The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Author Biography: Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13th, 1850 to (father) Thomas Stevenson and (mother) Margaret Isabella Balfour. Stevenson grew up in Edinburgh. At the age of 17, he enrolled at Edinburgh University where he planned on studying engineering. He instead took courses to study law, and passed all of them in 1875, but he later abandoned this because he wanted to be a writer. His first published work was an essay entitled “Roads.”
Stevenson met his wife, Fanny, in 1876 after traveling out to America. He was twenty-five and she was thirty-six, separated from her husband, and had two children. They married in 1880, which brought a conclusion to his first time writing of his own experiences.
His first published work was An Inland Voyage, which was the story of him traveling by canoe from Antwerp to northern France. The following year, in 1879, Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes was published. This work shared his opinions on society and life. Stevenson also touched on writing short stories and children's literature.
Robert Louis Stevenson passed away in December 1894. A part of his poem, “Requiem” was written on his tomb: “Under the wide and starry sky, / Dig the grave and let me lie.” Stevenson was granted his wish of being buried at the top of Mount Vaea in Samoa.
Character List
Gabriel Utterson:
Mr. Utterson is the narrator of the novel. He is introduced as Dr. Jekyll's lawyer, and he is also known as Jekyll's friend as well as Lanyon. Utterson spends much of the novel concerned for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's well beings. Throughout the novel he is described as “cold,” “lean,” and “dreary,” yet he is still ...
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...cally, if you were to disappear for three consecutive calendar months, would you create a will? Why or why not? Who would you leave your possessions to?
17-29 In what ways do you have an alternate personality? If you seem to believe that you don't, what would your alternate personality be like?
30-35 Predict what Utterson and Poole are going to find behind the door, and justify your prediction.
36-48 How do you think Hyde's death is going to affect Jekyll? What about the rest of the novel?
49-56 Describe (in detail) what your alter ego would look like after drinking the concoction. Do you think the transformation reveals one's true self and/or underlying personality?
57-74 Compare and contrast Jekyll/Hyde with McMurphy using winning vs. losing aspects, personality changes, etc. Give examples.
He opens his talk by giving a story on his own life. He reminisces about his childhood, when he lived in a “typical African American household” with his grandmother as the dominant figure. He talks about who his grandmother his, all of her temperaments and the things he can remember about her. He also discusses the impact she had on his life, and some of the life lessons she taught him. Stevenson most likely opens with this piece to make an emotional connection with the audience, sprinkling in humor and real human emotion. He also uses this piece to provide foreshadowing for the rest of his presentation, as his grandmother’s impact on him is a part of his morals and standards today. I think this is an excellent start to his presentation, it allows him to reveal himself and make his message more meaningful.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a classic story published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is about a man who transforms between two personae: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This novel focuses on Mr. Utterson, a lawyer and friend of Dr. Jekyll’s. The novel starts with John Utterson talking with his other friend who has just witnessed an odd situation. A man identified as Hyde run over a girl, only to pay off her family later with a check from Dr. Jekyll. This situation is made even stranger since Jekyll’s will has recently been changed. Mr. Hyde now stands to inherit everything. Mr. Utterson believing that the two men are separate people, thinks that the cruel Mr. Hyde is some how blackmailing Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Utterson questions Dr. Jekyll about Hyde, but Jekyll tells him to mind his own business. Unfortunately, Mr. Utterson cannot do that. A year later, Mr. Hyde attacks someone else: he beats a man with a cane, causing the man’s death. The police involve Mr. Utterson because he knew the victim. Mr. Utterson takes them to Mr. Hyde’s apartment, where they find the murder weapon, which is a gift that Mr. Utterson himself gave to Dr. Jekyll. Mr.
Robert Louis Stevenson in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is telling people that they fear the knowledge of their duality so they keep silent. That everyday people are silent they fight a "war" within their bodies and minds. People are afraid of the truth, about themselves, so they stay quiet. Everybody has a part of himself or herself that they don't reveal to anyone. People are afraid to show it, but when it comes out they would rather not talk about it. People cannot do this, it is essential that one be capable of good and evil to be in existence.
The definition of a hero is subjective. Accordingly, Robert Ray believes the hero is able to be divided into three categories: the outlaw, official and composite hero. In most cases, a hero can be categorized into one of these categories. Through the examination of Jekyll and Hyde, the Batman movie from 1943, and film of Batman in 1989, qualities of the hero will be depicted as a function of time.
