(Aronson 2) Being from Edinburgh, Stevenson was surrounded with the well-known tales of the past and a history of duality in his hometown. Deacon Brodie and Dr. Knox were both from Edinburgh and both lived “double-lives”, this undoubtedly had a major impact upon Stevenson’s imagination and later his writings. (Stefan 5)
“While growing up Stevenson had a friend and the son of Sir James Simpson, the developer of medical anesthesia, the two friends would “experiment” with chloroform, for the enjoyment of it.” (Stefan 5) This experimenting carries a familiarity with it that would later be found in the character of Dr. Jekyll in Stevenson’s novel, where Dr. Jekyll tells in the letter upon his death that he began turning himself into Mr. Hyde
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(Aronson 2) Stevenson and more so his parents, saw the duality in this. “Stevenson returned to Grez in 1877. He was not practicing law, nor was he earning much from his writing, having published less than ten essays in 1876. He was financially dependent on his parents, who were shocked to learn that he was courting a married woman.” (Aronson 2) Stevenson was showing love, but at the same time he was committing an act of evil. After difficult circumstances and chasing his love half way around the world, Stevenson married the woman and came back to his home in Edinburgh. (Aronson 2) One morning in the fall of 1885, Stevenson had a nightmare that his wife woke him from. He was upset that his wife had awoken him, but soon after began writing The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Stevenson’s stepson, Lloyd Osborne said, “Louis would write feverously, then read for a while and then continue writing. I doubt if the first draft [of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde] took so long as three days. (Livesey 3)
Stevenson writes ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ with the intention of showing the reader the duality of man and explores this through the juxtaposition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this novella, Stevenson also uses the environment and setting of the story to represent the contrast between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novel written by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886. It concerns a lawyer, Gabriel Utterson, who investigates the strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the reclusive Mr. Edward Hyde. This novel represents an ideology in Western culture; the perpetual conflict between humanity’s virtuosity and immorality. It is interpreted as an accurate guidebook to the Victorian era’s belief of the duality of human nature. This essay will explore Mr. Edward Hyde and whether Stevenson intended for him to be a mere character in the novel or something of wider significance.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a complex and tricky novel to fully grasp, but the reader can come to understand many parallels to their own lives. Stevenson’s creation has stood the test of time because of its power to astonish; even if one previously new the outcome. This power has made Jekyll and Hyde, a pair that will continue to provoke thought in many readers in generations to
Stevenson's Use of Literary Techniques in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
in 1885. It is said that the idea for the novel came to Stevenson in a
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a great science fiction story that was published in 1886. It was written by an intelligent Scottish novelist named Robert Louis Stevenson. He uses technological ideas to develop a plot with powerful and realistic characters. Two main characters that play a major part in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Utterson. They are extremely good friends who live in London during the late nineteenth-century. Dr. Jekyll is described as an expert physician, while Mr. Utterson is a middle-aged lawyer. Stevenson was able to establish two strong characters with important motives, conflicts, and symbols; however, a major difference between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Utterson is their physical and mental health as they progress throughout the novel.
In the novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson emphasizes how secrecy is used to protect one’s self-image and ensure no destructive secrets of one’s past become public knowledge. In the book, the plot is constantly driven forward by deceit; Mr. Utterson does not know the relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and he wants to find out. Secrecy is one of the main themes in the book as it constantly surrounds the character of Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll's personality is serious and never unusual or abnormal, however his true repressed personality is revealed in the form of Mr. Hyde. This suggests that Stevenson is trying to show man’s repressed, inner nature, and how all men have aspects of their being of which they are ashamed and
The key ideas in chapter 1 of ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr
“All human beings are commingled out of good and evil.” Robert Louis Stevenson was no fool when it came to understanding the duality of human nature evident within mankind. In his novella, the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson is able to explore his interests concerning the dark, hidden desires that all human beings are guilty of possessing. In his story, a well-respected professional by the name of Dr. Jekyll experiments with the idea of contrasting personalities and successfully undergoes a physical separation of such identities—one which would soon wreak havoc upon his very existence. As a result of his success, Edward Hyde is born. Hyde, characterized as a miniscule and terrifying, apelike figure from the start,
Throughout the whole course of the novel, readers can identify an unbreakable connection between Hyde and animalistic images as he was shown to be big, awkward and childlike. This kind of figure is regarded by Stevenson as parts of human nature. It also expressed Stevenson’s repression towards hypocritical society during Victorian times.
The sophisticatedly-constructed novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was devised in 1886, during the revolutionary Victorian era, by the author, Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson developed a desire to write in his early life and ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ cemented his reputation. The novel is widely known for its shocking principles that terrified and alarmed the Victorian readers. ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ plays with the idea of the dual nature of man, his two identities. On the surface, Dr Jekyll is a conventional, Victorian gentleman, but below the surface lurks the primitive, satanic-like creature of Mr Edward Hyde. One of the elements that play a significant part in the novel is setting. Stevenson subtly uses the setting to
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
Stevenson's Use of Literary Techniques in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Jeancy Baraka Professor Reid British literature 13 April 2017 The case of addiction in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Comitini, Patricia. " The Strange Case of Addiction in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. " Victorian Review, vol. 38, no.1, 2012, pp.
Stevenson. In the beginning, he loves his wife, but after waiting on Mrs. Stevenson “hand and foot,” and has “scarcely left Mrs.Stevenson’s side since Mrs.Stevenson took sick twelve years ago,” he soon gets tired of having her around and it is inferred that he is the one to get her murdered. We can only assume that it is Mr.Stevenson who is the one to decide that he wants the “querulous, self-centered neurotic” gone and even murdered . This shows how perceptions can change from just one event, in this case it’s that Mrs.Stevenson became bedridden so his perception changed about her and his