It is possible for texts set and written in completely different periods to share contextual ideas relating to the human experience. This understanding is drawn from a comparison of the two texts, Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film adaptation of the novel Psycho. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written in Victorian England it focuses on a professional middle class man who conducts a series of scientific experiments which unleash from his own psyche the dark Mr Hyde. Psycho hinges on an encounter between Marion Crane, a secretary, …show more content…
Both Stevenson and Hitchcock play on people’s natural fear of the different or strange to capture the audience interest. These fears stem from society’s own values as well as our own feelings of normality. Norman, like Dr Jekyll had more to their personality then what meets the eye.
Each character experiences a duality of self where ultimately the dominant self will overcome completely. The shared concept in both texts is multiple personality disorder this understanding is supported by the texts being referred to as examples in psychology. In the final chapter of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dr Jekyll finally is overpowered by the dominant Mr Hyde. Stevenson has used of **** engages the reader to feel sympathy for Jekyll. “…I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak, both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self’s.” Hyde gradually takes over and Jekyll transforms into Hyde. In the Victorian era, there was a little insight into the world of …show more content…
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Psycho are both regarded as texts that in challenging the boundaries of horror. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the first novels to introduce psychological thriller and psychological horror. The concept of psychological thrillers and horror relies on the character 's mental and emotional instability to frighten readers or viewers. The novel contains powerfully violent scenes stemming from mental instability. The victims of Hyde’s crimes each being completely innocent and random. Within the novel, we learn that Hyde, unprovoked, mercilessly beat Sir Danvers Carew to death. Stevenson uses scenes of graphic imagery to convey Hyde’s brutality as he murders Carew. “And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on like a madman. The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway.” Even worse, we find at the conclusion of the novel