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Robert louis stevenson the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde analysis
Explore how Stevenson creates mystery and tension in the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert louis stevenson the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde analysis
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How suspense is built up in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson was born on the 13th November 1850. He wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886, with that 40,000 copies of the book were sold in the first six months. This was designed to mirror the Victorian secret and based on good and evil. Stevenson later died in 1894 in Samoa. Stevenson used the contemporary setting of Victorian London to write his gothic horror novel. The streets with the gas lamps were the perfect setting following the true horrific stories of Jack the Ripper. He refers to Mr Hyde well as he wanders the streets of London not knowing who he’s going to meet. The elements in gothic horror include irony, movement, time, senses, horrific language and zoom lens. This shows how suspense is built up. I will show how these devices are used in separate paragraphs. Suspense is an anxious uncertainty and apprehension that writers use to make the reader feel scared, wary and make tension happen. It could also be to attract the reader to the story in the first place and make them read it. Suspense usually happens at a climax; the story has been building up and building up and then something happens that relieves the reader. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde starts off with Jekyll. Although he isn’t mentioned in the book until the second chapter; ’Search for Mr Hyde’. Further on in the story, Mr Utterson (Jekyll’s Lawyer) investigates more into Jekyll’s will. He finds that Dr Jekyll has left all his possessions to the name of Mr Hyde in the event of his disappearance for more than six consecutive calendar months. Later on Poole (Jekyll’s Butler) sees an image of a very dark shadow at the window of Dr Jekyll’s Laboratory. He goes to investigate the m... ... middle of paper ... ...enson has used his image almost and put it onto Hyde. In the book I think the Stevenson has created a unique book that finishes off all the little details needed to write a good book. I think that it has all the elements of gothic horror are included in the book to make a fantastic book that will make people not put the book down because of Stevenson’s great achievements. Personally I like the book and I think that people of today will still enjoy the book but not as much as the Victorian’s because they would’ve got the book in monthly instalments; that way they can have as much time as they want reading the book but still would wonder what would happen next. So, to conclude I think that Stevenson has written a great gothic horror novel using all the devices that should be used in gothic horror. Zoom lens, movement, time, horrific language, senses and irony.
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
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.
murderer and procurer of corpses, inspired this short story. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is set in Soho, London, which is famous for being the ‘seedier’ side of London in the nineteenth century. At this time there was a great divide between the poverty-stricken and the rich. The snares are rich. Even in the daytime, London was very dark due to the industrial London smog, and this adds to the atmosphere of fear, creating tension.
Stevenson had already created suspense before the chapter had begun through the knowledge we have of Mr Hyde. His character we know of links in to the ideas of Darwin. “And this was more of a dwarf”, Hyde is described as a dwarfish and primitive person, this Links in to the ideas of Darwin of how cave men evolved from apes and how we evolved from cave men. The fear of the Victorians is that since man had evolved from animals he has the same lack of control over emotions as animals.
As the novel progresses, Dr. Jekyll becomes a prisoner to the part of him called Mr. Hyde because Hyde gains strength overtime. The rush Mr. Hyde brings him causes him to want
Within the text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson portrays a complex power struggle between Dr. Jekyll, a respected individual within Victorian London society, and Mr. Hyde a villainous man tempted with criminal urges, fighting to take total control of their shared body. While Dr. Jekyll is shown to be well-liked by his colleagues, Mr. Hyde is openly disliked by the grand majority of those who encounter him, terrified of his frightful nature and cruel actions. Throughout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson portrays the wealthy side of London, including Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll, as respected and well-liked, while showing the impoverish side as either non-existent or cruel.
Gothic language is, “a style of writing that describes strange or frightening events that take place in mysterious places.” Through a first person narrative, Stevenson uses gothic language, to invoke empathy for
The power of curiosity can change your involvement in a situation. Everyone’s curiosity gets the best of them, and they tend to involve themselves in situations more than they would please. Throughout the book, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” by Robert Louis Stevenson, the theme of curiosity is demonstrated. Some folks suggest, that there are better themes than curiosity to demonstrate the book, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” by Robert Louis Stevenson. However, throughout the beginning, middle, and end of this book, the theme of curiosity is demonstrated.
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.
Stevenson focuses on two different characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but in reality these are not separate men, they are two different aspects of one man’s reality. In the story, Dr. Je...
Jekyll and Hyde match most of the criteria needed to produce. traditional gothic novel, Stevenson builds up tension and keeps the reader gripped by certain things in the novel. Firstly mysterious violence keeps the readers well gripped. “ the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground.” ... ...
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novel about a man named Henry Jekyll who
Stevenson’s most prominent character in the story is the mysterious Mr Hyde. Edward Hyde is introduced from the very first chapter when he tramples a young girl in the street, which brings the reader’s attention straight to his character. The reader will instantly know that this person is a very important part of this book and that he plays a key role in the story. This role is the one of a respectable old man named Dr Jekyll’s evil side or a ‘doppelganger’. This links in with the idea of duality. Dr Jekyll is described as being ‘handsome’, ‘well-made’ and ‘smooth-faced’. On the other hand, Mr Hyde is described as being ‘hardly human’, ‘pale and dwarfish’, giving of an impression of deformity and ‘so ugly that it brought out the sweat on (Mr Enfield) like running’! These words all go together to conjure up an image in the mind of an animal, beast or monster. During the novel...
The setting and environment of the book also symbolizes how Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll are different as well. Dr. Jekyll lived in an upper middle class neighborhood but there was a backdoor leading to a dangerous street. Soho is described with a negative description its “... a district of some city in a nightmare.” In the chapter of “The Carew Murder Case”(15) Stevenson compares it to a nightmare while your sleeping. He emphasizes that duality is everywhere not just within human nature.