How Does Robert Louis Stevenson use literary techniques to illustrate

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How Does Robert Louis Stevenson use literary techniques to illustrate

the social, historical and moral points he is trying to make in Dr

Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

Throughout the Novella, ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, the author Robert

Louis Stevenson uses a wide range of literary techniques in a skilful

and sophisticated way to help achieve his effects and put his points

across. Stevenson’s unique use of language is vital to the success of

the Novella, with the structural and linguistic devices playing a

vital part in creating the unusual atmosphere, which makes the Novella

so successful. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde centres upon a conception of

humanity as dual in nature, although the theme does not emerge fully

until the last chapter, when the complete story of Jekyll – Hyde

relationship is revealed. Robert Louis Stevenson had a very strict

moral upbringing living in the nineteenth century, where class and

social standing were very important in such a rigid system. The fact

that he had such a religious background perhaps creates a link between

the main moral point of good and evil and his disciplined religious

upbringing, the bible teaching the importance of good and evil, and

the seven deadly sins. He uses a variety of techniques to put across

his views across on many social, historical and moral points.

Throughout the novella the author gives the readers an insight into

the morality of human nature by using different characters to

represent the double standards of society in the Victorian era. The

different language used for each of the main characters in the book is

used to emphasise the character and their role in the Novella.

Utterson, the lawyer, is described in the opening sentence of the book

‘cold, scanty, a...

... middle of paper ...

...t that Stevenson had such

a religious background perhaps creates a link between the main moral

point of good and evil and his disciplined religious upbringing. This

may have influenced him in his writing, (the bible teaching the

importance of good and evil, and the seven deadly sins). The Gothic

horror has been compared particularly to the detective fiction of

Sherlock Holmes, with both works being written in the same period of

the Victorian era. It is a testimony to Stevenson’s inventiveness as a

writer that this novella has had this independent existence over a

hundred years after the first book was published. Because of the

uniqueness of the novella and the fact that such a wide range of

literary techniques have been used, it is no surprise that, ‘the

strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, is one of the most famous

works of horror fiction of all time.

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