Scarica Stevenson, The strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! STEVENSON Stevenson was born in Edimburgh in 1850. Because of his poor health he spent most of his childhood in bed, he was tutored at home under the influence of his family's Calvinism. He took up engineering at university. He travelled a lot and lived in South of England, France and Italy. He was in conflict with his social environment, the respectable Victorian world. After giving up engineering, he graduated in law and decided to devote himself to writing. He died of a brain haemorrhage in 1894. Stevenson became popular as a novelist in the 1880s, when he puplished Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr Jakyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped, The Master of Ballantrae. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MRHYDE PLOT Mr Utterson is a lawyer and friend to the scientist Dr Jekyll. A crime occurs and Utterson begins to investigates into the life of Dr Jekyll, he discovers a story so horrific: his friend has created a potion able to release his evil side, Mr Hyde. These two beings are in a perpetual struggle and in the end Jekyll commits suicide because the evil part was taking over. SETTING - London. - London has a double nature and reflected the hypocrisy of Victorian society: the respectability part and the poor part. This ambivalence is reinforced by the symbolism of Jekyll's house, whose 2 facades represent the faces of the two opposed sides of the same man: the front of this house used by the doctor, and the rear side used by Hyde. - Most scenes of the novel take place at night, with only the artificial light. - The most important events are wrapped in darkness and fog. STYLE It has a multi-narrative structure, there's a complex series of points of view. There are four narrators: Utterson (is detective, and has a strange relationship with Enfield), Enfield, Dr Lanyon (a friend and collegue of Dr Jekyll), Dr Jekyll (speaks in the first person). SOURCES+THEME - This novel has its origin in a dream - double (of dr jekyll, victorian society, london) - gothic aspect - fear of science progress - double nature of Victorian society - Calvinism INFLUENCES Stevenson drew inspiration for the description of Hyde from Darwin's studies about man's kinship to the animal world. INTERPRETATION Jekyll is a kind of Victorian Faust. This novel may be considered a reflection on art itself.
