Jekyll and Hyde

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Stevenson’s purpose in writing this story was not only to create a good horror novel, but also to bring to light recent scientific discoveries such as Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Maybe this was his way of disagreeing with society without being labelled a heretic as people who disagreed with society were labelled.

        The inspiration for Hyde comes both from Jack the Ripper and Darwin’s theory. I say this because Hyde is a small and ape like man that was murderous and had a liking to cause chaos and destruction wherever he went as did Jack the Ripper.

        This classic gothic novel fits in with other novels of its time such as “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley.

        Stevenson builds up suspense in the novel by using numerous witnesses and documents, many of which were sealed in envelopes and not to be opened until a later date; the most important of which are quite bulky and left until the last two chapters.

There are also a number of questions that are left until the last two chapters, like why does Jekyll like Hyde, where does Hyde come from, and why does Jekyll protect Hyde.

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        I think that Stevenson’s use of suspense works very well as it makes you want to read more to find out what is going to happen to Jekyll, or Hyde, or whomever the story is focusing on at any particular point.

        Gothic novels use different witnesses and narrators to give the reader a different perspective of what is happening in the story. Such as Utterson’s angle of well wishing towards Jekyll, the omniscient narrators point of indifference and Lanyon’s conflicting angles of both a well wisher and an enemy of Jekyll

Most of the documents are found when Utterson is ...

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