The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Frequently overlooked in favor of discourse on the duality of man or the dubiousness surrounding the characters’ interactions with Hyde, Jekyll’s portrayal of his transformations into Hyde in Robert Lewis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde has an indubitable parallel to symptoms of drug addiction. This allegory fits seamlessly into the narrative once the reader becomes aware of its presence. Not only does Henry Jekyll present symptoms paralleling drug addiction, his transformations into Hyde and how the other characters in the novel react to them are also typical of situation involving an addicted person. Finally, the ease with which a respectable member of the bourgeoisie lapses into such a degenerative state serves the

Dr. Henry Jekyll in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) seems to be an enthusiastic scientist just as Shelley describes Victor Frankenstein. Though Victor Frankenstein reports his own story to Captain Walton, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is narrated by different points of view, mainly from lawyer Utterson, a close friend of Jekyll and in charge of executing Jekyll’s last will. Thus, no background of Jekyll is provided. In fact, it is only mentioned that he lives in a splendid home in 19th century London with multiple rooms and a laboratory, and that he has servants to his dispose.

Among the words used to describe the elitist Victorians, “hypocrites” may very well be the most popular. This supposed generation of “Do-Gooders,” with their heightened sense of morality, repressed sexuality and increased piety, were actually far from perfect. They had an exceptional list of standards by which they claimed to dutifully abide, but more often than not fell short of. The Victorians were, in the words of literary critic Walter Houghton, brilliant actors able to “[conceal] or [suppress] their true convictions and their natural tastes” (146). The matter of Victorian hypocrisy, as it has come to be known, has been scrutinized by a plethora of critics and authors alike. However, the moral façade that has come to be associated with the Victorian era was perhaps first criticized in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Apart from being an exceptional Gothic work, Stevenson’s novella is an excellent critique of the hypocrisy that dominated the Victorian era. In his novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to expose the double standards and moral pretensions that governed Victorian society.

From its inception, the Gothic novel has prominently featured states of entrapment or imprisonment, but has seen a transition from entrapment as a state inflicted by others to a state constructed by the self within a society. The prisons are no longer Gothic dungeons controlled by powerful figures, but have shifted into a state of mind, and thus, the possibility of liberation from entrapment has become destabilised. Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde deals with several layers of entrapment – the physical, psychological and existential – but, unlike earlier Gothic novels, problematizes the possibility of escape as the entrapment has shifted to an internalized force. Henry Jekyll, is imprisoned by the

    Throughout Western literature, writers have created characters who act as perfect foils to each other with dramatically observable differences. Each pairing has a stronger and weaker in the combination, and usually one outlives the other. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the pairing exists in one body, and yet the struggle is heightened because both aspects of the identity are equal in strength. Ultimately, Stevenson emphasizes it is Jekyll who holds the power of life or death over Hyde. Hyde's "love of life is wonderful," but Hyde is also aware of Jekyll's "power to cut him off by suicide (Stevenson 101)." It is the awareness of each for the other which confirms that neither

If you saw a house that was drab, gray, and dark, would you enter? Now how about a fancy, large, colorful house? These two questions perfectly sum up the theme of appearance in the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Mr Hyde’s house was dingy and ugly just like his character, and Jekyll’s house and behavior was polar opposite of Hyde’s. Appearance affects everyone’s perception of something. For example, if Mr. Hyde is ugly and mean looking, people won’t have a good perception of him. So how does appearance affect people’s perceptions in the book? On one side of the debate, people believe that appearance doesn’t affect your thinking, and it’s all in your heart. In many cases, this statement

Everyone has to deal with some sort of temptations in their lives. Usually temptations are negative, but they may differ depending on the person. Some people may not like to admit this but everyone has a dark side and sometimes it shows. A person needs to let out some darkness at some points in their lives because nobody should bottle their emotions up. One man’s dark temptations are looked at in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. In this novel, it starts out introducing Mr.Utterson who is a lawyer. He is walking with his cousin Mr. Enfield and they find a door which leads them to a house. Mr. Enfield starts telling a story and that is how Mr.Hyde and Dr.Jekyll are introduced. “ All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at a corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground” (Stevenson 9). Mr. Utterson becomes curious as to who the person was and after doing some investigating he discovers that Dr.Jekyll is Mr.Hyde. Dr.Jekyll wanted a way to let out the bad that he had inside of him, but he didn 't want anyone to see him differently. He decided to make a potion, and when he drank the potion he would turn into Mr.Hyde.

