The Gothic Novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay examples

To what extent can The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde be viewed as a gothic novel? Jekyll and Hyde is a gothic novel. It was written by Robert Louis Stevenson, he got the idea for the story after a dream he had. The word ‘Goth’ is originally from a German tribe and has come to mean ‘barbarian’ and later know as ‘Gothic’. In Gothic Literature certain features are expected. These are supernatural events, have villains and hero characters, strange weather, horror, mystery and deaths. Older Gothic literature was in castles and deserted buildings. Modern Gothic novels were written is more populated areas. Another text that can be classed as ‘Gothic’ is the novel ‘Frankenstein’. The reason for it being a ‘Gothic’ novel is the†¦show more content†¦It makes you think of Mr. Hyde being inhuman. Mr. Hyde beat an elderly gentleman, Carew to death. He had no motive for this terrible attack which makes the reader fear him as he has no remorse for any of his actions. ‘Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds, and clubbed him to the earth. Ant the next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot’. By comparing Mr. Hyde to an ape shows that he is seen as being less than human. There is a lot of secrecy in this novel particularly with Dr. Jekyll and he really is a closed book and doesn’t confide in anyone until near the end of the story. The secrecy keeps the reader gripped because you want to find out what the secret is yourself and who will be the one Jekyll wil l confide in. At the end of the novel the mystery is revealed in a letter sent from Dr. Jekyll to Dr. Laynon. ‘I received by the evening delivery a registered envelope, addressed in the hand of my colleague and old-school companion, Henry Jekyll. Dr Laynon narrates the letter sent to him from Dr. Jekyll which in return solves the mystery of Mr. Hyde. The main character is Dr Jekyll, he fits into the tradition gothic category of being a ‘doppelganger’. He also fits into the grotesque category as he transforms from being normal into a mutant character. â€Å"He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp†¦ there before me eyes†¦ there stood Henry Jekyll.† Hyde drank the potion inShow MoreRelatedDiscuss How Robert Louis Stevenson Explores the Topic of Duality in His Gothic Fiction Novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde2573 Words   |  11 PagesEnglish Coursework The Gothic fiction novel â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde†, written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886, is a novel about a man torn by the desire to separate the good and evil inside people. The plot beholds a scientist who finds a way to literally separate his good from his evil by drinking a potion. The plot picks up on the Victorian hypocrisy that crippled people into being society’s idea of ‘good’ and the shallow nature of the Victorians and how they judged character by appearanceRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde : Literary Review1515 Words   |  7 PagesThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Literary Review The Romantic era was plagued with class conflict, poverty, and labor issues. The Victorian novel allows those who had access to them discover and focus on moral issues with society. Among the novel that were created during the era, the genre of a gothic novella emerged. Well knowns gothic novellas included Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Robert Stevenson’s gothic novella The StrangeRead MoreStevensons Representation of Good and Evil in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde1522 Words   |  7 PagesCase of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde In this piece of coursework, I am asked to first of all, discuss how the novel is mainly concerned with the struggle between good and evil. Next, I will be moving on to discovering the historical, social, and cultural issues of the novel; this will discus what Stevensons literary influences were. Subsequently, I will be exploring the actual evil character oh Mr. Edward Hyde; this will include a character description of Hyde. Then, IRead MoreJekyll and Hyde: A Comparision Essay1210 Words   |  5 PagesDr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson’s â€Å"The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde† was one of the most famous works of horror fiction of all time in English literature. It was based in the nineteenth century. It reflects the influence of two important ideological forces in the Victorian era. The text uses gothic and detective elements to interest the reader as they were very popular at the time. The focus of the text is concentrated on the issue of Jekyll and Hyde’s personality which was describedRead MoreSuspense in Jekyll and Hyde Essay1572 Words   |  7 PagesHow suspense is built up in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson was born on the 13th November 1850. He wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886, with that 40,000 copies of the book were sold in the first six months. This was designed to mirror the Victorian secret and based on good and evil. Stevenson later died in 1894 in Samoa. Stevenson used the contemporary setting of Victorian London to write his gothic horror novel. The streets with the gas lamps were the perfectRead MoreShocking Principles Terrifified Victorian Readers in The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde992 Words   |  4 Pagessophisticatedly-constructed novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was devised in 1886, during the revolutionary Victorian era, by the author, Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson developed a desire to write in his early life and ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ cemented his reputation. The novel is widely known for its shocking principles that terrified and alarmed the Victorian readers. ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ plays with the idea of the dual nature of man, his two identities. On the surface, Dr Jekyll is a conventionalRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay1069 Words   |  5 Pages Nia Givens The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde Christianity was very important in Victorian London. The concept of the duality of good and evil that was taught in the story of the Garden of Eden was widely used in Victorian literature. â€Å"Duality, humorously and simply stated, is the split of one into two, while still existing as one.† (Lopez). Duality is a theme found throughout Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde’. Most of the story is related in the thirdRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1739 Words   |  7 Pagesthe novel â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde† by Robert Louis Stevenson, the novel â€Å"Frankenstein† by Mary Shelley, the short story â€Å"The Monkey’s Paw† by W.W Jacobs and the short story â€Å"Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These four texts convey this theme through the use of gothic conventions such as death, madness and darkness. In the novels The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll areRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay975 Words   |  4 Pagesof Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella that follows the basic outline established by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein. However, Stevenson’s monster is not created from body parts but comes from the dark side of the human personality. In both novels, a man conducts a secret experiment that gets out of control. The result of these experiments is the release of a double, or doppelganger, which causes damage to their creator. While most people think that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde isn’tRead More How Stevenson Explores the Nature of Good and Evil in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde1093 Words   |  5 PagesHow Stevenson Explores the Nature of Good and Evil in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The story is about a doctor called Jekyll who has an alternate identity called Hyde. Until the last two chapters it is told from the view point of Mr Utterson; a friend of Jekyll’s who is trying to piece together the story. It uses features of gothic novels such as doppelganger which is an alternate identity. It also uses multiple narratives to make the reader think, it also helps the reader