Homosexuality In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Within the psychology of humans, tendencies of violence are a part of all personalities. Though, in most cases, humans are able to conceal the many negative flaws within; however, others struggle to suppress that part of their personality. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde, a mysterious character by the name of Mr. Hyde is introduced. In Victorian England, Mr. Hyde is feared by all of the town’s citizens, adding to the man’s ominous character. 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 Victorian Era: a time where perfection was of the upmost important. A period where the ideal man or woman was what was to be expected and anything short of that was typically looked down upon. It was a standard to look beautiful and quaint, and this ideal was especially reflected in Victorian literature. From Jane Eyre being criticized that she is plain, to Lady Bracknell pointing out that Cecily is sadly simple, a person’s viewpoint on another was crucial, and no author was able to tackle this aspect better than Robert Louis Stevenson. In his novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mr. Hyde’s appearance and how others view him is taken to the extreme. He is a deformed man, yet no one can outright express how deformed he looks, only that he has a sense of deformity. In an age where people judged others based on their looks rather than their character, Mr. Hyde’s appearance is able to show that Victorians were both

In the novella of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson uses the backdrop of utter darkness and fog in almost every scene to allude to the uncertainty, compulsiveness, and hidden mysterious that are in every aspect of human nature, demonstrated through the complex character that is Mr Hyde. The evilness that Stevenson believed every human possessed was thoroughly exemplified through Hydes actions in the story whether the reader noticed it or not. Symbolized through setting, the complete darkness was the uncertainty of Hydes physical appearance to who ever he encountered. Although his victims could feel his brutal cruelness through the vibe let out through those certain characters opposing senses besides sight. Fog was the uncertainty that goes

In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson uses weak diction, juxtaposition, and characterization to argue that man’s evil psyche will often overpower the good in a fight for control.

In the novel, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson explores the complexity of human nature. He uses characters and events in the novel to present his stance on the major theme: “man is not truly one, but truly two” (125). Branching from this major theme are many more specific views on the idea that human nature is divided into good and evil. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are two very different people who occupy the same body. Human beings struggle with good and evil and Stevenson goes to the extreme to to show this relationship.

The novel takes place in Victorian England and the main characters are all male members of upper class London. Enfield, Utterson, Lanyon and Jekyll are all aware of the social expectations and the importance of appearance, Jekyll and Hyde shows a contrast of public vs private. Even in the first chapter, Enfield is wary of sharing his story

He uses a very creative mind to tell the story of Jekyll and Hyde. The dual personalities were labeled as a mental disorder during the Victorian era. Although, social morality was very important during these times. Society still had to deal with issues of good versus evil. There were also issues with child labor, prostitution, homosexuality, and criminal psychology. The “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” paints a picture of how many battles daily to fight the good and evil within. Stevenson furthermore illustrates the rational and the irrational mindset by contrasting reality with the supernatural. This is one of Stevenson’s finest literary

Without the bad force, the good force can’t be present; therefore, the bad is within the good and vice-versa. The book presents Dr. Jekyll as a good and respectable man, but Dr. Jekyll hides his dark nature until the creation of Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll likes being nice and friendly, but he also has dark urges he wants to satisfy. Once he creates Hyde, he feels Hyde’s dark urges seeping into his mind, because his good intention and nature wasn’t able to keep his dark nature in check. Dr. Jekyll presents what is going inside his head in his statement. “I would still be merrily disposed at times; and as my pleasures were (to say the least) undignified, and I was not only well known and highly considered, but growing toward the elderly man, this incoherency of my life was daily growing more unwelcome. It was on this side that my new power tempted me until I fell into slavery.” (Stevenson 62) This line is very obvious at pointing how Dr. Jekyll is getting bored of his dignified and mannerly life. He is losing the balance that kept him satisfied. Before he created Hyde, he was not able to satisfy most of his dark urges, which causes him unhappiness. There is a small imbalance of nature before, and that causes him to be curious about separating his nature to satisfy his dark apetite. Hyde helped him satisfy the bad urges without destroying his good appearance. But, Hyde’s evil power becomes extremely strong that it pulled all the joy out of being the good-natured Dr. Jekyll. When a person falls into any kind of slavery, they have no power to choose their fate. This line proves the imbalance that is present before and after the creation of Hyde. Even Dr. Jekyll is beginning to understand the imbalance between the two opposing forces can cause trouble, as he described in his statement. “I were more conscious of a more generous tide of blood; and I began to spy a danger that, if this

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a short novel written by Robert Stevenson, shocking the audience with its sudden twist. Told mostly from the view of Mr. Utterson, Jekyll’s lawyer, he goes through the mysterious connection between Jekyll and a horrible man named Mr. Hyde. In the end of the novel, it is discovered that Jekyll is Hyde, taking a potion to transform into the hideous man. After several transformations into Hyde, Jekyll finally glances into a mirror, seeing a short, hideous and hairy man, much different from the tall and clean Jekyll. In the novel, Stevenson uses mirrors to represent Hyde’s physical manifestation, an object that reflects within the person, and he uses the mirrors to show the unstable duality of the individual's psyche.

