Emily Smith Compare the author's treatment of the theme of good and evil in "I'm the king of the castle" and " Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde".

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Emily Smith   Compare the author’s treatment of the theme of good and evil in    “I’m the king of the castle” and “ Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde”.

In books generally the contrast between good and evil is a very popular theme. The power struggle is captivating and when evil wins over good we like to think that it may work out the other way round.

This theme has been popular for quite a long time for example Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the Greek tragedies. It is also seen today for example in Harry Potter.

In both “Jekyll & Hyde” and “ I’m the king of the castle” there is a huge contrast between these two extremes. These are represented by the two main characters.

Dr. Jekyll and My Hyde centres itself around the conception of humanity as having a dual nature. Jekyll said, “ man is not truly one, but truly two”  “...all human beings...are commingled out of good and evil.” that is between an “angel” and a “fiend” each struggling for mastery.  In “King of the castle” the two main characters seem to represent the two poles of good and evil.

In both stories the settings are dark, gloomy, creepy and quite secretive.

The story of Jekyll and Hyde is set as a contrast not only between good and evil but also between interior and exterior. In the exterior crimes took place and in the interior are secret laboratories and elegant rooms. Jekyll’s house is seen as an important metaphor. Its sinister black back entrance is related to Hyde and its public entrance used by Jekyll gives an impression of his great wealth.

The houses are quite similar in both books. In  “I’m the king of the castle “ Waring’s is described as being both “ugly” and “ entirely graceless” and the door in Blackmail house in Jekyll &Hyde is described as being covered with “ blisters & stains” showing that the initial impression is that these are not very attractive places. Warings is described in many ways as being “ugly” and it had a lot of “ solidity and gloom” it is very isolated and  “ some distance from any other houses”. It was made of “ dark-red brick” which makes it a dark house, again red maybe to symbolise danger and blood. Kingshaw said it was      “ too dark…smells un-lived in” which shows how much he really didn’t like it! Most of the places in this book show Kingshaws fears, the red room, the attic, the field, the shed and the cornfield. However there are some places where he feels safer, for example in the conservatory Kingshaw goes there because he can be alone and in the dolls room he feels safe and special there because the dolls cannot harm him and he has power over them for once. In Hang wood the boys have to survive away from the parents and for Kingshaw this is a place of peace, rest, brightness and of green but it exposes Hooper's fear which somehow equals their power levels.

The areas that the two books are set in have the same feel to them Hang wood is described as being “ creeping…dead…cold, damp and musty” and Soho as having “ damp, foggy weather”. In both books any reference the to the weather is cold and dreary. In Jekyll and Hyde the characters always seem to come and go at night, and the only light is from the “dull moon” or from the flickering streetlights.  These are very symbolistic representations to show the darker side of human nature

Stevenson throughout the novel tries to establish through an imagery of evil or menace in which dark streets twist and coil or are draped with fog. He does this through a link between the urban Victorian London and the events surrounding Mr Hyde.  These visions also appear in Utterson’s nightmares “ He would be aware of the great field of lamps of the nocturnal city…..The figure..haunted the lawyer all night….& at every street corner crush a child and leave her screaming.” Stevenson paints a picture of Hyde as being an urban creature, very at home in the dark streets of London- where many crimes take place.

Susan Hill is trying to create a scary, dark, impression of the gardens and surrounding countryside. There is already a lot of local fear in the gardens “hang wood” and the threatening “ Barnards forest” , these are both names and places that seem frightening. “Thistles” and “stubble pricking” these quotes give the feeling of being uncomfortable. There is a sense of the fields never ending “ only more fields”.

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In King of the Castle Kingshaw describes Hang wood as a place of entrapment “ there was no sign of the wood coming to an end, in any direction he could see. He felt closed in and stifled, with the everlasting dark greenness overhead, shutting out the sky”. The idea of the “big wood” is introduced as being frightening but in fact it turns out to be a good place for Kingshaw and he ends up liking it.  It portrays the wood as having a feeling of brightness, space and greenness. It was a place where he knew there was ...

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