The Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde - 1052 Words

Among the words used to describe the elitist Victorians, â€Å"hypocrites† may very well be the most popular. This supposed generation of â€Å"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 â€Å"[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 faà §ade 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 excellen t 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. 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 elitistShow MoreRelatedThe Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1323 Words   |  6 Pagesinsanity. While the case written about by Robert Louis Stevenson in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is fiction, a person’s physical appearance can change when they transform to one of their other personalities; for example, if a man has another personality who is a woman, he would dress as if he were a woman. Therefore, his physical appearance for each personality is different to those who see him often. For this chapter, there will be an exploration into some case studies from the nineteenthRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1675 Words   |  7 PagesThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,† is a type of Gothic literature. In the beginning of the story when Stevenson is describing the lawyer, one â€Å"Mr. Utterson,† the mood is a bit dull. At first glance the reader may think that this story would be a bit boring and drab. Stevenson’s story is far from being another dull piece of British English literature. The setting and mood of this novella are more complexRead More Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - The Battle Between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde1313 Words   |  6 PagesBetween Jekyll and Hyde      Ã‚  Ã‚   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 holdsRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1196 Words   |  5 Pageswhich do let control you? The good or evil? This was a question that Dr. Jekyll from the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, could not answer. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a book about a man who cannot control the two sides of himself, causing him to do terrible things and not even be aware of it. The theme of this book is good versus evil. Dr. Jekyll is fighting his evil side, known as Mr. Hyde, throughout the book. Some people believe that the book’s theme hasRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1505 Words   |  7 PagesDuring 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 sià ¨cle 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 culturalRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1012 Words   |  5 PagesRobert Louis Stevenson’s â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde† is a classic Victorian tale of good and evil. The novel tells the story of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a respected scientist who so desperately needs to separate his morality fr om his self-indulgence. Aware of the evil side of his own being, he seeks to be free of it through scientific experiments resulting into the â€Å"bestial† Mr. Hyde. It’s a simple tale about the good and evil that exist in all of us. Through his brilliance, StevensonRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1440 Words   |  6 Pagescomplexity 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 BalfourRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde964 Words   |  4 PagesStrange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson was published in 1886. The story is published during the Victorian era, the Victorian era was an age of repression, there was no violence, n o sexual appetite, and there was no great expression or emotion. In the story, Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that turns him into Mr. Hyde, Mr. Hyde is the complete opposite of what people are in the Victorian era. At first, Dr. Jekyll is in control of Mr. Hyde, but towards the end Mr. HydeRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay975 Words   |  4 PagesStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella that follows the basic outline established by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein. However, Stevenson’s monster is not created from body parts but comes from the dark side of the human personality. In both novels, a man conducts a secret experiment that gets out of control. The result of these experiments is the release of a double, or doppelganger, which causes damage to their creator. While most people think that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and MrRead MoreStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde1580 Words   |  6 Pagesand evil in the main characters where we are bound to ask ourselves what is superior between good and evil? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are easily seen as an allegory of the evil and good that exists in men. The book depicts the struggle with two sides of the human personality. Since Mr. Hyde seems to be taking over Dr. Jekyll, one could claim that evil is stronger than good. Nevertheless, Mr. Hyde ends up dead at the end of the story, which strongly shows the weakness and the failure of evil, so we have