Why did R. L. Stevenson write Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Jekyll and Hyde
is a strange but interesting story relating.
Why did R. L. Stevenson write Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
Jekyll and Hyde is a strange but interesting story relating to the
study of the human mind, good verses evil and Victorian moral
pressure.
Robert Louis Stevenson was a large believer in religion; he also
studied science, as his Father believed he would have something to
fall back upon if his writing career failed. Therefore he saw things
from a religious point of view and a scientific point of view. This
echoed his belief that there was a good and bad side to every person,
which in the story he experiments to separate the two.
In Robert Stevenson’s era, appearance meant a great deal. The
middle-class was to appear as well dressed and respectful people,
where as there was another side to society, which was not as
respectful. Many middle-class men attended brothels in back alleys but
this part of their lives was kept private.
Stevenson uses many lines to show that Victorian moral pressure played
a part in why the book as written. He uses lines such as “That is not
fitting language.” This shows that Hyde is not as respectful as Dr
Jekyll is. And his language is less appropriate for a middle class
man. This could also be tied in with good verses evil as Jekyll is
respectable and good where as Hyde is the bad side to this man.
There is also reference to good verses evil Dr Jekyll Lawyer refers to
“Satan” quoting “O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s
signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend!” Connecting
this to Victorian moral pressure, the lawyer must have also been
friends with Dr Jekyll as he referred ...
... middle of paper ...
...e point in the story, there is also a balance between good and
evil, “And at that very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm
came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering. These
past away, and left me faint; and then in it’s turn the faintness
subsided, I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my
thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the
danger of bonds of obligation.”
All of this evidence therefore proves that “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” was
written about R. L. Stevenson’s beliefs, imagination, knowledge,
judgement and experience. This also proves that Stevenson also used
the themes of good verses evil, Victorian moral pressure and the study
of the human mind. I believe these to be the reasons why the book was
written and that there is little or no connection with sexuality
unlike what others think.
In one of the passages at the end of book one,
Stevenson then went on to put a scary touch to the story by telling us
Stevenson uses many literary techniques to create suspense and amuses the readers. He uses the literary symbolisms such as paradox and symbolism. However the most important technique is point of view and the changing of narrators throughout the book. Many critics such as Alice D. Snyder, Peter K. Garett, and Vladimir Nabokov wrote literary criticisms about Stevenson’s use of language. Lots of the evidences come from the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in order to support the critics’ claim. Peter K. Garett’s claim of Stevenson’s use of language is that the relation between Jekyll and Hyde is played out in terms of grammatical and narrative positions. Vladimir Nabokov’s claim was that Stevenson creates suspense and mystery by
this is one reason why the structure of the book does seem so "loose" - why
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll’s struggle between two personalities is the cause of tragedy and violence. Dr. Jekyll takes his friends loyalty and unknowingly abuses it. In this novella, Stevenson shows attributes of loyalty, how friendship contributes to loyalty, and how his own life affected his writing on loyalty.
Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of this novella has written it very cleverly, with certain techniques used that have a greater impact on the reader and ones that make it more than just any thriller/shocker. Every novella has a purpose to it and so does this story, the purpose of this novella has been made to narrative the reader and it is quite clearly reflecting the genre of the thriller/shocker. As well as this the novella has been made as a shilling shocker which depends on sensationalism and represents an immoral lifestyle that may include violence in extremity.
Addiction is a behavior that leads to actions that not only hurt others but is ultimately a path to one’s own self-destruction. From the beginning of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, it is clear that Dr. Jekyll never had complete control over the drug or Mr. Hyde; however, once Hyde commits suicide in order to dodge punishment, we know how awful Jekyll’s addiction to Hyde had been. Jekyll was so far out of control of Hyde that Mr. Hyde had the ability to end both of their lives simply because Hyde did not wish to be punished.
Innocence is a trap. It is strangled with the ideals of perfection and suffocates the cravings of curiosity. Goodness is expectant and evil is poisonous. However, good and evil resides in even the most innocent of people. Both are nefarious and pestilent to easily corrupt targeted souls in sinister actions. Both equate to uncontrollable factors. Goodness tends to covet the sensations of evil since it depreciates its own purity. In the oscillating novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, goodness was trapped by evil just as Jekyll was trapped as Hyde. Jekyll’s pure spirituality desired the holy richness of evil and all its wrongdoings. His laboratory experiments discovered his desire to feel the sensation of evil without truly being evil. His laboratory experiments discovered a way for him to escape. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fought the battle between good and evil proving the apparent strengths and weaknesses that overall transformed two souls into a single corpse.
also the story that is implied by the author’s emotions and implications. One of the main
The greatest battle of all time - good or evil - which will win? In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, a thrilling mystery, is a great example of this battle, which ended in a death. In this fight, it is both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde who are responsible for the death of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Stevenson uses many methods to achieve and sustain an atmosphere of mystery and suspense in the novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He does this by using a clever sense of setting, vocabulary, surroundings and the manner of his characters which are used to describe and slowly reveal the appearance of Hyde . Some of these are highlighted in the depiction of the Dr Jekyll’s house, such as Mr. Enfield's story, Henry Jekyll’s will and the meeting with Hyde.
This essay will focus on how Robert Louis Stevenson presents the nature of evil through his novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. Using ideas such as duality, the technique used to highlight the two different sides of a character or scene, allegories, an extended metaphor which has an underlying moral significance, and hypocrisy; in this book the Victorians being against all things evil but regularly taking part in frown able deeds that would not be approved of in a ‘respectable’ society. This links in with the idea of secrecy among people and also that evil is present in everyone. The novel also has strong ties and is heavily influenced by religion. Stevenson, being brought up following strong Calvinist beliefs, portrays his thoughts and opinion throughout the story in his characters; good and evil.
wrong, a lot like the way Mr Hyde was thought of. So to Mr Utterson,
we deny our bad side. It looks at a doctor called Dr Jekyll who feels
The article that I have chosen to analyze is entitled “Challenging the Biological: The Fantasy of Male Birth as a Nineteenth Century Narrative of Ethical Failure”. The author of this article is Galia Benziman. Benziman states her main thesis as “I will discuss four nineteenth century works that examine such possibilities, emerging in an era that offers a particularly rich treatment of the theme. With the rise of the belief in, and anxiety about, the supremacy of science, we witness in nineteenth-century fictional works a recurrent staging of the male subject’s attempt to harness technology for the purpose of overcoming the biological limitation of his sex and procreating a new being.” This is a rather extensive thesis but really works well