Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894) - Coggle Diagram
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894)
LIFE
born in Edinburgh in 1850
spent most of his childhood in bed in a dark room (he was terrified of) due to his poor health
studied Engineering and travelled a lot (South England, Germany, France, Italy)
in contrast with the respectable Victorian world, he became one of the first BOHEMIENS in Britain (long hair, eccentric manners)
gave up Engineering and graduated in Law, but then decided to write
married an American woman and settled to Australia and Tahiti
died of a brain haemorrhage in 1894
WORKS
1883
Treasure Island
1886
The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
1886
Kidnapped
1889
The Master of Ballantrae
1882
New Arabian Nights
collection of short stories pervaded by suspense and supernatural
The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
PLOT
Mr Utterson is a respectable London lawyer friend to the brilliant scientist Dr Henry Jekyll. After relating a tale about a sinister man assaulting a small girl, he starts to question the strange behaviour of his friend
After some investigation he discovers that his friend has created a potion able to release his devil side, Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are in a perpetual struggle, and once Mr Hyde is released, he dominates over Dr Jekyll
Dr Jekyll can only choose a life of crime or kill Mr Hyde. Finally, he commits suicide as the only possible choice.
DOUBLE NATURE OF LONDON
reflected the hypocrisy of the Victorian society
the respectable West End
the appalling poverty of the East End
Jekyll's house
the front, used by the doctor
fair, part of a square of handsome houses
the rear, used by Hyde
part of a sinister block of buildings
most scenes take place
with artificial lighting
in darkness and fog
at night
STYLE
multi-narrative structure with 4 points of view
Enfield, Utterson's distant relative
very different from Utterson, they have a strange relationship
Dr Lanyon
he is the first person to see Jekyll's transformation and prefers to die rather than living in an upside down world
Utterson
the one who discovers the truth
Dr Jekyll
speaks in first person in the confession of the last chapter
SOURCES AND INFLUENCES
from a dream (he was haunted by sleeplessness)
he had written in his diary the dream about a man swallowing a drug and turning into a different being
the Calvinism of his family
gave him a sense of man's divided self
Darwin's studies about man's kinship to the animal world
description of Hyde in terms of grotesque animal imagery (while Jekyll is handsome and with white hands)
Jekyll:
A VICTORIAN FAUST
pact with an interior evil (symbol of repressed psychological drives) that controls him in the end
When Hyde is dressed in Jekyll's clothes he appears much smaller than him, but gradually he begins to grow in stature changing the original balance of good and evil in Jekyll's nature
a reflection on art
the artist's journey into the regions of human psyche
FILM ADAPTATION
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
(1941), directed by
Victor Fleming
, starring
Spencer Tracy