In the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, readers are shown the contrast between one’s personal desires and public desires or one’s good side and evil side. These are the things that help stimulate the psychological development of a person and are what keeps us humans balanced, personality wise. However, when one denies the significance of this by repressing them, things can definitely go wrong. Readers can apply this knowledge into one of the major characters, Dr. Henry Jekyll, who finds the need to repress his darker side due to fear of crossing social expectations. Upon doing so, Jekyll slowly becomes selfish, and full of pride. Also, the purpose of the potion he creates to help him transform into his evil doppelganger , Mr. Hyde, ultimately fails when he finds himself having to repress Hyde as well. Lastly, Jekyll’s repression also leads to the unfortunate end of the book, the disappearance both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Therefore, through Dr. Jekyll’s character, Stevenson proves that repressing emotions or desires does not make them fade away; they will eventually come up again stronger than before and can dominate a person completely.

Every story needs a good villain. Villains and heroes are often portrayed in media as being very black and white, but in reality people are much more complex than that. Robert Louis Stevenson does a good job in portraying the complexity of human nature in his books, especially in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped. The former is about a lawyer named Mr. Utterson seeking out the truth of Dr. Jekyll’s very strange will. He finds out that Jekyll was transforming himself into Mr. Hyde so that he could have the freedom to do whatever he wanted no matter how evil. By the time Utterson finds all this out and findsJekyll, he is too late and Jekyll has already killed himself. The latter is about David Balfour and his journey to take his rightful inheritance from his villainous uncle Ebenezer. Along the way he meets Alan, who is a highlander obsessed with vengeance. They help each other grow to be better people, and in the end, with the help of Alan, David reclaims what is rightfully his. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped, Stevenson explores the characters´ villainous deeds and the philosophy that humans have two natures.

Everybody has two sides, but which do let control you? The good or evil? This was a

Reinterpretations have played a major role in all forms of entertainment. They provide another, unique perspective on something old, something you may have read or seen. They make it possible to relive, or re-experience something that you cherished, or they can enable you to love something you hated. Reinterpretations have a lot of artistic power, as can be seen in a review of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, compared to The Incredible Hulk, directed by Louis Leterrier. The value of reinterpretations can be explored through the use of these two texts by looking at the theme of duplicity in man, and analysing the characters Bruce Banner and Dr Jekyll.

Some of my favorite characters in literature are the villains. Each villain I’ve come across are unique in their own ways but are all critical to the story and the plot. There wouldn’t be, “the boy who lived,” without Lord Voldemort or A Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde without Hyde himself. Mr. Hyde is a true villain and is critical to A Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde without this alter ego all this book would be about is a Doctor that follows societies rules on how to behave but secretly craves to be bad. Not to say that wouldn’t interesting to read but it would change the whole meaning of the book.

As Robert Grudin said in _______, “there is an almost tragic duality between outer and inner worlds, between the rush of experience and the immobility of awareness”. Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, brilliantly exemplifies the philosophical phenomenon that is the duality of human nature through the 2 main characters that coexist interdependently together, Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. According to Webster’s dictionary, the duplicity of human beings is based on the contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action; the quality or state of being twofold. Stevenson’s novel touches upon a variety of factors and concerns, one of which being the duplicity of man. The subject is articulated through the exploration of comparing and contrasting opposites; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s physical attributes, their mentalities/personalities, and finally, the manner by which their environmental surroundings aid in contrasting their characterizations.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. The novel is set in Victorian England and follows a man by the name Dr. Jekyll, a respected doctor. Dr. Jekyll is a revered man in society and has every intention of remaining that way. However, one day he goes too far with one of his experiments and he creates a draught that unleashes a split personality within him. This personality goes by the name of Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll does not seek a cure at first because he enjoys having an outlet for all of his desires that are deemed unacceptable by society. Hyde commits evil deeds, such as murdering an old man and trampling a young girl, which Dr. Jekyll could never normally let himself go through with. Dr. Jekyll believes that he can remain a good, reputable man even when a part of him is doing wrong. However, he soon learns that this is impossible. Soon after, Dr. Jekyll loses control over his ability to transform into Mr. Hyde. At first, he would only change during the night. Then, he started transforming during the day as well. Dr. Jekyll finally admits that the problem is starting to get out of control. However, he cannot create a remedy any longer. Dr. Jekyll is eventually completely overtaken by Mr. Hyde and the reader does not hear from him again. In this novel, Dr. Jekyll illustrates the duality of human nature through his struggle to choose between good versus evil, societal expectations versus unacceptable desires, and

During the latter portion of the nineteenth century, Robert Louis Stevenson published his novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The fin de siècle saw the rise of different thoughts and ideas surrounding science and society. These concepts and interpretations sparked the discourse surrounding the theory of degeneration; which was the concern that civilization would fall to a lower state of being. This chapter will be reading multiplex personality as a manifestation of this broader cultural fear. Stevenson’s story played upon the changes society was facing during this time and the interest in scientific explanations for mental illness. He creates the character of Dr Jekyll, a scientist who invents a potion to unlock his inner,