Kimberley Lloyd-Rees
Compare the two accounts of drug taking from ‘Trainspotting’ and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ for realism and Interest.
How many of their differences can be put down to the times when they were written and the attitude that existed towards drugs at that time?
In this essay I will be comparing two different accounts of drug taking, one view is taken from the 19th century story ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and the other from the 20th century novel ‘Trainspotting’. I will compare them for interest and realism.
In the section of ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ that I have it is obvious that the story is fantasy and not founded on reality. The language used, emphasises the actions by the use of dramatic words. There is one part which describes Mr Hyde making a drug to turn him back into Dr Jekyll, but the way that it has been worded sounds like he is mixing a spectacular potion, “as the crystals melted, to brighten in colour, to effervesce audibly, and to throw off small fumes of vapour”. The extract explaining the production of the drug has been greatly exaggerated, Robert Louis Stevenson has described every single movement and the reaction to each act. Stevenson has turned the usually simple and private act of preparing drugs into a dramatic scene, which would have enthralled the public of the 19th century. The fact that some one is watching Mr Hyde create and test the drug is also an unusual concept because like I have already stated drug taking is normally a personal act which you wouldn’t want some one to watch you do. I find it hard to believe that a soulless man like Mr Hyde would try and turn himself back into Dr Jekyll; all of these facts back up the fact that this is a fantasy account of drug taking. However far fetched the story is I think that it supports the view that a vast majority of people in the 19th century would have had on drugs.
