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05-24-2005, 06:07 PM

The story of Dr jekll and Mr. Hyde was written by a successful writer, R.L Stevenson and became very popular in the late nineteenth century it later became a best seller in 1886. Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of many brilliant books written by Stevenson; His first novel, Treasure Island, was published in 1883, followed by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886). Robert Louis Stephenson was born in 1850 and died in 1894. Throughout his childhood his parents wanted him to become a mechanic, but Stephenson had always wanted to write books. Robert Louis Stevenson is noted for his powers of invention and the depth of psychological insight in his work. The story is looked upon as being an ‘intellectual’ horror, displaying twisted and terrible ways of thinking. The story was influenced by Stevenson’s troubled childhood and a disturbing nightmare in which his wife awakened him! Stevenson was upset that she had interrupted a "fine bogy-tale" and eventually developed the idea into a full-length narrative. Throughout his childhood, he suffered chronic health problems that confined him to bed. Stevenson introduced his belief of human nature into the book; he believed that in each person, there are two sides co-existing inside him or her. One side is a good but the other is ‘pure evil!’ a quote said by Dr Jekyll, about Mr hyde. Other themes that stephanson addressed were Right and Wrong and Joy and Despair! R.L Stevenson’s creative and detailed way of writing captures the reader by making the reader unaware of what may happen next. Due to Stevenson’s past life experiences, he had an advantage, because he could explore and reminisce on his past and bring forward the fear and hurt into his writing. Stevenson creates a fearful and disturbing atmosphere to influence the reader to wonder and consider the unknown circumstance, that inside every living soul there could be another personality that is an evil, manipulating and twisted person that co-exists inside of you. The story is about a successful scientist (Dr Jekyll), who invents a potion that can bring out the evil side of a person. When Jekyll drinks this potion he transforms into Mr. Hyde. After drinking the first lot of potion, he drinks more and turns back into himself. Jekyll then decides to take advantage of the potion; he turned himself into Hyde whenever he wanted to do anything anyone would disapprove of. During the story Mr. Hyde causes absolute havoc on the word surrounding him, then one day he woke up as hyde, without taking the potion. This scares Hyde and persuades him to stop drinking the potion. But this didn’t last very long as jekyll missed being Hyde and took the potion once again. This time it was worse that before, he murdered Sir Davers Carew. Terrified and disgusted, jekyll decides that he will never take the potion again! Once again, without taking the potion, Jekyll turns into Hyde. Jekyll then confides in Dr Lanyon, who gives him the powders to become jekyll again. However, every time he goes to sleep he wakes up as Hyde. After a while he runs out of salt to make the potion and searches the whole of London for some more. Even though he finds another supply, the potion doesn’t work because it doesn’t contain an impurity that the original salt contained. This causes great difficulties. Hyde and jekyll become at war, Hyde wishes to kill jekyll, whereas jekyll wished they were both dead. The 2 main characters, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are both the same person, they can never meet each other, but they are very aware of each other’s existence! Dr Henry Jekyll Dr Jekyll is a middle age, doctor who is well respected by others known for his decency and charitable works.. Throughout the novel, he is physically described as both tall and handsome. He is also extremely wealthy, having a fortune well over two million dollars in 19th century money (a significant amount). This, however, was a not always true, as throughout the novel we subtly witness his hypocritical behaviour, something that Stevenson claimed was Jekyll’s fatal flaw. The doctor belief that within each human being there exists two countering forces, good and evil, leads to his experiments that try to separate the two. Jekyll is a hypocrite, although he admitts that he enjoyes the wicked part of his nature, he canot acept it is a natural part of him and therefore seeks to separate it from him in his scientific experiments Mr Edward Hyde A small, dwarfish, deformed, disgusting young man was a term used to describe Mr hyde.A pale like creature. Despite the many descriptions of the horror that Edward Hyde invokes (by Lanyon, Utterson, and Enfield), we are never told precisely why or what features are so disgusting to observers. They say there is nothing significantly displeasing about his presents, but he overall look is not nice to look at. He is often compared to animals, implying that he is not a fully evolved human being. This could mean because he is made from someone else! He knew that people thaught this way of him so he usually covered his face. People said his voice was like a whisper, slightly broken and musky. Hyde was also described as a violent and cruel man The basic human emotions that drive people are Love and Hate and within these two come other emotions, less powerful ones like sympathy, forgiveness, revenge and jealousy. Hyde’s life revolves around the emotions within Hate, he has no knowledge of Love which prevents him from stopping himself doing or feeling regret for the things that he does. Despite this Hyde takes great pleasure in his actions, suggesting perhaps he does know Love, but this love is derived from Hate, he loves his Hate emotions and actions. He enjoys satisfying his needs but his actions are what we would class as wrong. Jekyll knows both of these raw emotions and this combination brings a new emotion; guilt which is powerful enough to drive him away from evil and all that is considered ‘bad’ and, eventually, it drives him away from Hyde. Some people might question the extent to which Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are in fact a single character. Until the end of the novel, the two persons seem nothing alike the well-liked, respectable doctor and the hideous, disgusting Hyde are almost opposite in type and personality. The story of jekyll and Hyde was written in 1886, a period of change, jekyll was 36 at this time. It was written in the Victorian England, the time if the industrial revolution. At this time there was no middle class, people were either rich or poor although the middle class was starting to emerge. This was a time when loads of new ideas came about, like doppelganger, meaning double self. This could be one of the sources that gave Stephenson the inspiration to write his novel.