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde becomes Jekyll's demonic, monstrous alter ego. Certainly Stevenson presents him immediately as this from the outset. Hissing as he speaks, Hyde has "a kind of black sneering coolness . . . like Satan". He also strikes those who witness him as being "pale and dwarfish" and simian like. The Strange Case unfolds with the search by the men to uncover the secret of Hyde. As the narrator, Utterson, says, "If he be Mr. Hyde . . . I shall be Mr. Seek". Utterson begins his quest with a cursory search for his own demons. Fearing for Jekyll because the good doctor has so strangely altered his will in favor of Hyde, Utterson examines his own conscience, "and the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded a while in his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there" (SC, 42). Like so many eminent Victorians, Utterson lives a mildly double life and feels mildly apprehensive about it. An ugly dwarf like Hyde may jump out from his own boxed self, but for him such art unlikely creature is still envisioned as a toy. Although, from the beginning Hyde fills him with a distaste for life (SC, 40, not until the final, fatal night, after he storms the cabinet, can Utterson conceive of the enormity of Jekyll's second self. Only then does he realize that "he was looking on the body of a self-dcstroyer" (SC, 70); Jekyll and Hyde are one in death as they must have been in life.
Jekyll does deserve his final miserable fate because he commits several selfish deeds to the point where he brings his miserable fate upon himself. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses Jekyll to represent how man prioritizes by putting himself over others. Throughout the book, Jekyll’s two different sides are used to show that man is consistently selfish and will usually think of himself before others. Even though Jekyll has a good side and an evil side, both sides of him are selfish. Jekyll originally takes the potion for selfish reasons, Jekyll uses Hyde to conquer his own evil temptations, and in the end Jekyll gives into Hyde and completely gives up.
He published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, considered his masterpiece of writing, was published in 1885. He received many honors and a great deal of recognition for his writings. Clemens died of Angina on April 21, 1910. MAIN CHARACTERS Huck Finn - the central character of the novel and the son of the town drunk.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll, in grave danger, writes a letter to his good friend Lanyon. With Jekyll’s fate in Lanyon’s hands, he requests the completion of a task, laying out specific directions for Lanyon to address the urgency of the matter. In desperation, Jekyll reveals the possible consequences of not completing this task through the use of emotional appeals, drawing from his longtime friendship with Lanyon, to the fear and guilt he might feel if he fails at succeeding at this task. Through Jekyll’s serious and urgent tone, it is revealed that his situation is a matter of life and death in which only Lanyon can determine the outcome. Jekyll begins his letter by mentioning his and Lanyon’s long-lasting friendship saying, “[Lanyon is] one of my oldest friends.”
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be read in a number of ways through any number of different lenses, which makes for a versatile novella, and an interesting read for just about anyone. It also makes for a great novel with which to learn literary analysis. Using The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde one can see how Freudian psychoanalysis, though it had not been so developed at the time of the novel can intersect with homosexual undertones, and how the manifestations of the repressed can come to light when the subject of homosexuality is not properly addressed.
Texts are a representation of their context and this is evident in Robert Stevenson’s novella: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, where many values of late nineteenth century Victorian England values were reflected through the themes of the novel using language and structural features. These values included: technological advances, reputation and masculinity and are demonstrated in the text through literary and structure devices as well as the characterisation of the main character.
Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I have been reading the book Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The book was written by Robert Louis Stevens on during in the 19th century. This book was written during a time where Victorian society had a lot of strong moral values. These codes were very strict and controlled every aspect of the Victorian lifestyle. People in these times believed to settle things verbally rather than aggression so fighting was looked down upon.
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...
..., and also used subtle contrasts between characters and places to create in depth detail and to portray the popular secrecy that bound the Victorian era. His feelings and thoughts are cleverly wound into his writing. The morals of the story, it is thought that he wrote the books as an allegory, however discreet are very important. Stevenson believed that gentlemen were hypocrites with outward respectability and inward lust and greed, and in this novel there are several occasions where hypocrisy is brought into the lime light.
Roslyn Jolly, Robert Louis Stevenson in the Pacific: Travel, Empire, and the Author's Profession. (UK: Ashgate Publishing press, 2009)
Mr. Hyde and Dorian Gray are characters that nearly match each other in their symbolism and manner. However, it is the key differences that make them remarkably interesting as a pair. They symbolize the battles between good and evil, though they have differing interpretations of morality.