How Does Stevenson Create Mood In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

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’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 the novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson provides insight into the inner workings of the duality that exists within humans. Dr. Jekyll is a well-respected doctor in his community while his differing personality Mr. Hyde is hideous and considered by the public as evil based on appearance. As the novel progresses Dr. Lanyon begins to investigate Mr. Hyde, he begins to realize similarities between both Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll such as their handwriting which results in the discovery that they are the same person. Dr. Jekyll is able to transform himself into Mr. Hyde by drinking a serum he has created which was intended to purify his good. Stevenson stresses the duality of good and evil that exists

This quote characterizes Mr. Hyde, because it tells the reader that Hyde is the crazy one; Hyde’s

Both personalities do not want anyone to recognize that the two different individuals are one in the same. Even though Dr. Jekyll was view as an upstanding member of the community, some of Dr. Jekyll’s close friends began to wonder if he was becoming “wrong in mind”. As time progress Dr. Jekyll was appearing to be as unstable as Mr.

The author, Robert Louis Stevenson presents the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a unique and compelling way. Many aspects of the short story can be interpreted in different ways as its complexity can overpower the book transient storyline. One aspect of the book that can be considered controversial is the way Stevenson presents the novella and the book's historical context. Although, Stevenson’s work can be considered engaging, it can also lead the reader to question the reasoning behind the particular storyline of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Overall, in terms of historical context, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is written in an allegorical way in which different aspects of the book represent a major theme or event taking place in Victorian England.

Stevenson's Use of Literary Techniques in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

is well known about town and he is well looked upon. He is kind, and

In addition to delusions, Dr. Jekyll seems to have mood swings that may have been caused by schizoaffective disorder. After Hyde had supposedly committed murder Dr. Jekyll became more social with his former friends. According to the Stevenson, “Now that the evil influence had been withdrawn, a new life began for Dr.Jekyll. He came out of his seclusion, renewed relations with his friends….” The narrator portrays Jekyll, after Hyde disappears, as a social and outgoing man, but as the days pass after his disappearance his mood changes again.

Imagery plays a key role in the exploration of Dr. Jekyll's double character. Stevenson's use of imagery intensifies the plot and its relationship between good and evil (Rollyson 1863-1864). For example, Hyde is described as "apelike" and "like a monkey" while Dr. Jekyll is portrayed as handsome and elegant with "proper stature" (25-26, 38). This example indicates a "reverse evolutionary process" and confirms Jekyll's disastrous attempt to interfere with the order of nature (Page 763). In general, Hyde is illustrated as animalistic, ugly, and deformed mainly to conjure an evil opinion of this character. However, the physical description may be more than simply symbolic. "During the Victorian era, many believed in physiognomy," which was the belief that one could judge a criminal from his or her physical appearance. Hyde is depicted as a vampire who "feeds on the very life of his victims" (Abbey, et al. 327). ."..[Hyde was] drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another, relentless like a man of stone" (33). This vampire image suggests the way in which indulgence of evil eats away man's capacity for goodness. Lastly, Stevenson chose ideal names to suit and describe the personalities or actions of his characters. Just as Hyde hides in Jekyll, "Je kyll" hides in "Jekyll." In French, "Je" means I and "kyll" probably

Jekyll's mental instability and shortly say something about the discourse. The discourse represents another instability which got not presented in the first paragraph. The instability is the discourse which changes from an external view to an internal view. This change shows how the Victorian society first thought the threat comes from the outside world, due to the fact that everyone feared everyone. But later the Victorian society realized they are not even able to trust them self. They started to fear their own self because they knew every human has a bad demonic side like Hyde. But this is just a side note, because the most striking feature of instability in the whole novella is the mental instability of Jekyll in his statement. The drama does shift the relations between Jekyll and Hyde in the last statement. This is played out in terms of grammatical and narrative positions in the permutations of I, he and it.(Stevenson p.189) The I who seeks for pleasures and is astonished by his evil doings is replaced by Henry Jekyll. Furthermore, it changes to an unmarked omniscient narrator. This narrator does not only speak for Jekyll, he does also speak for Hyde.(Stevenson 190).The narrator shows exactly the tensions between earlier separation and later fusion of the both identities, which happens throughout his narration. The most striking feature of this change can be found in “Jekyll’s” statement: “The pleasures which I made haste seek in my disguise was, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde, they soon began to turn toward the monstrous. When I would come back from these excursions, I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity. This familiar that I called out of my own soul, and sent forth alone to do his good pleasure, was a being inherently malign and villainous; his

It can be argued that the monstrosity in Hyde was not a result of an experiment that had gone wrong, he was not the effect of the “diabolical action” (Stevenson 67) of the drug, rather a reflection of Jekyll’s own undignified pleasures. Critic Irving S. Saposnik argues on similar lines as he asserts that Jekyll is not a hero and Hyde’s savagery is in fact borrowed from his progenitor and “not from any inherent motivation toward destruction.” (727) However in the narrative, positing Hyde as the “other” in the colonial discourse, Jekyll as the western man enjoys the private control he exercises over the former. In the first conversation with Utterson, where the lawyer questions regarding the irrationality of the doctor’s will, his decision to bequeath all his possession to Hyde, was met with Jekyll’s assurance, “[T]he moment I choose, I can get rid of him.” (Stevenson 20) While the free reign of Hyde, with his heightened sense of deformity revealed the anxiety of the western men, it hardly perturbed the doctor. In Stevenson’s novella, the very arrangement of the chapters hints at the same- “Search for Mr. Hyde” (Stevenson 11) is immediately followed by “Dr. Jekyll is quite at ease.” (Stevenson 19) Hyde earns the disgust from his progenitor only when he threatens the leash of control Jekyll had over him. It is after the effect of the medicine ceases to operate, when his rationale self was, “gradually but decidedly transferred to the other side.” (Stevenson 71) that the horror of being Hyde agitated and vexed him. But nowhere in the narrative is the possibility of Jekyll killing Hyde considered except much later when Utterson is brought to Jekyll’s house and the suicide of Hyde is discovered. While the situation presented a

In the spooky mysterious novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson we start our journey with the main character, Mr. Utterson, and his companion, Dr. Lanyon. The two men talk about their colleague Dr. Jekyll and this mysterious figure named Mr. Hyde. In doing this Stevenson introduces the four characters that prove to be pillars in the investigation and resolution of the book. Throughout the book we experience plenty of conflict between these four characters and society. Stevenson sets up the theme through the conflicts that arise between the characters in the book. In the end the author wraps it all up by the use of his unique point of view and ends the confusion by allowing the us to finally solve “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

When Utterson first meets Hyde, he is described as someone unnormal with evil hints. It is described that his exterior generates feelings of disgust and even unease to other characters. Yet this deformity is described not only on a physical level but also on moral one (and thus, differs from the depiction of