Good or Evil People picture a certain image of what they want to be, but not everyone can do what they want to in life. If you want to do something that seems impossible, you have to work for it. Dr. Jekyll from the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and the speaker of the poem “A Song in the Front Yard,” by Gwendolyn Brooks both picture a totally different life they would like to live. The personalities of Dr. Jekyll and the speaker of the poem are very similar. They both do the right thing, even though their minds tell them to do something different. Dr. Jekyll was born, “fond of the respect of the wise and good among my fellow-men” (Stevenson 78). Jekyll was a good friend of many including Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Utterson. He was prosperous and always did the right thing. The speaker of the poem has always done the right thing in her life as well, but she wants to do the opposite. The speaker of the poem says, “I want a peek at the back” (Brooks). To her, the back is the most wonderful place. The back is where, “it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows” (Brooks). In the poem, they are comparing the front yard to tamed life. Normally, people keep their front yards very neat and organized because that is the first thing people see when going to your house. She has only been introduced to the front yard where there are roses and everything is nice. The backside is compared to the dirtier and mysterious side, which is what the speaker of the poem wants to live in. Jekyll also wants to see this “back side.” Jekyll has seen the back side, but not as himself. His darker half, Mr. Hyde, is violent and cruel. He is the total opposite of Dr. Jekyll, yet they are the same person. Jekyll lives out his contained evil through Hyde. The speaker of the poem wants to go to the back because she wants to do something different in her life. She wants to go
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
People’s choices and actions are always guaranteed to affect others and themselves in a positive or negative way. Mr. Jekyll, a prominent doctor, is well respected and has a good reputation in society. He is also guaranteed an “honourable and distinguished future”, however, as the book progresses, it is discovered that Mr. Jekyll’s unpredictable past is dark and mysterious. His past contains a mixture of good and evil, however the power of evil slowly begins to dominate…
Following the importance of monsters in our society, monsters are also necessary for bringing people together. As mentioned in the last paragraph, usually a group of people will assemble and rally up against the monsters, such as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Beowulf, or Marvel’s The Avengers, to use a recent example. Monsters are necessary to bring together a group of people that would otherwise be unknown to each other. In this aspect, monsters bring together people of different cultures…
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
The poet says in this poem, that we should be thankful to God for all the multi-colored…
opening chapters of ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’?
Stevenson writes ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ with the intention of showing the reader the duality of man and explores this through the juxtaposition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this novella, Stevenson also uses the environment and setting of the story to represent the contrast between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
In the opening chapters of ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, the Soho area of Victorian…
A feminist reading of Doris Lessing’s ‘To Room Nineteen’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson using ideas discussed in ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir.
The concept of Simone de Beauvoir’s myth of women discussed in ‘The Second Sex’ was still very much prevalent in the 1960s when ‘To Room nineteen’ was set and certainly at the time of ‘Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. In the 1960s, in accordance with the second wave of feminism, women were thought…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
(Written By Robert Louis Stevenson)
88 pages, Oxford Bookworm Library.
This novel, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde was written by R. L. Stevenson. First, this book is published in 1886 by Longman Pearson PLC , but in this version it was retold again by Rosemary Border from Oxford University Press 1991. This story genre Horor- Fantasy. It was made as a movie two times, in 1932 and 1947. Another, it has also been very popular Therefore, Dr. Jekyll…
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an examination of duality. Discuss how Stevenson’s Victorian gothic novella explores this idea through character and setting.
Throughout the novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson explores the idea of duality through both the characters and the setting of the novel. Specifically he explores the idea of duality within a person’s personality, not only in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but also Lanyon and Utterson. The use of Stevenson’s descriptive…
“Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Greasy Lake”
Studies in Literature
August 25, 2012
Prose Narrative Criticism
While reading any composition of literature, the reader must address how they will connect with the text. To do this, the reader considers different forms of literary criticism. There are an abundance of approaches to literary criticism. For the purposes of looking at “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson…
Schoen English IV
September 23, 2014
Mr. Hyde the Necessary Monster in Victorian England
Characters driven to extreme decisions because of the implacable and unrelenting
forces of a society or culture demanding conformity and threatening banishment for
nonconformity is an occurrence frequently portrayed in literature. Furthermore, no culture
takes on this oppressive personality quite to the extent of late Victorian English culture. Its
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson have comparisons and contrasts due to the connection of having more than one personality by cause of good and evil. Both stories relate to each other as to the separtation of good and evil with or without the characters observing.
The Importance of Being Earnest was a satire within the Victorian period that relates to the upper societies and lifestyles. The story shows how social…