Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

English Coursework

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' was published in 1886 and is one of the best known of Stevenson's novels. It concerns the way in which an individual is made up of contrary emotions and desires: some good and some evil. Through the curiosity of Utterson, a lawyer, we learn of the ugly and violent Mr Hyde and his odd connection to the respectable Dr Jekyll. A brutal murder follows. The dead man is one of Utterson's clients, Sir Danvers Carew. The murder weapon was a cane that belonged to Dr Jekyll. The lawyer therefore becomes entangled in the strange world of Dr Jekyll. The story follows Utterson quest to find the truth out about the doctor and find a source to his uncharacteristic behaviour.

Dr. Jekyll is a physician who believes there are two sides to every person, a good side and an evil side. He feels guilty about the evil he holds within and believes that by that by producing another being based solely on evil, he will not feel guilty any more. The story is told through multiple perspectives because it allows the reader to see clearly into different characters personalities. Using multiple perspectives also allows the writer to gradually reveal parts of the plot to the reader. Multiple perspectives allow readers to see clearly into the characters and their relationships by showing the reader how they think and feel. It also allows the reader to draw conclusions about characters from more then one point of view. Multiple perspectives are used to increase the sense of mystery and suspense of the story by letting the reader pick up clues from different characters as the story gradually unfolds. The book follows gothic tradition because of its 'contemporary', metropolitan setting and detective-story trappings, but feasibly also because of a stranger phenomenon, its obvious connection with actual late Victorian fears about similarly untraceable murders, centred on the archetype of Jack the Ripper. A Victorian reader would have been a lot more involved with the book. A Victorian reader would have read this boom as a mystery. They had to read to the end to discover the truth. A modern reader however, already knows that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were the same person. They would have thought this book as a gothic horror.

RL Stevenson uses the setting of the story to demonstrate the theme of duality. The area outside Mr. Hyde's house is described as ' a dingy street... many ragged children huddled in doorways.' The inside of Mr. Hyde's house is described as 'furnished with luxury and good taste... elegant'. This suggests duality because the street is downtrodden, however Mr. Hyde's house is 'elegant'.

Dr. Jekyll's house is described as 'great air of wealth and comfort'. His laboratory however is described as 'discoloured wall... prolonged and sordid negligence... blistered and distained'. This highlights a theme of duality because one side of his house is 'great' whereas the other side is the complete opposite. It is 'distained'.

Stevenson also uses the setting of the story to demonstrate the theme of secrecy. 'The fogged settled'. This highlights secrecy because fog is misty and you can't see anything through fog. It's almost as if the street has got a secret to hide. That's why the fog appeared. The outside of Dr. Jekyll's laboratory is described as 'showed no window'. This suggests secrecy because having no windows means that no-one can look into the room, which suggests that he's doing something he doesn't want anybody to see, something secret.

RL Stevenson was interested in the idea of duality and secrecy because all around England, Stevenson saw that although on the outside most noblemen seemed to be fine and upstanding citizens, inside they hid dark secrets. Many critics even suspect that Jekyll and Hyde was a self-admission by Stevenson of

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