In this essay I will be looking at the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson in January 1886. In this novella a well-respected Dr Jekyll struggles with his dual nature and the undesirable reputation of his pleasures in an upper-class Victorian society. I will explore the ways that the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, presents different types of power and its effect over man. I will compare this text to themes of power in poems such as Medusa, My Last Duchess and Hitcher. The first poem Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy shows the cause an outburst of range as anger has power over any sense of morality that that person may have. Hitcher by Simon Armitage depicts the dual nature that is within everyman and how repressing
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All these poems show examples and effects of power to back up statements made from the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Stevenson presents the dual nature of man, good and evil, through Jekyll and Hyde and their constant struggle for power over one another. In Chapter 10 Jekyll admits that he has always had two sides to him but he chooses to repress his pleasures: ‘It was on the moral side and in my own person that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man’. The separating of Jekyll and Hyde showed that it was never as simple as good vs evil and the two sides cannot be simply split apart without complications. Although Jekyll was free of his evil side he was still conscious of what he was doing when he was Hyde. On the other hand, Hyde being set free, after …show more content…
Medusa is a Greek mythological character who turns people to stone by looking at them. The dramatic monologue (a poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person- it allows the reader to see aspects of their character that they would not normally express but reveal inadvertently) begins with ‘a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy grew in my mind’ the power was increasing as did the evil within Hyde when he was fed with his potion. Duffy use of the tricolon emphasises the growing torment and jealousy within the woman as here words become more unforgiving. The objects of her attention begin to increase in the size the more jealous she becomes. Initially Duffy uses alliteration ‘buzzing bee’ which is quite happy, positive imagery, to describe the first causality which contrasts with the dull and depressive imagery of a ‘grey pebble’ that the bee is turned into. She then moves onto a much larger ‘snuffling pig’ as her power and jealousy increase. The quote ‘as though my thoughts hissed and spat on my scalp’ shows that it’s the woman’s own thoughts and disruptive ideas that turn her in to a monstrous character like Jekyll’s own monstrous ‘pleasures’ turn him into Hyde. Hyde is also seen to hiss when he shrinks ‘back with a hissing intake of breath’. This sibilance connects both Medusa and Hyde to a snake – an animal often seen as sinister and evil. This also ties with the idea
All these poems show examples and effects of power to back up statements made from the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Stevenson presents the dual nature of man, good and evil, through Jekyll and Hyde and their constant struggle for power over one another. In Chapter 10 Jekyll admits that he has always had two sides to him but he chooses to repress his pleasures: ‘It was on the moral side and in my own person that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man’. The separating of Jekyll and Hyde showed that it was never as simple as good vs evil and the two sides cannot be simply split apart without complications. Although Jekyll was free of his evil side he was still conscious of what he was doing when he was Hyde. On the other hand, Hyde being set free, after …show more content…
Medusa is a Greek mythological character who turns people to stone by looking at them. The dramatic monologue (a poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person- it allows the reader to see aspects of their character that they would not normally express but reveal inadvertently) begins with ‘a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy grew in my mind’ the power was increasing as did the evil within Hyde when he was fed with his potion. Duffy use of the tricolon emphasises the growing torment and jealousy within the woman as here words become more unforgiving. The objects of her attention begin to increase in the size the more jealous she becomes. Initially Duffy uses alliteration ‘buzzing bee’ which is quite happy, positive imagery, to describe the first causality which contrasts with the dull and depressive imagery of a ‘grey pebble’ that the bee is turned into. She then moves onto a much larger ‘snuffling pig’ as her power and jealousy increase. The quote ‘as though my thoughts hissed and spat on my scalp’ shows that it’s the woman’s own thoughts and disruptive ideas that turn her in to a monstrous character like Jekyll’s own monstrous ‘pleasures’ turn him into Hyde. Hyde is also seen to hiss when he shrinks ‘back with a hissing intake of breath’. This sibilance connects both Medusa and Hyde to a snake – an animal often seen as sinister and evil. This also ties with the idea