LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES I - UNIT 6

In this unit, we are going to discuss how two different writers, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-
1894) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) dealt with the themes (theme: central idea in a work) of
duality and alter ego.

Requiem (from “Underwoods” 1887)

Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This is the verse you grave for me:

'Here he lies where he longed to be;

Here is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.'

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

As we have already said the themes to be discussed are: Death / Alter Ego (Alter Ego is the
continual struggle of who we are and who we are expected to be).

 Working with themes like these ones will allow us to discuss also appearance versus
reality and duality. To start working on them we need to mention the period in which
writers used the above mentioned themes in their works. As you well know, there are
always circumstances in the life of a country that make the writers decide on different
topics and themes.

The Victorian period

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Victoria was the Queen of England from 1837 to 1901; her period is similar to the Elizabethan one
as England became an Empire once more. The Industrial Revolution and the great development in
manufacture made England the richest nation in the world. But, hand in hand with the
development in industry there was an increase in population. You can read more about the
industrial revolution on the internet.

 After reading on the Industrial Revolution:

What technological developments that took place at the time of the Industrial Revolution called
your attention?

Literature in the Victorian Period

Victorian period witnessed great changes, perhaps the greatest changes in the history of England,
material comforts, scientific knowledge and also intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. All of
them had a great impact on literature.

Victorian literature is in the main romantic and it also combines classical literature so to cut it
short we can say that this is an eclectic period. Much of the writing was concerned with
contemporary social problems; for instance the effects of the Industrial Revolution, the influence
of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin and movements of political and social reform.

Victorian literature makes a strong appeal to twentieth century students because it is in part the
literature of our time and its points of view and ideas are up to certain extent ours.

The last times of Victorian literature

At the end of the 1880´s Britain was experiencing a period of intense social, economic and
spiritual change, after many decades of confident growth and national self-fulfilment. Worry and
pessimism were common feelings in the citizens at the time, the population in urban areas had
increased dramatically and so had poverty. The question of poverty could not be solved and to
make matters worse Britain was not doing well in foreign wars. These changes disturbed and
frightened many British people: the Empire was no longer safe and strong as before. In the
literature from this period, we see a duality, or double standard, between the concerns for the
individual (the exploitation and corruption both at home and abroad) and national success.

 Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father wanted him to
become an engineer but his poor health helped him to be a writer. He spent much time travelling
and trying to find a place where to improve his health. He wrote many works, among the best
known we can mention Treasure Island (1883) , which you may have read when you were a child,
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde 1886), The Merry Men (1887) and volumes of poetry
including A Child’s Garden of Verses ((1885) and Underwoods (1887).

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Stevenson perhaps lacked the depth writers such as Joseph Conrad had but he was well aware of
the new ideas about social, political, economic reforms and the workings of the mind.

If you want to know more about Stevenson’s life you can get it at:

http://www.stevenson-house.co.uk/rls.htm

Reading: “THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR HYDE”

You can download the entire work at:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43/43-h/43-h.htm

 For practical reasons we are going to divide this work into three parts:

Part one: From Story of the Door (chapter one) to Incident of the letter (chapter 5)

Part two: From Incident of Dr. Lanyon (chapter 6) to TheLast Night (chapter 8)

Part three: Dr. Lanyon´s Narrative (chapter 9) and Henry

Jekyll´s Full Statement of the Case (chapter 10)

Did you know?

The work we are about to discuss is known as a novella. Originally a novella was a kind of short
story as it was developed by Boccaccio (1313-1375), later and thanks mainly to the contribution of
German writers it became the genre as it is known nowadays: a fictional narrative of
indeterminate length, restricted to a single event, situation or conflict.

Part one:

Before reading:

1) Most probably you have read or seen the film or heard some commentaries on Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, what do you remember about this work?

2) Define in your own words the concept of good and evil.

While reading:

Stevenson uses physical description to create atmosphere and to provide insight of the
characters, for example when the first chapter starts, we read: “Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a
man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile...” Later in the paragraph we
have a vivid description of a street that helps create the necessary atmosphere to develop
events “... the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood”. As you read this part,
keep track of the ways Stevenson creates atmosphere to unfold the mysteries the characters
conceal.

Did you know?

