How successfully does 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' use the conventions of the horror genre? Explain your answer, looking closely at details of the text, and comparing the novel with other horror stories you have read or seen.

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How successfully does ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ use the conventions of the horror genre? Explain your answer, looking closely at details of the text, and comparing the novel with other horror stories you have read or seen.

‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is a short novel written by the famous author, Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson’s ambition from an early age was to be an writer, although his father had different ideas. In one of his most famous novels, ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, Stevenson captures the extremism of Dr. Jekyll’s split-personality; his desire to let his dark side run wild, achieved by drinking a magical potion that changes him into the animalistic, violent and somewhat evil Mr. Hyde.

The word “horror” categorises everything typically frightening, in every sense. Horror conventions include anything from darkness, shadows and night-time to werewolves, knives and blood; from monsters, violence and death to screaming, animal howls and creaky doors. “Horror” is simply a term to summarise all things scary, and is used mostly to describe books and films. ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ can be seen as a horror novel, because of its shocking and horrific content. In this essay I will explore the ways and successes in which Stevenson presents the story of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ using conventions of the horror genre, referring to details of the text and comparing the novel with other horror stories and videos.

One of the important horror conventions used in ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is the use of darkness and the atmosphere of the setting. It is necessary that the weather, amount of light and general atmosphere is dark, quiet and negative to create a tense, scary mood. In the horror genre, violent or evil actions traditionally occur at night, when there are less people around to help, it is much quieter than during the day, and because the darkness easily conceals any crimes that are committed. The first time that Enfield sees Hyde, he is returning home “about three o’clock of a black winter morning”. There is “literally nothing to be seen but lamps”, and “all is empty as a church”. This, even before Enfield has set eyes on Hyde, creates a tense atmosphere where it feels likely that something horrible will happen. The weather is dark (“black”), and it is winter, suggesting that it is very cold, and the general atmosphere is very un-welcoming. The fact that the area is “empty” adds to the horror, because this means that nobody will be around to help you when something evil appears out of the darkness. Another example is “the lamps, unshaken by any wind, drawing a regular pattern of light and shadow.” Shadows are seen as frightening, because of the way they creep around and you can never be sure who or what is making the shadows. The darkness and gloomy weather successfully creates a threatening, tense, and un-inviting atmosphere. This horror convention is similarly used in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, when the old man’s room is described as “as black as pitch with the thick darkness.” As the narrator is pondering the murder of the old man, the darkness is important as it will not only create a tense atmosphere, but it will also conceal the murder. This is similar to the way the streets are usually described as dark and dingy in ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’.

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Another important horror convention used in ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is the Pathetic Fallacy. Stevenson employs the Pathetic Fallacy to reflect the emotions of the characters, by making the weather match the appropriate mood. A weather description in Chapter Four is an example of this; “A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled vapours.” At this time, Mr Utterson is showing a police officer to the house of Edward Hyde, who we are suspecting of the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. The intensity of this scene is reflected by ...

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