Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll...

â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde† is a gothic horror novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson in the Victorian era. The novella follows a well-respected doctor - Henry Jekyll - and his struggle between good and evil when he takes a potion and becomes Mr Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson - the author of the novella â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde†- was born in Edinburgh in 1850 and died at the young age of forty-four. He wrote the book in 1886. As a child he was very close to his nurse and when he was ill she used to read him Bible stories as he was brought up in a strict Catholic tradition, which he later rebelled against. This led to his fascination for his city’s low life and for bizarre characters, which†¦show more content†¦When describing the door, Stevenson includes detail about the surrounding and the atmosphere as being dark weather, foggy and mysterious: â€Å"a black winter morning†. The door also represents mystery, as we do not know the contents of the building: â€Å"showed no window, nothing but a door†. The building is described as being â€Å"a certain sinister block† which suggests it looks evil. The atmosphere is unwelcoming around the door† as it has â€Å"neither bell nor knocker† which shows that Mr Hyde did not want any visitors. Most of the changes from Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde take place in the laboratory. This is an odd setting to use, as it is a symbol of what could be the origin of evil. Stevenson insinuates this by the way he uses the butler (Poole) to say that it used to be a dissecting room - this is where many dead bodies will have been experimented on. Since the symbols of evil in this novella are Mr Hyde and his use of medicine this could also be the case as the potion that went wrong, and created and evil individual, was made here. When we later learn â€Å"the door† leads to a courtyard, which allows Mr Hyde into the laboratory this begins to feel strange, as we do not understand why Mr Hyde is going into Dr Jekyll’s grounds. Our next setting is at the murder of Sir Danvers Carew where - once again - there was fog, which hadShow MoreRelatedThe Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1052 Words   |  5 Pagescriticized 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. Dr. Jekyll, the protagonist in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and MrRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Where Dr. Jekyll 1163 Words   |  5 PagesBrodie and Dr. Knox were both from Edinburgh and both lived â€Å"double-lives†, this undoubtedly had a major impact upon Stevenson’s imagination and later his writings. (Stefan 5) â€Å"While growing up Stevenson had a friend and the son of Sir James Simpson, the developer of medical anesthesia, the two friends would â€Å"experiment† with chloroform, for the enjoyment of it.† (Stefan 5) This experimenting carries a familiarity with it that would later be found in the character of Dr. Jekyll in Stevenson’s novel,Read 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 MoreRobert Louis Stevenson Influences1344 Words   |  6 PagesExternal Influences on Stevenson’s Writings â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde† by Robert Louis Stevenson was a familiar title to me and prior to reading it I believed I was well versed about the story. I knew that Dr. Jekyll was an intelligent man who experimented with the idea of creating a more powerful version of him that would release his deepest inhibitions. In addition, I believed that the people of the town were not fully aware of Mr. Hyde, only that there was a monsterRead MoreThe Duality of Man in Literary Works and Critical Essays1580 Words   |  7 Pagesand laymen have been fascinated with the study since then. Robert Louis Stevenson is one of the more notable authors to write about dual personalities with his short story, â€Å"Markheim,† and the novella, †The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.† The latter of these two stories has inspired the study of multiple personalities more than any other work of fiction, and perhaps any work of nonfiction. According to Anne Stiles, â€Å"[Stevenson’s wife] traces her spouses’ interest in dual personality to aRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay975 Words   |  4 PagesRobert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange 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 s ide 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 StrangeRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde : Literary Review1515 Words   |  7 PagesThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Literary Review The Romantic era was plagued with class conflict, poverty, and labor issues. The Victorian novel allows those who had access to them discover and focus on moral issues with society. Among the novel that were created during the era, the genre of a gothic novella emerged. Well knowns gothic novellas included Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Robert Stevenson’s gothic novella The StrangeRead MoreIdeas Of Good And Evil Follow From The Earliest Of Days.847 Words   |  4 Pagesfollow from the earliest of days. Robert Louis Stevenson’s parents lived devout in their Christianity, but Stevenson did not follow their ideas. G.B. Stern suggests that â€Å"Although he had rejected the Calvinist doctrines his parents taught him, the focus of the interplay of good and evil continued to influence his imagination† (Stern). Stevenson forced his parents away, but their ideas stayed in his thoughts and even affected The Stra nge Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His past affected his writingRead More Analysis of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson2888 Words   |  12 PagesAnalysis of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson In an attempt to consider the duality tale, one narrative inevitably finds its way to the top of the heap as the supreme archetype: Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Immense disagreement permeates the pages of literary criticism relevant to the meaning of the story. Yet, for all of the wrangling focused on the psychology, morality, spirituality, and sociality of the story, itRead MoreComparing The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1599 Words   |  7 Pages‘The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde’ And ‘Frankenstein’ When comparing the similarities and differences between Mary Shelley’s story of ‘Frankenstein’ and Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of ‘The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde’, it was found that although the characters in both stories suffer an unhealthy obsession/addiction to their scientific work and even though both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll had good intentions for their creations, the outcome of the Monster and Mr. Hyde were