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In the first chapter, doors are mentioned. Doors are traditionally powerful and mysterious
symbols representing the possibility of things hidden or revealed. (Symbol: animate or inanimate
object which represents or stands for something else)

After reading:

1) Describe your reaction to the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; use your notes on “While
reading” so as to decide how the atmosphere created by Stevenson through descriptions
contributes to you answer.

2) Enfield and Utterson have a walk as they talk about a curious door and an incident with a child;
it is at that moment that Enfield tells Utterson about a man called Hyde. Both men suspect about
the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde, what evidence does the text give for this suspicion?

3) Utterson read Dr. Jekyll´ s will as he arrived home, what do we learn about Jekyll and Hyde?
What do you predict Utterson will do in order to help his friend Jekyll? Justify your answer with
evidence from the text.

4) Do you believe Jekyll lies to Utterson? Why/Why not?

5) Why, do you think, Stevenson included a death so early in the novella?

Commentaries:

One of the important themes in this work is the battle between good and evil. This battle can be
fought between countries, between individuals and also in the mind of a single person.

Another theme is the one of duality. Examples of this theme can be seen in the first part of
Chapter 4, “The Carew Murder Case” in which in the foreground there is a description of a horrific
murder but in the background there is a beautiful description of the setting. Another good
example of duality is found in chapter 5, “Incident of the Letter” when Utterson and Jekyll
confront. Both are respected men by the community but Jekyll´ s defence of Hyde stands in sharp
contrast to Utterson´s quest for the truth.

Part two

Before reading:

Do you believe Utterson will continue talking with Jekyll about his friend Hyde? Why/ Why not?

While reading: As regards narrators, this novella is told from different points of view, in the first
section the writer used a third person limited point of view. Decide the narrator/s used in this
second section.

Read to find out how Stevenson reveals the essential plot elements of the story.

(Plot refers to what happens in a literary work. When describing what happens, it is important to
specify certain elements: Who are the characters?

Where are they? What do they do? When does the action take place?)

After reading:

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1) In this section of the novella, we learn more about the characters from what they do and say
and also what the others say about them. Complete the following chart making notes on them.

Jekyll

Hyde

Lanyon

Utterson (the one on the left)

2) What was your reaction towards Hyde when Poole explained that he had heard Hyde
“weeping like a woman or a lost soul”?

3) One very important issue in this work is the question of drug abuse. How does a person who
is abusing drugs change in personality, appearance and habits? What evidence is there in this
section that one of the characters is abusing drugs?

4) What did you learn about narrators in this part? (The narrator is the one that tells us the
story; there are different kinds of narrators:

First person: when the story is told by “I”

Third person intrusive: when the narrator tells the reader all details on characters and explains
events.

Third person objective: the narrator shows things, without commentaries or explanations.

Third person limited: the narrator presents only his/her point of view of events.)

Part Three

Before reading:

Predict how or why readers will get to know the truth about Jekyll and Hyde

While reading:

Read to find out how Stevenson addresses the question of good and evil in humankind.

Commentary: One theory that has been used to interpret the question of bad and evil in this work
has been Sigmund Freud’s (Czech psychologist, 1856-1939) theory of repression. According to
Freud “repression is a process by which unacceptable desires or impulses are excluded from
consciousness and left to operate in the unconscious”.

According to this theory, Jekyll, a respectable doctor, could not live a life of vice or forbidden
activities as he would have liked. The desire to show society that he was a respectable man and
his hidden desire of killing and consuming drugs cause his mental disorder.

After reading:

Death is a theme in this work; all the deaths that occur are violent, cruel and painful. Showing
death in this way was necessary in this work to understand Hyde’s personality.

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1) What is your reaction to Jekyll´ s death?

2) What other themes are there in the work?

3) Explain the decision that Jekyll/Hyde makes at the end of the novella. Do you believe it is a
good one?

4) It has been said that without Jekyll there would be no Hyde, do you agree with this
commentary? Why/Why not? (Remember the definition on alter ego)

One last commentary!!!

At the beginning of the unit we commented on Victorian literature, now that you have read those
commentaries and the novella, we can add another characteristic about writers like Stevenson
who wrote in the late Victorian period. This characteristic is that romanticism was also typical of
the age, when we think of romanticism we can mistake it for love, happiness and sweet music. On
the contrary, romanticism refers to man and nature, to the primitive side of man, to isolation,
mystery and the supernatural events.