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DJMH Vs. Podg During The Victorian Era

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Fallu Ndow Mrs. Moore English II Inth B7 28 March 2024 DJMH vs PoDG During the Victorian Era, many works addressed the common theme of identity. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a detective novel that follows the story of a man who investigates strange occurrences related to his old friend. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is about a man who casts away his morals in exchange for eternal beauty. Both stories address the duality of human nature and show how humans are made up of different sides that can conflict with one another and how an attempt to isolate these different aspects of your identity will only lead to your self-detriment. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde conveys this idea …show more content…

Jekyll is shown to be a “smooth-faced man of fifty”(3), who is marked with “capacity and kindness”(3). He is described as a good-looking kind person who is meant to represent the good in the story as we often associate things that look good with objectively correct and morally right things. This is contrasted by Mr. Hyde, as he is described as “pale and dwarfish”(2) while giving “an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation”(2). Mr. Hyde is dwarfish and ugly, showing that he is the embodiment of Dr. Jekyll’s immoral side as he is as morally twisted as his own face. This is all brought together when looking at Theresa Adams’ article “The strangely mobile Mr. Hyde.” In this article, Theresa compares Dr. Jekyll’s character as a whole to Victorian London. She talks about “the prevalence of mixed spaces”(8) that form when the “impoverished East and wealthy West”(4) parts of London intersect. By comparing Jekyll to these mixed spaces she shows how he is an amalgamation of two personalities that despite their differences could coexist. But when he tries to separate them to become more east or west end, he ends up only destroying himself and completely losing his …show more content…

Dorian is portrayed to be pure and beautiful, showing the good side of Dorian that everyone views as perfect and couldn’t harm anyone. In addition, more is learned about Dorian’s spiritual well-being through his portrait as it has a “hideous face”(13) and causes anyone who looks at it to contract a feeling of “disgust and loathing”(13). This portrait acts as a window towards Dorian’s soul as despite appearing perfect on the outside, on the inside Dorian has become morally twisted and lives for his desires. The collapse of Dorian’s soul is further exemplified by Brian Aubrey’s “Critical Essay on ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’.” As he explains, Dorian wanted “to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul”(2) but instead cures his senses but corrupts his soul. The corruption of Dorian’s soul as a result of the influence of his friend Henry and Dorian being blessed with eternal beauty because of Basil resulted in a divergence between Dorian’s mind and soul which caused him to go down a path that led to his destruction, just like

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He upholds the values that are expected of him in Victorian society. Stephenson shows this through Jekyll’s physical features (“a large, well-made, smooth faced man of fifty”) (Stephenson 35). His larger size and advanced age shows increased maturity and responsibility, hallmarks of his character. Being a doctor, he is required to live the way other upstanding people should live.

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1)" (Buzwell). The front of the home in which Dr. Jekyll presides portrays the reputable side while, the home of Mr. Hyde signifies the villainous side of the city. The twist is that the wealthy front and the sordid back are the same property. The respectable front of the home is utilized to hide its disgraceful counterpart just as the dual nature in Dr. Jekyll is used to conceal his more primal desires unsuitable in the society.

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Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” because the story takes place in Victorian England we see that the characters have no room for expression of emotions or violence. Everything they do is secret, so the more Dr Jekyll is repressed, the more he wants to be Mr Hyde. The original characteristics of Henry Jekyll are reflected as “...life of effort, virtue, and control” (pg. 172) because, most of his life his vice activities were maintained a secret. According to Jekyll, when evil is separated into one body, one will not know right from wrong because there is no conscious in a being of complete evil which was Hyde for

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The central conflict faced by the protagonist, Dr. Jekyll, is the struggle between his good and evil personalities. Jekyll, a respected physician, and philanthropist have developed a potion that can separate his inner good and evil sides into separate physical forms, allowing his evil side to emerge as the monstrous Mr. Hyde. However, as time goes on, Jekyll finds that he is losing control over the transformations and

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Dr. Jekyll is suffering from this mental disorder often called split personality. For many years Dr. Jekyll has suffered from this order fighting the evil until he couldn’t fight it anymore. Later on Dr. Jekyll turns into this short, young, and remorseless guy. He had begun to get a thrill from his violent

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At first, the social constraints of the world are lifted from Jeckyll, or so it seems. When Hyde’s influence grows stronger, Jeckyll has less control over his darkest thoughts and even darker impulses. Therefore, this evolution of a symbol creates a bridge to moral wrongdoings and serves as a poetic warning of unchecked desires. Jekyll’s anger and pure unhappiness is depicted through other perspectives, such as the maid said, “but he never answered a word, and seemed to listen with an ill-contained impatience. And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman” (Stevenson).

