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Mystery and tension in dr jekyll and mr hyde
First chapter of the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde
Tension and mystery in the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde
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Jekyll and Hyde practice In this extract, Robert Louis Stevenson has used his description of the setting to create mystery and tension. This can be seen with his use of “great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven” and “here it would be dark like the back-end of evening”. Stevenson’s use of pathetic fallacy and imagery in this extract sets up the mystery of the chapter, as his use of language portrays the gloominess and darkness of the area of London that Utterson is in. This adds to the mystery and tension, as the surroundings are obscured from vision by the weather, thus creating uncertainty within the reader of what is to happen.
Utterson is the most frequent perspective that is encountered in story, with this the author added in more detail by using Utterson's view. On page 15, "Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself..." Here he uses Utterson's thoughts to describe Mr. Hyde with details and more information about him to reveal his true nature and his features. This is Utterson's first interaction with Mr. Hyde, Utterson goes of wondering of why did Jekyll chose Mr. Hyde to be the only one in the will. On page 31 " The death of Sir Danvers was, to his way of thinking, more than paid for by the disappearance of Mr. Hyde".
“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” is a Victorian Gothic novel that was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in the late 19th century. The contrast between the mild-mannered Jekyll and the barbaric Hyde allows Stevenson to portray Hyde as a frightening outsider whilst establishing the recurring themes of corruption and horror which are explored through the ideas of vulnerability and blackmail. Throughout the novel Hyde is predominantly presented as animalistic. Highly descriptive vocabulary such as ‘snarled’, ‘hissing’ and ‘troglodytic’ establishes a predatorial tone due to its connotations of danger and fright, suggesting serpent like behaviour.
Soon, Utterson discovers that Mr. Hyde resides within the same building of his childhood friend, Dr. Jekyll. Through many mysteriously violent events, Mr. Utterson makes various connections between the strange behaviors of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde’s personality and the strange happenings. Through Utterson’s investigations, he eventually finds out the truth behind the vile personality of Mr. Hyde and his connection with Dr. Jekyll. In the process of discovering the truth, the restless behavior of Dr. Jekyll proves that he was concealing the sadistic side of himself. Therefore, Mr. Hyde demonstrates that the desire to be violent is found within all humans.
The first thing that came to mind was that after running over the little girl, Hyde comes out of his house with a cheque that has another mans name on it (Stevenson 8). Later on in the story we find out that the name on the cheque was Dr.Henry Jekyll’s. I feel things could have gone differently if Mr.Utterson had told Dr.Jekyll about Mr.Hyde using his cheque. Perhaps it would have changed Dr.Jekyll mind about putting Mr.Hyde in the will, moreover it might have even prodded him to open up to Mr.Utterson about Mr.Hyde.
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson is a book that intrigues one’s mind, because it makes us question ourselves about the balance between the two opposing forces. The story starts out with Mr. Utterson, a lawyer and a great friend of Dr. Jekyll, hearing about Hyde for the first time, who is very shady and somewhat misconfigured. Mr. Utterson hears about Hyde’s bad reputation, and his usage of Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory; therefore, Mr. Utterson suspects some kind of relationship between Hyde and Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Utterson’s friend Lanyon, who is a doctor, dies after Dr. Jekyll goes into seclusion; Mr. Utterson goes to Dr. Jekyll’s house to seek the truth behind Lanyon’s death, but he instead sees Hyde dead. Mr. Utterson
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
But Utterson believes the letter was forged by Jekyll. With the servants of Jekyll scared, Utterson continues his investigation and finds Hyde dead from poison. Jekyll sents a letter to Dr. Lanyon to get something from his laboratory, but Hyde comes to pick it up who then
Dr. Jekyll is seemingly good, kind, and benevolent; while is not purely good he is a moral gentleman. He started his experiment so he could totally separate the bad and the good in himself into two separate beings. He did not succeed, however, for Dr. Jekyll is plagued by the feeling that he wants to become evil again, thus he wants to become Mr. Hyde. It is important to note that Mr. Hyde is completely evil; he has no goodness in him, in contrast to Dr. Jekyll who was a troubled mix. Mr. Hyde feels no remorse for any evil he has done and actually feels elated when he does commit a moral sin.
Overall, Stevenson’s presentation of the duality of man is conveyed by the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde because towards the end of the novel. Jekyll begins to realise that the schism which once caused them to despise one another, help them understand each other situation. Jekyll even begins to ‘pity’ Hyde toward the end of novel, praising his ‘love for life’ by calling it ‘wonderful’, as his creator he consequently acknowledges the condescending attitudes towards Hyde, unfairly for his appearance, however rightfully so for his actions. Moreover, like Darwin’s theory, Hyde could never be accepted into society, often being characterised as a ‘brute’. Additionally, Jekyll’s actions would be condemned by the Victorian readers, as he was
Good Vs. Evil or Good and Evil Would it be ideal if every choice someone made was considered to be good? Imagine a world without rules. A society without a moral compass. What would it be like?
When the story opens, a story is being told about how Hyde trampled a young girl. Rather than stay on the scene, he retreats. It is Jekyll who provides the family with a check in order to keep them silent about the tragedy. Mutual friends of Jekyll’s, Mr. Utterson and Dr. Lanyon, are suspicious of the possible individual who could be terrorizing London, and they begin to investigate on their own. Jekyll wanted to separate his good side from his evil impulses creating a potion that would allow him to do that physically.
Have you ever watched a movie or a tv show, or even read a book, in which any character has two different sides? It was probably..., the good one and the evil one? And those sides are always opposites… Right? If this plot is not a strange thing to you, have you ever thought why is this idea/theme so present in many ways inside the pop culture?
Jekyll first finds out that Mr. Utterson wanted to talk about his will he immediately tries to change the topic this gives a sense of secrecy and mystery. This leaves the reader to wonder what Dr. Jekyll is trying to hide, furthermore when Mr. Utterson tries to pursue the topic by mentioning that he has “been learning something of young Hyde” The doctors features darkened “he grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes” This is the first link Stevenson gives us between the Mr. Hyde who is almost shrouded in secrecy throughout the novel and the respectable Dr. Jekyll, this generates a sense of mystery in the reader trying to figure out what the relationship between the two are. Soon afterwards Jekyll convinces Mr. Utterson to keep Hyde a private matter and tells him everything is under his control and he can “be rid of Hyde” at any moment he pleases. However on the second reading the reader knows that the situation is in fact quite the contradiction to what he just said, so this gives an effect of dramatic irony.
While Dr. Jekyll is more of a laid back type of person, he does not want to talk certain things such as why Mr. Hyde was in his
