How Stevenson uses his techniques as a writer to present character and atmosphere in 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyd

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How Stevenson uses his techniques as a writer to present character and atmosphere in ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’

‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by the young Robert Louis Stevenson was published in 1886.

The story, which concerns the way in which an individual is made up of different emotions and desires, some good and some evil  is told from the point of view of John Utterson. Mr Utterson is a lawyer and friend to the respected and brilliant scientist, Dr. Henry Jekyll. After relating a disturbing tale of an angry fiend assaulting a small girl, Utterson begins to question the odd behaviour of his friend. As Mr Utterson investigates and is entangled further into the life of Dr. Jekyll, he uncovers a story so horrific, so terrifying, that he is shocked. In the final chapter, Jekyll confesses in a full statement, that he has led a double life, his researches into separating his personality into good and evil, and the gradual ascendancy of evil and monstrous Mr Hyde over hypocritical Dr Jekyll. This transformation though, one day becomes involuntary and Jekyll is unable to reverse it because he has run out of the original batch of special chemical solutions. As the truth is about to surface, tragic events occur that end the whole situation dramatically and decisively.

The themes which Robert Louis Stevenson addresses in his novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ include, right versus wrong, joy versus despair, good versus evil, science versus God and morality versus immorality.

In the late Georgian and the Victorian era in Britain, people were fascinated by ideas of birth and re birth, death and the after life, creation versus Darwinism, as well as religion and evolution. Darwinism was Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory that humans were essentially animals, this assumption shocked the Victorians. They were especially fascinated by the idea that each person has somewhere in the world a double or a twin. Doppelganger is a German term, used to describe this twin self.

The original audience of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde would have been late Victorians; they would have received the novel in instalments weekly or monthly. This novel would have been a mystery, where each new chapter would have involved an attempt to discover the identity of Hyde and how he was using Dr Jekyll in an evil and uncontrollable way.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 which was the period of ‘shilling shockers’ or ‘penny dreadfuls’ which were cheap horror literature and sensationalism stories. This novel is not the only one to enter our lives as part of English cultural mythology. As well as Stevenson’s ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ there also includes, Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ as well as Bram Stokers ‘Dracula’ which are both Gothic Horror stories. All three stories are to do with science, for example Dr Jekyll used power to swap his personality and Frankenstein created a monster out of dead body parts.

I think that the Victorians liked this novel because it explored ideas of the duality between good and evil but also because of its intense description of the fundamental dichotomy of the 19th century and the outward respectability and inward lust. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been referred to as "one of the best guidebooks of the Victorian times."

The well-known basic theme of the novel involves the duality between good and evil, but it also involves a study in hypocrisy, as encompassed by Jekyll and Hyde.

The opening chapter of Jekyll and Hyde brilliantly begins a novel that is largely symbolic. First, the structure of this tale is unique in that it is not cast entirely as a first-person narration, as it would have been possible to tell the story in the manner of a confession from Jekyll’s point of view. Stevenson deliberately opted for a story told in three distinct parts, the first of which is employed in the first chapter, a leisurely description of the two main characters and some distant connection between the two. The structural and linguistic devices employed by Stevenson create an unusual atmosphere which surrounds the story. This atmosphere is one of controlled suspense. A gradual building up of a sense of horror and destruction is achieved through a slow building of unemotional detail, which begins in this chapter.

 There are two main character presented to us in the first chapter. Mr Utterson, a lawyer who has a ‘rugged countenance’ is a very accomplished individual. As you read on, the language used to describe and create atmosphere is mainly adjectives, which are powerful and develop the character. Mr Utterson is said to be’ cold and scanty and embarrassed in discourse,’ this reflect that perhaps he is an insecure and not a very seriously talkative man. His appearance is said to be ‘Lean, Long, dust dreary and yet somehow loveable.’ His appearance is not of a young man but of an older more mature man, but he is loved for being himself and looked up to greatly. He is good a reliable and is a great influence on down going men, his true nature is what people adore. The language used in this first paragraph which is continually used throughout the chapter, has given him a personality and an image of his appearance. This paragraph is compelling and a fulfilling atmosphere for the first chapter.

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Mr Enfield is first mentioned in paragraph two of the first chapter. Mr Enfield is someone who Mr Utterson has known a long time. Mr Utterson describes Mr Richard Enfield as his ‘distant kinsman’. Mr Enfield is the opposite of Mr Utterson, so it is peculiar that they are so close and even friends. They have bonded because of their different opinions and personality. This is duality between the two characters; Mr Utterson is slightly withdrawn, where as Mr Enfield is ‘the well known man about town’   this relationship and the language to describe it adds softness into ...

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