Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 “shilling shocker”, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, has been subjected to various interpretations over the years. While some have assessed the trope of duality in the light of racism, colonization and cultural ‘other’, others have drawn on psychological references of split personality or ‘dissociative identity disorder’(i.e. existence of more than one personality in one body). The popularity of the novella and the idea of binaries existing in one being, has given birth to the phrase ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ which associates itself to a person whose attitude is vastly different from situation to situation. The respectable Dr. Jekyll, in his attempt to prove the worth of his scientific ambitions and studies, creates a monster much like Frankenstein’s monster but at the same time completely different from it.
According to Arendt, the accused was not a devil, but more of a "buffoon". Arendt saw Adolf Eichmann as a normal hard-working bureaucrat without "devilish-demonic depth". Obedience, a sense of duty and career thinking seemed to have motivated him much more than ideological fanaticism or low motives. He committed monstrous crimes without being a monster. “Arendt saw in Eichmann a disturbingly average man of middling intelligence.
What would be the connection between Don Quixote, The Great Gatsby and all the stories of Sherlock Holmes? Is there any common element that may be reused in these narratives as a whole? Undoubtedly there are more divergences than similarities. In fact, all of them were written in different ages, cultures, styles and literary genres. Whereas the first Sherlock Holmes ' apparition was in 1886 in United Kingdom, The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by an American and the Spanish Don Quixote belongs to the XVI century.
Mr. Hyde and Dr Jekyll majorly relates on the tale adapted from Robert Stevenson’s novella about a man who develops and takes a specific type of drug, which releases his evil side and turns him from a mild-mannered science man into a murderous maniac. As the plot goes on, his appearance changes along with the behavior. This paper analyzes this characters using Jeffrey Jerome’s concept as outlined in the “monster culture”. Discussion From this novel, it is apparent that Stevenson has demonstrated, through his characters, the concept of “Monster Culture” outlined by Cohen. For instance, Dr Jekyll a principle character in this novel is a man with two distinct personalities, one consisting of evil and the other consisting of good.
The setting of a story can be useful in placing and describing the location of the plot to not only keep the story grounded, but to also give details to the characters and their personalities. The story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” written by Robert Louis Stevenson, uses the settings and locations to help describe and represent the opposing personalities of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the larger narrative. Using a dark and eerie setting while showcasing a character like Hyde helps bring out the mysterious character traits that he portrays, whereas using a setting that is more defined in a lighthearted place to help bring out Jekyll’s character encourages the contrast between the two characters. When the character Mr. Hyde is first introduced through another character named Mr. Enfield, Enfield describes the setting of the meeting to be eerie and dark, “about three o’ clock of a black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps” (Stevenson, pg.6). As this is the reader’s first introduction to the character, the setting of the location reflects that Mr. Hyde may be a more mysterious character.
American gothic writers have had much impact on our American society in countless ways. Gothic writers wrote about many national problems ranging from politics to mental illnesses. Conventional wisdom claims that gothic writers popularized and influenced the study of psychology. Steven Hammelman acknowledges that Charles Brockden Brown’s short stories caused people to ask questions, to propose theories, and almost always offer some insight to professionals and those alike. (Hammelman, Steven.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Anybody who thinks that he or she knows another person, even the closest one, inside out is mistaken. As proverb saying: “Every bean has its black”; in other words, everyone has secrets but some secrets are darker than others. Dr. Jekyll loved being a good and decent man and was ashamed of “the evil side of his nature” (Stevenson 52), so he decided to purify himself from evil-self. Unfortunately, Dr. Jekyll failed to do so; the darkness of his evil nature completely overpowered the light of his kind heart. Therein, a question emerges: Why the dark devoured the light in Dr. Jekyll’s personality and not vice versa?
At a glance, it might seem that the works which have been analysed in this study are indisputably similar. A Gothic novel as revealed through the various illustrations explains to the readers a world filled with terror, horror, madness, mystery and unsolved crime. The gothic fiction germinated in the latter part of the 18th century. Various causes have been ascribed for the Gothic origin and development. When Poe appeared on the American literary scene, more than seventy years old tradition in Gothic writing existed.
This lab in which the character Mr. Hyde is associated with is referred in the novel as a sinister block of buildings. (Stevenson) It is seen that there is something that is terribly off with this building. It seems deformed in a manner just like Mr. Hyde. The setting, in this case has been used successfully by the author in the presentation and the development of the character of Mr. Hyde and Jekyll. It has also been used in the development of evil throughout the novel.
Just like this study, which used a novel entitled “A Study in Scarlet” to be analyzed. This study will analyze the components of speech acts; locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary, and also analyzing the functions of the speech acts. II. Materials and Method The data of this study is a novel entitled “A Study in Scarlet” which was written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle is a famous British writer which is well-known with his detective novel genre.