Jekyll’s physical appearance is described as a: “a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness, large handsome face” (12-13). Jekyll is tall and built: tying in to his stature in his community. He is also referenced as smooth-faced, just as everyone sees his personality—smooth and put together. The way the author described Jekyll was perfectly fitting to the good he represented. Mr. Hyde’s physical appearance however, was vastly different from Dr. Jekyll. Hyde’s physical factors were: “pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression of deformity without any namable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky whispering somewhat broken voice” (10). Jekyll is large while Hyde is small in stature, because of Hyde’s ethics being lower than of Jekyll’s. Hyde is also smaller because he is suppressed; he is hidden and shameful to Jekyll’s moral value. Hyde is described as “deformed” and has a “broken” voice. A voice is used to be heard by all; it is your projection onto the world. Taking this into account, Hyde’s projection onto the world is broken, ugly and warped: just as his voice is. He looks deformed without any real malformations, just as the evil inside of him deforms his

In his 1994 paper, Claiming the Pardoner: Toward a Gay Reading of Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, Steven F. Kruger begins with an intriguing reference to Allen Barnett's 1990 short-story Philostorgy, Now Obscure. Barnett, according to Kruger, understands the Pardoner to be "a voice that might angrily challenge or campily subvert the legacies of homophobia" (Barnett 118). Kruger, however, is skeptical of such an interpretation of the Pardoner, because of the homophobic way in which Chaucer wrote him. Thus, Kruger is concerned that if the Pardoner is "claimed", the modern gay community might involve themselves in this bigotry. In order to define the Pardoner's position in gay history and grasp Chaucer's intentions with this character, Kruger aims to understand medieval homophobia and homosexuality. Through his study of homophobic trends and the Pardoner's character and tale, Kruger does not aim to prove the Pardoner's homosexuality or necessarily "claim" him, but nonetheless views the possibility of a gay Pardoner to be

This in itself is answered and directly bought up by Jekyll in the book, with the quote: I believe that this quote explains that Dr. Jekyll feels that although Hyde is pure evil, he knows that there is also an evil side to Jekyll – he allowed Hyde to exist, fully well knowing that Hyde would be dangerous.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde comprise of notoriety, great versus shrewdness and harm control. At the end of the day, Utterson resolutely attempts to keep his closest companion Dr. Jekyll from being dragged into the repulsive issues of Mr. Hyde, and Dr. Jekyll experiences the best of lengths to keep his Hyde personality from being found, so as to maintain a strategic distance from anybody knowing about his to some degree flawed logical work and ethically wretched conduct. A great part of the novel depends on the characters ' notorieties, how they need to keep up a decent open picture, as they are high society individuals.

“It signified, briefly enough, that the writer’s benefactor, Dr. Jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under no alarm for his safety, as he had means of escape on which he placed a sure dependence.” (Stevenson 1886, p. 34). Hyde writes this letter in order to make policemen and lawers believed that there is another person called Hyde. Moreover, it can still make himself to be an important status, can show to public that this event does not have any relationship with him. However, in his heart of hearts, sometimes, he wants to be a good person. He writes a letter to confess what evil he does when “he was Hyde.” Moreover, he does not want to talk about more about Hyde’s malignant behavior on the testament, it also explains as Jekyll he does not want to mention Hyde too much. However, actually Hyde is the other type of himself. As Jekyll, he is a nice person, he try to remedy Hyde’s mistake, but as the time goes on, Jekyll finds that he can not control Hyde anymore. It is one aspect to support both good and evil can reflect in one person. Moreover, “Will Hyde die upon the scaffold? Or will he find courage to release himself at the last moment? God knows; I am careless; this is my true hour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself. Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy

In Kellen Williams’s “"Down With The Door, Poole": Designating Deviance In Stevenson 's Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde”, Williams suggests that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde employs realism, as do many 19th century novels. In Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it is evident that he weaves in a significant portion of Science and scientific language to propel the narrative and highlight the failings of the Victorian society. In addition, Stevenson’s perspective on the social anxieties of the time, namely “fears about degeneration” (Davis 208), the irrevocably dual nature of man, and the questionable morality of Victorian bourgeois values. However, the depiction of class and moral anxieties