Throughout many works of literature, a prominent theme has been “Good vs. Evil';. Many authors base the plot of their novels around “good guys'; fighting the “villain';.Robert Louis Stevenson contrasts good and evil through many of the characters thathe creates.
In the story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde';, Stevensoncontrasts the characters of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde to further the theme “Good vs. Evil';. This theme is common to many of Stevenson’s other works. In TreasureIsland, Stevenson uses the character Long John Silver to bring out this identicalidea. Long John Silver in many ways can be viewed the classic villain. But, whilereading this novel, one must be aware of the many other facets of Silver’spersonality that bring out his good nature. In Treasure Island and “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde';, Robert Louis Stevenson incorporates the theme “Good vs. Evil'; in both of these stories through the split personalities of both Long John Silver, and Dr. Jekyll.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s theme of “Good vs. Evil'; is prominent in the novel Treasure Island. This story begins by introducing the protagonist of the novel Jim Hawkins. Jim works at an inn, which his mother owns. An old buccaneer is staying there by the name of Billy Bones who possesses a mysterious sea chest, which many people seem to want. While he was staying at the inn, many people attempted to steal the chest from the buccaneer. Billy Bones is a very heavy drinker, which may have been the cause of his death while staying at the inn. After the death, Jim’s curiosity for the old chest overwhelms him. Jim opens up the chest and finds to his pleasure an old treasure map. Jim immediately brings the map to
Dr. Livesey, a friend of Jim’s family. Dr. Livesey and Jim decide to gather up a crew and sail to Treasure Island aboard the Hispanola to find the buried treasure. While looking for a cook, Dr. Livesey comes across a man by the name of Long John Silver. Because of Silver’s vast knowledge of the sea and his great cooking, he is named the head chef of the ship. Silver has other plans in mind though. As soon as he boards the ship, Jim sees him as a nice, intelligent man. This all quickly changes as he ove...
... middle of paper ...
...ry Jekyll to an end'; (Jekyll p62).
Henry Jelkyll’s character is one full of uncanny genius, stubborn curiosity, and towards the end of the story unfortunately, despair. Hyde’s character is the complete opposite, one of malignancy and immorality. Jekyll’s genuine righteousness is exemplified by his own struggle with Mr. Hyde and eventually with his self-destruction. He realizes that Hyde will not cease his continuous onslaught of crimes, and pays the ultimate price for the well being of his friends and community.
While one may say that suicide is an act of selfishness, Jekyll’s suicide must be looked upon as an honorable discharge from his life of woe.
These two stories discuss the continuous battle between right and wrong which we encounter every day. Whether at work, school, or on a ship hunting for treasure, the choice between right and wrong will be made. Stevenson composed both of these pieces with that very idea in mind. The split personalities of Jekyll and Silver are fictional, but they represent the many daily temptations which all of us must resist every day of our lives.
Within every being exists temptations, whether it be quiescent or dynamic, which fluctuates from one individual to another. Commonly negative, temptations ascend from lesser qualities of man and expose an individual to develop even more reprehensible ambitions. The story of a one man’s dark wishes is explored in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. Properly termed, Stevenson perused the unnerving case of a respectable, proletariat-class doctor, who becomes associated and obsessed with Mr Hyde. It is this presence of the “duality of human nature that is created consistently throughout the Gothic Literature”.
The sense of conflict being created through disapproval portrays duality that the Victorians had at the period; it is almost as if they were in a dilemma and confusion in deciding which element of sanity to maintain. Stevenson wrote the story to articulate his idea of the duality of human nature, sharing the mixture good and evil that lies within every human being. In the novel Mr Hyde represents the evil part of a person and of Dr Jekyll.
...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.
Jekyll started out stronger than Hyde, but the longer he stayed Hyde, the more he enjoyed what he was doing as Hyde. This shows how humans will indulge in sins even if it meant eternal damnation.
In Children’s literature, the characters are good or bad. The author attempts to teach the children without confusing them. They are learning right from wrong when doing this. In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Clive Staples Lewis uses this in his novel with his characters. “He parallels the difference between right and wrong” (“Faith”). In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis shows good vs. evil and the archetypes hero and villain in his novel.
As people live their lives, they will be met with various partial truths and misleading pieces of evidence, but Shakespeare reminds us in Macbeth that people should be cautious of the words they believe. They should judge the speaker’s character before they accept anything spoken by them even if there is partial truth in the words being spoken. Set in eleventh century Great Britain, Macbeth begins with the titular character, Macbeth, killing the armies of the Irish and Norwegians for his king, Duncan. He then receives a prophecy from three witches that he will be the future king of Scotland, which leads him down a dark and bloodied road. Deception is a key theme of this book for it is how the protagonist, Macbeth, is lead astray from loyalty to his king.
