Dr Jekyll And Hyde

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How does Stevenson present the characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

The novel ‘the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. The novel is set in London. At this time in Victorian England most places were not clean where the poor people lived, there were also rich people who had good jobs and had quite a lot of money; some had jobs like being a doctor like Jekyll is. There is a divide in society, between the upper class and lower class. The cities were smoggy and dirty because the industry and life was really hard for the poor. In these days child labour was the norm. The genre of this novel is gothic fiction, this was popular in 1886 because it was a new type of genre and people enjoyed reading horror novels (only the middle class could read, lower class were too poor for an education). Most people at this time were religious so they were nervous about the recent changes in science. Charles Darwin wrote ‘The Origin of the Species’ which claimed that man descended from apes, which frightened the Victorians about what they had evolved from. In this essay I intend to explain how Robert Louis Stevenson has presented the characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.  

The character of Mr Hyde is presented first in the novel. He is presented as a monster, ugly to look at, a murderer and a blackmailer. The first time Mr Hyde is mentioned in the novel, is when Mr Enfield tells Mr Utterson that he saw Mr Hyde trampling over a little girl, when they were out for a walk.
      ‘The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on
       the ground.’
The adverb ‘calmly’ suggests he was unaffected by his actions and shows that he had no feelings.
Hyde’s physical appearance is not easy to describe. Enfield suggests that he looks hideous.
      ‘It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned juggernaut’
the noun ‘juggernaut’ suggests that he is unstoppable and he will crush anything or anyone in its path.
Utterson describes Hyde’s physical appearance as pre-human.
      ‘Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression of deformity

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Without any nameable malformation.’

Utterson suggests that he looks deformed and that he has never seen anything like Mr Hyde before.

Hyde murders an MP called Sir Danvers Carew. Sir Danvers Carew was a well liked and famous man. Stevenson presents Hyde as a madman.
       ‘And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping

High too, as of a well founded self content.’

This quote suggests that he has got a bad temper which he can not control, like a wild animal.
Stevenson used animalistic imagery to suggest that he ...

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