Friday, August 16, 2019

How does Henry Jekll’s full statement of the case resolve the questions raised earlier on in the novella? Essay

In the late Victorian society (1886) new scientific theories have be developed and disputed because the traditional scientists believe that god created man and that nature should not be tampered with. These new theories might have influenced the author R.L Stevenson to write the â€Å"the strange case of dr. Jekll and Mr. Hyde†. One person that might have influenced him is Charles Darwin who wrote â€Å"the origin of the species†. The novella is about the â€Å"duality of man† because in the story it mentions † that man is not truly one but truly two†. This idea is explained throughout the story and so is the idea good and evil. It explores human nature through the good Dr. Jekll who shows the respectable side of humanity and MR. Hyde is the â€Å"pure evil† side of man. At the start of the chapter, Dr. Henry Jekll is projected into the readers mid as a well-dressed and groomed, professional and respected man. He liked to work, which is shown in the section, which says, â€Å"I was inclined to industry†. And also knew that he would have a good future, for instance Jekll says â€Å"with every guarantee or an honourable and distinguished future â€Å". Jekll thought that to keep his high status in society he would have to lead a double life, this is shown in the paragraph, which says, â€Å"I concealed my pleasures†. This means that because he felt ashamed by â€Å"his pleasures† he had to create a second lifestyle in which he could do the things he wanted to that would have been seen as unacceptable in the eyes of others. Jekll started to dwell on the â€Å"duality of man† which means â€Å"that man is not truly one but truly two†. If you still don’t know what this means. Basically Jekll is saying that there are two sides to man, good and evil. Eventually dr. Jekll â€Å"managed to compound a drug† which would separate the â€Å"polar twins† (two sides of man). You know Jekll thought about it a lot because he says himself between lines 20-22 † I had learned ton dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream at the thought of the separation of these elements† The writer is basically saying that dr. Jekll daydreamed about a way to separate the two sides of men. However even after he concocted the potion it took him a long while before he got the courage to take it. We know this in Jekll’s statement; he wrote, â€Å"I hesitated long before I put this theory to the test of practice â€Å". He feared the drug because as he says in the text â€Å"I knew well that I risked death†. This means he doesn’t want to risk his life by taking the drug. Eventually â€Å"with a strong glow of courage, drank off the potion†. After Jekll took the drug he felt â€Å"the most pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea.† this quote describes the pains that Jekll feels when he transforms into Hyde. The very first time Jekll turns into Hyde he feels â€Å"younger, lighter, happier in body† the quote explains how much he likes being Hyde at first, because he gets to feel new and indecent sensations whilst he is Hyde. The first thing Jekll notices when he turns into Hyde is that he â€Å"was less robust and less than the good â€Å". What Jekll means by this because he can’t talk normally is that Hyde is a lot shorter and weaker. Dr. Jekll also noted â€Å"Hyde alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil†. This means that although everyone else in the world has a little bit of evil in them Mr. Hyde is pure evil. Dr. Henry Jekll mentions â€Å"an act of cruelty to a child â€Å". This is not at all described in detail in this chapter but is in heavy detail earlier in the novella. Later on Jekll tells of how he feels about his mental state with Hyde. â€Å"I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self and becoming incorporated with my second and worse†. This means that Jekll feels like he is losing himself and is turning into Hyde in his mind. After a while Jekll ignores his cravings for the drug but he does say in his state of mind â€Å"that I began to be tortured with throes and longings, as of the Hyde struggling after freedom†. Ounce he does take the drug he refers to Hyde as a â€Å"devil† that â€Å"had been long caged, he came out roaring†. Later while he was Hyde he kills sir Danvas Carew and he says â€Å"with a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow†. After Dr. Jekll realised that† Hyde was hence forth impossible†. Which means Hyde was impossible to control In this chapter there are not that many comparisons between Dr. Henry Jekll and Mr. Edward Hyde. There is however differences between their actions and reactions. For example the first time Dr. Jekll and Mr. Hyde he noticed that Hyde was shorter than Jekll but later on he notices that Hyde starts to grow as he becomes more and more evil. In conclusion I think that this chapter basically explains, in small detail what happened in the rest of the novella and most importantly it is in Dr. Jekll’s perspective which means that we the readers get the full picture because the others E.g. Mr. Utterson , sir Danvas Carew (pre-deceased) and others don’t know what the connection is between the well respected Dr. Jekll and the low life Mr. Hyde

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