Hyde is also responsible, but less, for the death of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, because he caused Jekyll to be so ashamed and feel that the only way out was to take the poison and sacrifice himself. The text states that in Jekyll’s confession, it says that he, (Jekyll), kept trying to keep Jekyll there and was so ashamed of Hyde, who caused it. This evidence proves that Hyde influenced Jekyll to feel this way, because he made Jekyll feel so bad that he took the poison to kill Hyde after all his evil acts. Furthermore, the text shows that Hyde’s characteristic of boldness and risk-taking shows that he didn’t commit suicide to avoid being caught, that Jekyll killed him and sacrificed himself. This evidence proves that Hyde was partially responsible for his own and Jekyll’s death because in order to stop all that he and Hyde had done, Jekyll killed him. On the other hand, Jekyll created Hyde, so Hyde couldn’t have been even partially responsible. However, Hyde eventually overpowered Jekyll’s decisions, which caused Jekyll to be very ashamed and to feel that he need to sacrifice himself to stop all that Hyde was
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the author Robert Louis Stevenson uses Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to show the human duality. Everyone has a split personality, good and evil. Stevenson presents Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as two separate characters, instead of just one. Dr. Jekyll symbolizes the human composite of a person while Mr. Hyde symbolizes the absolute evil. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who are indeed the same person, present good and evil throughout the novel.
...im decides to tell Long John everything he did to try to ruin his plan to find the treasure he spares Jim’s life even though the other pirates want him dead. Long John also decides to stand by Jim even though he has a feeling his crew is going to take him out of his captain position. Jim shows a lot of courage and that he’s a man of his word when he is given the opportunity to run away but instead he decides to stay because he gave Long John his word that he will help him through his trial. Jim is taken to where the treasure is believed to be but when they dig up the area there was no treasure. The treasure is later discovered at site where Ben Gunn has hidden it. The reasons I mentioned earlier steers Jim in the right direction of the treasure because of him not trusting Long John but instead using his smarts and his very high maturity level to find the treasure.
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.
From reading the last chapter, we can all see that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are easily viewed as a symbol about the good and evil that exists in all men, and about the struggle these two sides in the human personality. Hyde has a short temper and is made to look evil. “I observed that when I wore the semblance of Edward Hyde, none could come near me at first with a visible misgiving of the flesh”. Jekyll is arguing that Hyde is the perfect physical embodiment of the evil inside him, implying that Hyde looks evil. Stevenson has also explored which aspect of human personality is superior, good or evil. Since at the start of the book Hyde seems to be taking over, you might argue that evil is stronger than good. However, Hyde does end up dead at the end of the story, suggesting a failure of the weakness of evil. Since Hyde represents the evil in Jekyll he is therefore symbolically represented being much smaller than Jekyll as “Jekyll’s clothes are far too large for him”. But as the plot progresses Mr. Hyde began to grow and becomes more powerful than Jekyll, and the reason for Hyde to become more powerful is due to the fact that Jekyll enjoys what Hyde does, which allow Hyde to gradually destroy the good in
As Jekyll reached adult hood, he found himself living a dual life. He had become more curious in discovering his other side. Jekyll insists, “Man is not truly one, but truly two” (125). This eventually led Jekyll into the scientific interests of separating his good and evil side, and he finds a chemical concoction that transforms him into a more wicked man, Edward Hyde. At first, Hyde was of pure impulse, but in the end, he became dominate and took control over Jekyll. Jekyll had never intended to hurt anyone, but he was aware that something could potentially go wrong. Jekyll presumes, “I knew well that I risked death, for any drug that so potently shook the very fortress of identity… utterly blot that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change” (127-129). One could say this makes Jekyll equally as menacing as Hyde. Jekyll couldn’t control the imbalance between the two natures. Jekyll foolishly allowed his evil side to flourish and become stronger. This is shown when Jekyll has awoken to find that he has turned into Hyde without taking the solution. Jekyll says, “But the hand in which I now saw, clearly enough in the yellow light of a mid- London morning…It was the hand of Edward Hyde” (139).
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson primarily to portray the ‘dual’ nature of man and presented in numerous perspectives and point of views. These various methods of presenting a story all have particular uses and benefits which Stevenson exploits to the full in presenting a story that seeks to establish the fact of the duality of man and argues how if not properly harnessed and controlled, one of the ‘parts’ would ultimately subdue the other and collect more authority on the life and actions of the person whom they interplay. However there are 3 major types of narrations that are clearly indicated in the story of Dr.jekyll and Mr. Hyde. These are the third person narrative, framed narrative, and the personal narrative.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a selfish Scottish thane becomes over-ambitious and commits several murders in order to gain and stay in power. After the murders, Macbeth evades suspicion by hiding his guilt and intentions, therefore deceiving others into thinking that he is innocent. Other characters including Lady Macbeth, the witches and the Scottish thanes also use their appearances to hide the truth and deceive others. With these examples, Shakespeare shows that appearances can be deceiving.
The profession of Social work is a unique and diverse field in that it has the capacity to reach many different individuals in many different aspects of their lives. Growing up with six siblings and being confined to a small three bedroom apartment, while my mother worked multiple jobs to provide for her children, often times I became reliant on others to guide me. In retrospect of my childhood, I have personally been affected by social workers, and each of them treated my family with such professionalism. These individuals who impacted my life, did not realize the blessings they were bestowing upon me. Little did they recognize, they forever enriched my life. I desire to do the same for others. I yearn to not only become a professional at promoting the well-being of others, but also making a long-term difference for others.