preview

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay

Decent Essays

Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of 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’t as important as Frankenstein, its use of theme, setting, class, Victorian drug culture and detective fiction, show that it is just as important to gothic text for understanding this genre and tradition.
The story begins with the Will of Dr. Jekyll where we learn that if he disappears or dies his fortune will be left to Mr. Edward Hyde. Through the lawyer Mr. Utterson, we come to know Jekyll and Hyde. Mr. Utterson says Hyde is an unpleasant and cruel man who knocks over a child on purpose and steps on her. But this is only the beginning of his evil behavior; later on, he kills Sir Danvers without reason. Hyde is seen going into Dr. Jekyll 's home several times on different nights throughout the novella. How do the two men know each other?
One feature of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is its theme of dual personality, good versus evil. We see in the story that Dr. Jekyll struggles to keep the balance between both sides of his

Get Access