A English piece of coursework on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - page 1
Keywords: ‘Very much a work of its period and yet Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is sufficiently skilful in its telling to engage readers of a later period’. To what extent do you agree?
By Northcott on 26/09/2008
Level: VGCSE
Page Number: 1 of 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
Jekyll and Hyde Coursework
‘Very much a work of its period and yet Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is sufficiently skilful in its telling to engage readers of a later period’. To what extent do you agree?
This novella has proved itself to not just be of its time but applicable to the modern reader too. It definitely is a book of its time being aimed at a certain market when it was published in January of 1886 but it still carries values that are more than relevant to the modern reader as such. It was aimed at being published for the Christmas period in 1885 owing to the description of this book being the ‘Shilling Shocker’. At the time this had a market for ghost stories and Stevenson saw the gap in the fence and looked into it, as somewhat of money making opportunity that would later progress to make his name and reputation. Due to a rather full market it was withdrawn during the last few months of the year and published in January. It is arguably one of the most famous works of Horror Fiction ever published and has certainly opened up a new section of world literature that was previously overlooked. Those that have heard about a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ personality will resist to reading it as if they have already although they haven’t grasped the deeper fibres and meanings of this plot. They will compromise the tale and not actually be rewarded by something that they didn’t predict, a more in depth and disturbing narrative than the version they think they know.
As the title of the book The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde case is the key word that implies that it is a case and not just a tale, more of a detective story. Seven or eight of the chapters that it contains are concerned with Dr. Jekyll and some mysterious circumstances surrounding his will. Before all is revealed in the penultimate and ultimate chapters Stevenson creates and develops two different characters in Mr Edward Hyde, that Damnable man and Dr Jekyll, Mr ultra dependable and respectable. They are at the opposite ends of the personality spectrum and immediate suspicions are cast upon the link between these two anti-characters. When demanded what is going on by Mr Utterson Jekyll confesses to “ Having a great, a very great
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