ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-94)

1. LIFE
 BOHEMIAN LIFESTYLE
Stevenson is one of the first examples of the BOHEMIAN IN BRITAIN, so people who:
 rejected PRIVATE PROPRIETY AND MATERIALISM
 ABUSED ALCOHOL /DRUGS
 EXPRESS SEXUALITY freely

In order to follow this lifestyle, he rejected his family religion: CALVINISM (a strict religion
founded by John Calvin).

 MASTERPIECE
His most well know novel is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It is a PSYCHOLOGICAL AND GOTHIC
NOVEL where the main theme is the THEME OF THE DOUBLE, strongly related to the moral
contradiction between GOOD AND EVIL PRESENT IN VICTORIAN SOCIETY.

2. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AN MR HYDE (1886)

 THE PLOT
The story is about a scientist DR JEKYLL whose aim is to:
 separate the TWO SIDES OF HUMAN NATURE (good and bad)
 improve MANKIND in order to MAKE LIFE BETTER

So he creates a potion that can do this.

He drinks this potion that liberates/releases HYDE, Jekyll’s EVIL PART, so Jekyll gives a body
to his evil part. Hyde gives to Jekyll the chance to BE HIMSELF, because now he can speak
about what he has always hidden.

However Jekyll becomes addicted to the potion and his evil part becomes STRONGER AND
STRONGER, in fact Mr Hyde becomes a CRIMINAL and commits several crimes:

 Trampled a young girl

 Hit to death a gentleman with a CANE (bastone)

Mr. Utterson, Jekyll’s best friend, who is also a lawyer, will investigate into this story. He
understands that there is a strong connection between Jekyll and Hyde because of some
coincidences:

 Mr HYDE pays the demages of a crime (a girl trampled) with DR JEKYLL’S

MONEY.
 Mr Hyde hits a gentleman with a CANE that has also Jekyll
 Mr Hyde and Jekyll has similar handwriting (Utterson knows it because he
saw a letter that

However Utterson will only find out the truth after Jekyll’s death, by reading a letter left by
him in which he described his dangerous experiment.
 In fact after Lanyon’death (a friend of Utterson and Jekylls who died after seeing Hyde
trasformed into his friend) Jekyll chooses to kill himself (so also Hyde).

He chooses suicide because Hyde started to dominate and controll Jekyll, so he has only
two choices
 Choose a life of crime
 Eliminate Hyde by killing himself.
 CHARACTERS
All characters are MEN. The main characters are:
 MR UTTERSON: a lawyer who investigates Hyde’s crime following clues and
drwing hypotheses.
 DR LANYON: a curious and good man who died after he descovered Hyde
and Jekyll are the same person.
 HENRY JEKYLL: je (I in French) + kyll (deformed form of “kyll”)
 an intelligent and wealthy scientist who risks all for SUCCESS.
 He is AWESOME and his body is PROPORTIONED.
 MR EDWARD HYDE: (deformed form of “hide”)
 Jekyll’s evil part.
 He has strange personality (calm with traits of anger) and has no
friends.
 He is UGLY and DEFORMED.
 THEMES
o DUALISM (main theme). There are a lot (main 4) of details in the novel related to
the THEME OF DOUBLE, for example:

 LONDON has a double nature:

 WEST END (respectable) where JEKYLL LIVES
 EAST END (terrifying) where HYDE LIVES

 JEKYLL’S HOUSE has two entrances:

 THE FRONT DOOR (clean, respectable)
 THE BACK DOOR (small and dirty, no windows).

 TIME AND WEATHER:

 During MORNING is sunny
 During NIGHT is FOGGY AND STORMY (when happen most
important scenes)
 JEKYLL-HYDE has different PHYSICAL TRAITS:
 JELYLL: tall and slim
 HYDE: small, deformed and ugly

When he looks at the MIRROR he dicovers his DOUBLE IDENTITY.

o GOOD VS EVIL
o VIOLENCE (crimes against innocents)
o CURIOSITY (proved by dr Jekyll)
o WOMEN AS WEAK CHARACTERS
 o SCIENCE AND SUPERNATURAL (represented by the conflict type of science between
Lanyon and Jekyll)

 INFLUENCES AND INTERPRETATIONS

o INFLUENCES
Stevenson took ispiration, for the description of Hyde, from

 DARWIN’S STUDIES about the relationship between HUMAN-ANIMALS.

(Hyde is like the primitive of mankind)
 VICTORIAN’S FAUST (like dr Faustus and Frankenstein, also Jekyll wants to
OVERCOME human limits but is punished in the end)

o INTERPRETATIONS
This novel may be symbolised the ARTIST’S JOURNEY into the UNEXPLORED
REGIONS OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE.
 STYLE
o NARRACTIVE STRUCTURE: has a MULTI-NARRACTIVE STRUCTURE, due to the shift
of the narrative point of view. There are 5 DIFFERENT NARRATORS:
 a THIRD PERSON NARRATOR who tells most of the story but who is not
omniscient
 4 FIRST PERSON NARRATORS:
 DR LANYON
 MR UTTERSON
 MR UTTERSON’S COUSIN
 DR JEKYLL (who tells the story through the letter he wrote before
dying)

o USE OF EPISTOLARY FORM (to obtain realism)

 THE ORIGIN OF THE STORY

This novel came froma dream where a man in a laboratory turned into a different being
because of drugs. Stevenson write down this story, but the first version was burnt.

In fact his wife suggested him to wirte MORE THAN A “HORROR STORY”, so he used this
novel to CRITICISIZE THE STRICT VICTORIAN MORALITY AND HYPOCRISY.

 MORAL OF THE STORY

if one gives evil an inch, it will take a mile. (se dai un dito a qualcuno, lui si prenderà tutto il
braccio)