haas. Landham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1999.
Critics pose interesting views concerning the identity and significance of the mysterious third murderer. Henry Irving provides an adamant argument as to how the Attendant could be the third murderer. Irving uses multiple cases in the story where, when interpreted a certain way, one can see how the Attendant is a prime suspect. This man's knowledge of and comfort with the structure and surroundings of the castle shows that he would be a valuable asset to the murderers.
...ve duality of man;… if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” Thus, Stevenson creates in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, two coexistent, and eternally opposed components that make up a “normal” individual. However, here, good and evil are not related but are two independent entities, individuals even, different in mental and physical attributes and constantly at war with each other. Evil now does not require the existence of good to justify itself but it exists simply as itself, and is depicted as being the more powerful, the more enjoyable of the two, and in the end ultimately it is the one that leads to Dr. Jekyll's downfall and death. Stevenson creates the perfect metaphor for the never-ending battle between good and evil by using Jekyll and Hyde. However, this novella is perhaps one of the few that truly show the power of Evil.
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.
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.
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...
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Many mysterious events occur throughout this novel. Stevenson foreshadows the imminent end of Dr. Jekyll in the very beginning. As Utterson reads the will of Dr. Jekyll, he is perplexed by the statement that “in the case of Dr. Jekyll’s disappearance” (6), all of his money will go to Mr. Hyde. This questionable intent of Dr. Jekyll leads the reader to assume that there is something for complex connecting Mr. Hyde with Dr. Jekyll. Utterson not only tries to protect Dr. Jekyll from Mr. Hyde, but Utterson wishes to solve Jekyll’s entire problem. In the first description of Mr. Utterson, the reader learns that he is “inclined to help rather than to reprove” (1). This simple description implies that Utterson will be helping to solve a problem in this novel, though it is not identified whose problem he will try to solve. This also foreshadows a problem in the book; Utterson leads the reader to believe that a horrid situation will arise between Jekyll and Hyde. Mr. Hyde is driven purely by the temptations of evil; the urges that Dr. Jekyll is unable to act on. This temptation causes Mr. Hyde to murder Sir Carew with the wal...
...sner, Mary. "'A Total Subversion of Character': Dr. Jekyll's Moral Insanity." Victorian Newsletter Spring 1998: 27-31. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Vol. 228. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.
Stevenson, Robert L. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Norton Anthology of