Critical Perception Of Mary Reilly: Critical Reception

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Mary Reilly: Critical Reception According to Addie Lee, She gives credit to Valerie Martin for the creation of the characters and the details give the novel a historical likelihood. Mary Reilly is a trustworthy servant that writes in her diary which leads to a tragic tale about Dr. Jekyll. Mary symbolizes goodness and honesty where Jekyll double, Mr. Hyde, represents the opposite, which he has two sides of his personality which is very complex (256). For example, Mr. Hyde has a sexual drive towards Mary when he bites her on the neck and then parts her lips with his bleeding fingers. His other personality is a resemblance of Mary father and how emotionally attached they were to Mary. For example, Jekyll says " 'I was thinking how dear your …show more content…

Valerie Martin is trying to create an ancient tale of suspense, in the book Mary Reilly she tells Stevenson’s story from the point of view of Mary Reilly which is Dr. Jekyll’s maidservants. In Kakutani perspective, Mary Reilly was a young girl that was beaten and tortured by her father and now is well equipped to the bitter and mean side of others which then morally is put from different points of view around the adventures of Dr. Jekyll. Mary starts to write in her journal and see him as a gentleman and different from any other man. Kakutani believes this because he is willing to give money and time to the poor. Mary starts to develop deep feelings for Dr. Jekyll by her telling him about her dreadful past and childhood. They both believe that they understand each other and the world around them. While in the Jekyll mansion, Mary hangs photos of her life and describes a small house of Victorian …show more content…

Jekyll. Mary never gets to witness anything violent, but the closest is when she gets to see a room covered in blood when Hype killed a prostitute or when Mary gets locked up in a closet full of rats by her father. Gates notices that Mary said the same quote, “Please, sir. Do not do this” to Hyde when he bites her, just like when her father locked her in a room full of rats

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