STEVENSON (1850 - 1894)
The novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hide has a
multi-narrational structure, in which a complex series of points of view is
presented. There are four narrators through whom the whole action is seen and
filtered: Enfield, Utterson, Lanyon and Dr Jeckyll himself. Utterson has the
role of a detective and he is very much in line with Sherlock Holmes. He has a
strange relationship with his relative Enfield and all this is a symbolic
allusion to the theme of the
double, in fact the walks of these two very different men may be a metaphor
for the incongruos elements of their personality, which man must accept to live
with and which Jeckyll refuses. The theme
of the ambivalence is reinforced by the symbolism of Jeckyll's house,
whose two façades are symbolically the two opposite sides of the same man: the
front of this house, used by the doctor, is fair; while the rear side, used by
Hide, is 'part of a sinister block of buildings, which showed no
windows'. Mr Hide is deformed and smaller than Dr Jeckyll and we can
interpret it as the evil part is a small part of the human feelings. When Dr
Jeckyll becomes Mr Hide, he becomes able to satisfy all his hidden wishes.
Originary Dr Jeckyll is a good man and he has faith in progress, but he dares
too much. Mr Utterson is the typical mid victorian man and the difference
between him and Dr Jeckyll is that the first accepts the compromise, while the
second doesn't accept the role imposed by society. There are many gothic elements such as the sense of
mistery, fear and the presence of a monster, which is Mr Hide, so it can be
connected with Frankenstein of Mary Shelley. It can also be considered a
scientific novel, in fact there is a laboratory. Stevenson drew inspiration for
the description of Hide from Darwin's studies. Hide may be both the primitive,
since he is described in terms of grotesque animal imagery, and the symbol of
repressed psycological drives. Jeckyll has, in fact, projected his hidden
pleasures in Hide, so Dr Jeckyll is as guilty as Mr Hide. Thus, Jeckyll is a
kind of 'Victorian Faust' and his awareness is a sort of pact with an
interior evil that controls and guide him. Plot:
the protagonist is a man divided against himself in a respectable being,
Jeckyll, and in an evil genius, Hide; these two beings are in perpetual
struggle and it is the same act of secret chemistry that releases Hide and
restores Jackyll. When the Hide part has achieved domination over the Jeckyll
aspect, the individual has only two choices. On the one hand, the man may
plunge into a life of crime and depravity, or, on the other hand, the Jeckyll
aspect, must eliminate Hide in the only way left: by killing him. Hence
Jeckyll's self-murder is the final and only choice. Therefore, Stevenson
implies that man's salvation is based on the annihilation of on part of his
nature if hi lives in a civilized society.
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