The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850 in Scotland. He was a 19th century writer notable for novels such as Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses imagery, diction, and details to create an ominous mood.

On their weekly walk, a particularly practical lawyer with the name Mr. Utterson listens as his friend Mr. Enfield tells an awful story of violence. The tale describes a dark figure called Mr. Hyde who treads over a young girl, disappears into a random door on the street, then intently pays off her relatives with a check signed by a respectable gentleman. Because Utterson and Enfield dislike gossip, the agree to drop the subject. However, one of Utterson’s clients and close friend, Dr. Jekyll has will documents written to Mr. Hyde. Soon, Utterson starts having nightmares of a faceless figure who courses through the streets of London at night. Confused, the lawyer visits Jekyll and friend Mr. Lanyon to try and learn more about Hyde. Lanyon confesses he doesn’t really see much of Jekyll anymore, because of a dispute they’ve had over the course of Jekyll’s research, which Lanyon states as “unscientific balderdash.” Interested, Mr. Utterson watches over a building Hyde visits, which is actually a laboratory attached to Jekyll’s

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.

Utterson, Lanyon, Enfield, Jekyll... one of these does not belong. Clearly, within the context of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry Jekyll struggles to fit himself into the strict Victorian society. In the events leading to his demise, he longs to separate his firm, polished face from his true inner self; from here, Stevenson paints this juxtaposition with the use of several point-of-view techniques. When Utterson, the protagonist, “[stands] a while when Mr. Hyde had left him... putting his hand to his brow like a man in mental perplexity” (Stevenson 19), he clearly becomes the literal center of attention for the story’s opinions and perspectives. Rather than giving an omniscient style to the novel, Stevenson provides an external viewpoint in order to engage his audience. The use of point-of-view techniques in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reinforces the audience’s reaction to the story’s moral dilemma.

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

An earlier party to the knowledge that Jekyll and Hyde are one, he has already lost his life to that secret. A man who believes in rationalism and moral rectitude, Lanyan simply cannot adapt to the truths uncovered in the revelation of Hyde: improbability and "uttcr moral turpitude" (SC, 80). He sinks slowly into death, his body following the lead of his "sickened" soul. His too is a kind of suicide, a death permitted, if not willed. Lanyan simply cannot accommodate himself to the horror of Jekyll unveiled.

Dr. Jekyll character appears as "a large, well made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness". However, when angry "The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and their came a blackness about his eyes". He displays himself as a strong-minded man, as he argues about his will with Mr. Utterson, however he accustoms himself to Hyde, and becomes too weak to oppose him. Mr. Utterson, after meeting Hyde for the first time, starts to feel sorry for his friend, however he does suggest that Jekyll has a dark past: "was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure".

Bryan Stevenson was born on November 14, 1959 in Milton, Delaware. His father, Howard Carlton Stevenson, Sr., had grown up in Milton, Delaware as well. His father left the area as a teen because there had been no colored high school nearby (Stevenson, 2014). He later returned with Bryan’s mother, Alice Gertrude Stevenson. Both parents would commute to the northern part of the state for work. His dad worked at a General Foods processing plant as a lab technician. His mother had a civilian job at an Air Force bar, she was a bookkeeper at Dover Air Force Base and became an equal opportunity officer. Stevenson has two siblings: an older brother Howard, Jr. and a sister Christy. As a child, Stevenson dealt with segregation and its legacy. He spent

Dr. Jekyll, the protagonist in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is the ultimate embodiment of the standards of morality by which the upper class Victorians claimed to abide. In the novella, Dr. Jekyll is a righteous, upstanding member of the elitist

The book portrays Hyde in like an animal; short, hairy, and like a troll with gnarled hands and a horrific face. In contrast, Jekyll is described in the most gentlemanly terms; tall, refined, polite and honorable, with long

Dr. Jekyll demonstrates the first sign in his relationship with Dr. Lanyon. The two had been close friends, but fell out due to arguments about Jekyll’s science, arguments that must have been severe, as the normally calm Lanyon “flushes suddenly purple”when he recollects them to Utterson. The second, however, is not present in the novel. In fact, Jekyll says that memory is the only attribute that he shares with Hyde: “My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally shared between them.” This has the effect of only adding to his pain and guilt, as unlike a drunk oblivious of his violent drunken deeds of the previous night, Jekyll is forced to, “with tears and prayer smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds with which my memory swarmed against me”. The third is certainly there: “I had not yet conquered my aversion to the dryness of a life of study … I had only but to drink the cup, to doff at once the body of the noted professor, and to assume, like a thick cloak, that of Edward Hyde. I smiled at the notion; it

To begin with, Dr. Jekyll is a well-rounded, well-respected man descending from a highly intellectual and respected Christian family of doctors and lawyers. He is nothing short of the ideal Victorian gentleman: tall, polite, honorable and refined, physically portrayed as being “a large well-made man of fifty,” and as having a “large, handsome face” (Stevenson, 19). Opposed to this seemingly impeccable man is none other than Mr. Edward Hyde, a short, hairy, ‘troglodyte’ man with a horrific

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

Dr. Jekyll being an eminent doctor, with a powerful social and educational background, has an extremely sophisticated and refined appearance “a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty” (44). As the quote suggests Dr. Jekyll has a majestic and renowned persona. The charity he does for the society, and his living Standards are all visible through the appearance he manifests. On the other hand, Hyde being Dr. Jekyll’s contrivance, to carry out evil purposes has an unattractive appearance and a repellent demeanor. “There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable” (35). As per the quote Hyde looks very ugly. His deeds are uglier and compliances suitably to his physical self. Dr. Jekyll is

Hyde. In this way, Jekyll becomes monstrous himself as he wishes to pass on his evil parts into another person. Jekyll’s concoction is a threat to cultural morals and values as it enables someone to set evil free. Consequently, there is no obligation and interest in adhering to any moral standards. In the end, he is a split person, one-half is represented by Jekyll and the other one by Hyde. Stevenson used the different standpoints in the story to create the feeling that Jekyll and Hyde are two different individuals: “‘The Master Hyde, if he were studied,’ thought he [Utterson],’must have secrets of his own; black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll’s worst would be like sunshine.” (Stevenson 22). Thus, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a story where the line blurs. As Hyde and Jekyll are one and the same person, the reader realises that they together are both moral and immoral and both good and