One Can Only Dream Edinburgh, a place that literary genius, Robert Louis Stevenson, called his home. There were many things that happened in the Scotland city that influenced Stevenson to write one of his best works, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A lifetime of scattered events all played roles in the forming classic novella (Stefan 212). Stevenson was a single child who was much adored by his parents, Thomas Stevenson and Margaret Balfour. Stevenson’s mother had a respiratory disease which was also inherited by her son. The family hired a private nurse to assist them. The nurse, Allison Cunningham, would often read to Robert in the morning during his unpleasant coughing spells. Many of the stories Cunningham read were about hell and damnation. These frightening tales would cause Robert to have numerous nightmares (Stefan 215). The nightmares tormented Robert into his adulthood. Stevenson claims that the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to him in a dream. While Stevenson was severely sick with a fever following a lung hemorrhage, the doctor prescribed him many drugs. These drugs might have aided …show more content…
Jekyll and his alter ego, the devious Mr. Hyde, are proof of Stevenson’s obsession with the multiple identities of man. The occurrence of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is as well suited to the nineteenth century England as Brodie William’s tale in the eighteenth century. In 1879, almost exactly a century after Brodie Williams, a similar incidence happened. Charlie Peace, who was a proper violin player, owned many pets, was a regular attendee of his church, and was outspoken with the policies of the Turkish government, was also caught living a double life. He was well admired in his community. Peace was caught stealing from houses, and later confess to murdering two different people, one of them years before. Charlie Peace was also hanged for his crime, and now his violin is a popular display in a museum (“Dr. Jekyll”
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.
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.
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.
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is a novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scottish author. Written and published 1886, this novella reflects on the individual, and societal behavior during the Victorian era. During the Victorian era people, were supposed to behave like a normal person. Certain behaviors were highly restricted for example, showing evil. Instead, they were expected to give respect for everyone. People who acted out against the norm during this period were usually sent to asylums because such behaviors were unacceptable. People in this society did just that, they behaved as if they were perfectly normal. This does not mean that their bad side did not exist. Instead, they hid their
Stevenson witnessed double standards led by middle class people all-around him, this made him determined to avoid hypocrisy, and to respond against the stern Scottish Presbyterian background which he felt helped to form it. From the beginning of the novel, we are given the impression of an atmosphere consisting of secrecy, and mystery. The setting contributes to this; the strange door which Enfield remarks upon is always locked, the window in the rest of the house forever shut and the buildings around the 'court' huddled together as if in conspiracy. Utterson lies in his 'curtained room' in 'the gross darkness of the night' with 'a great filed of lamps' - referring to the gas street lamps.
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
In this essay I am going to look at Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll, the first
One of Stevenson’s ways of communicating about the balance of good and evil is that suppressing one’s desires and passions is a big cause of the troubles caused by the setting. The suppression in the novella is that in the area it's taken place
Stevenson's Use of Literary Techniques in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The key ideas in chapter 1 of ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr
“But it is more than ten years since henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me”. (12 Stevenson)
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
Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850, in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Throughout his childhood he was told morbid tales from the Bible, as well as Victorian penny-serial novels that he would carry with him throughout his years and what would place the greatest impact on his writing.[1] In 1886, he published a novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, based on a man with pure intentions, who ends up turning himself into a viscous murderer. Dr. Henry Jekyll is a well-known doctor and respected man, known for doing numerous acts of kindness and work for charities. However, since he was a young boy, he secretly engaged in wrongful behavior, and from then on, was determined to experiment and find a way to separate