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Jekyll, a successful doctor who experiments with two sides of human beings: good and bad. Stevenson’s message is clear, it is good and evil in all of us. There is a formula, a potion, can bring out the evil in anyone. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are very different individuals Jekyll is handsome and good in the eyes of the community, whereas Hyde is ugly, evil and described as “like a money” when viewed through society’s glasses. Hyde is illustrated as animalistic and deformed mainly to evoke an evil character.

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The character is contrasted by Dr. Jekyll, the ego. Jekyll tries to balance out the evil Hyde unleashed upon the world, by indulging in charity and other good

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The Victorian era was a time of strict social norms, and individuals were expected to conform to these norms or risk being ostracized from society. Jekyll's desire to break free from these norms and become his own person may reflect the tensions of the time. Jekyll's statement, "I had been content with the first calm day in my impatience, to make myself again a brute like those that fawned upon me" (Chapter 10), reflects his desire to escape the confines of Victorian society. This desire to break free from societal norms ultimately leads to Jekyll's downfall. Religion also plays a significant role in shaping Jekyll's character.

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Dr Jekyll’s behaviour heavily influenced his reputation as he was well known throughout London. Mr Enfield, the cousin of Mr Utterson, describes Dr Jekyll without directly referring to him as the “pink of the proprieties”. This quote and Victorian idiom, explain how Dr. Jekyll is someone who is absolutely beyond reproach, with a spotless reputation and is the least susceptible person. He also said in his letter that “I am safe in all men’s respect”. This shows us that he wanted to maintain his strong reputation while releasing his alter ego, presumably so people would not suspect him.

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In Robert Louis Stevenson’s "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," the influence of Victorian social codes cannot be overstated,this helped in shaping the behaviors and identities of the characters. Throughout the story Stevenson illustrates the societal expectations and pressures that led to the creation of the dual personas of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll embodies the ideal Victorian gentleman, exemplifying the societal norms of respectability. His outward appearance and the way he acts align with the expectations of middle-class society, this reflects the pressure for individuals to conform to an image of perfection in Victorian society. As noted by Saposnik (719), men in Victorian society were expected to maintain a facade

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Robert Lewis Stevenson uses character development and setting in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to represent the duality from the Victorian society. Character development in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of the main themes that makes the book. Robert Louis Stevenson puts in spatial metaphors to show the theme of duality "provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man's dual nature", Jekyll communicates the vision that the duo might be "housed in separate identities" (78, 79). I like this quote because it shows how different they are but how they relate to each other. Dr. Jekyll was really fascinated with the supposition that a person has a "good" side and a "bad" side, and he decided to look

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“The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes” (13). We see in situations throughout the book that our initial opinions don’t always fall through. As the reader sees, Dr. Jekyll lives in a nice home that seems, to an extent, beyond normal. The outside of the house that is seen in the light, symbolizes the fake Victorian Era characteristics of Jekyll of which his true self is hidden. Beyond the door, the laboratory symbolizes the true hideousness of Jekyll beyond the surface or in other words, Mr. Hyde.

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He no longer threw gatherings for all his friends at his house, he was just sulking away in his quarters. This change in Jekyll was surprising to his peers because while they knew him, he had put on a look that concealed a whole other side to his nature. All along, he had this deep-down longing to be something else. Dr. Jekyll always believed that there was a “duality of man”, and if he could discover how to separate both identities of evil and good, then “life would be relieved of all that was

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The description of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde portrays the theme of duality itself. The title Stevenson gives to Jekyll is “Dr”, which gives a impression to readers that Jekyll is an respectable man and is part of an elite society. In the third chapter, Jekyll is described as “an large well-made smooth-faced man of fifty,with something of an stylish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness”. Stevenson uses only a few words to unfold Jekyll's personality. The “smooth-faced” creates an notion of unreadable external features, thus creating mystery and foreshadowing his revelation.

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