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Houses In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Decent Essays

Spaces, Houses, and Bodies in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde During the Victorian Era, the social values created an environment in which people were forced to choose between their personal desires and respectability. The Victorian middle class created a strict standard on how to live an honorable and virtuous life to prevent the lower class from disrupting their way of life. The standard discouraged open expression of emotion and any indulgence in pleasures. In his novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson creates a correlation between spaces, houses, and bodies to exemplify the anxieties and the social standards of the Victorian middle class. Throughout the novella, descriptions of neighborhoods parallel the inhabitants’ dispositions. Stevenson quickly creates a correlation between the neighborhood surrounding Dr. Jekyll’s house and the neighborhood surrounding Mr. Hyde’s house. Although it is only a few streets east of a seemingly well-kept neighborhood, the dilapidated surrounding neighborhood of Mr. Hyde’s house implies …show more content…

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde relate the two characters. Through the novella, Dr. Jekyll persists that Mr. Hyde and himself have two separate identities. The illusion of two different identities allows Dr. Jekyll to vicariously live through Mr. Hyde and indulge with a guilt-free conscious, while maintaining reputable status. Although Dr. Jekyll denies any guilt from Mr. Hyde’s behaviors, his actions speak otherwise. After Mr. Hyde brutally murders Sir Danvers, Dr. Jekyll admits, “I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also” (29-30). Dr. Jekyll suddenly recognizes his connection to Mr. Hyde and the subsequent consequences to his emotional well-being. With the realization of his actions, Dr. Jekyll denies the urge to transform into Mr. Hyde and commit unspeakable acts

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