If 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' intrigues us as a window into the Victorian World, it is also a brilliantly crafted story.

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If ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ intrigues us as a window into the Victorian World, it is also a brilliantly crafted story

‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is an illustrious masterpiece of its genre and very popular among the public of its time, and even still among those today. Even at a short eighty-eight pages long, Stevenson’s manner of writing incorporates an assortment of themes and a large array of hidden layers and meanings in the midst of the pages. One can delve deeply into the phrases and words Stevenson uses in the story to reveal different meanings hidden underneath, such is his way of storytelling, and although such meanings are presented, Stevenson also shows the reader in great, vivid detail what the Victorian world was like. His description in its accuracy opens a window into the Victorian era and as well as being a well-told story, ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ is also, as such, nearly a historical document of the Victorian era, and gives the reader a vivid picture of what life was like when Stevenson wrote the book. The novel itself distinguished itself from other, fanciful stories of that time (such as ‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’). Much of this is to do with aspects such as Stevenson’s choice of narrator, and how there are documents in the story which are written as such as to pretend to be real. This is much like ‘Dracula’, where the entire book consists of pretend diary entries, letters and other such documents, although Stevenson merely incorporates these things into the story as opposed to creating the book with them. There are different accounts in the story besides the main character and narrator’s, almost like a set of eye witness statements, which bestows it the realism which sets Stevenson’s ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ part from all others.

Stevenson uses a very particular character for his choice of narrator of his story, the respectable lawyer Mr. Utterson. The fact that Mr. Utterson is a lawyer alone makes Stevenson’s choice a shrewd one, even just merely from what we know of lawyers in our time. A layer is by and large associated with rectitude and propriety, both of these traits acquired by Utterson. A lawyer is trustworthy, and Utterson is unquestionably that, which puts him in a position in the story where he is trusted by all the relevant characters; indeed, it gives him connections to the characters relevant to the story. An example of this is that he is delegated with documents which are pertinent to the uncovering of the story’s mystery, such as Dr Jekyll’s will, which is what sets Utterson’s curiosity on the alert, and commences his detective work. A trustworthy narrator in a story is essential, as then the reader finds the story easier to follow, and easier to believe as a story. It also protects the story’s sincerity. Utterson is also very self-disciplined. This is shown when Utterson is heavily tempted to open the narrative in which Dr Lanyon entrusted into his care before due, (“A great curiosity came to the trustee...but professional honour and faith in his dead friend were stringent obligations”), but he resists this temptation.

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A fallible narrator is crucial to a story like ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’; in a way that it facilitates suspense and gradual discovery. It enables the reader and the narrator to discover things simultaneously. Utterson also provides rational theories – as being a

lawyer, he will first and foremost go for the most logical answers – which are inaccurate. This seems a bad thing, yet this makes Utterson a fallible character and narrator, in that it is much more human to solve things by process of elimination as one might say. Utterson’s trustworthiness linked in which his judicious ...

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