Trabalho sobre o livro de Robert Louis Stevenson: O Médico e o Monstro, Presentation The strange case of Dr. Jekill and Mr Hyde
Trabalho apresentado ao na matéria de Literatura Inglesa II, 3º Letras Inglês - UNICENTRO 2019
2. Robert Louis Stevenson
• Was born in Edinburgh on November 13th, 1850;
• He inherits a tuberculosis from his mother;
• Alison Cunningham (housekeeper), taught him some
ancient Scottish ballads and biblical histories;
• 1857 - decides to attend the public school;
• Had inclination to tell stories;
• His father send him to study engineering;
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
3. Robert Louis Stevenson
• 1871 – Broke the strong link with his parents;
• Decides to interrupt his engineering studies;
• Dedicates his time exclusively on literature;
• 1875 – Graduates in law;
• 1876 – writes his masterpieces:
“Treasure Island” and “The strange
case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”;
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
5. CHARACTERS
A prominent and upstanding lawyer, well
respected in the London community.
Utterson is reserved, dignified, and perhaps
even lacking somewhat in imagination, but
he does seem to possess a furtive curiosity
about the more sordid side of life.
Mr. Utterson
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
6. CHARACTERS
A distant cousin and lifelong friend of Mr.
Utterson. Like Utterson, Enfield is
reserved, formal, and scornful of gossip.
Mr. Enfield
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
7. CHARACTERS
Dr. Henry Jekyll A respected doctor and friend of both
Lanyon, a fellow physician, and Utterson, a
lawyer. Jekyll is a seemingly prosperous man,
well established in the community, and known
for his decency and charitable works.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
8. CHARACTERS
A strange, repugnant man who looks
faintly pre-human. Hyde is violent and
cruel, and everyone who sees him
describes him as ugly and deformed –
yet no one can say exactly why.
Mr. Hyde
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
9. CHARACTERS
Dr. Lanyon
A reputable London doctor and, along with
Utterson, formerly one of Jekyll’s closest
friends.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
10. CHARACTERS
Utterson’s clerk and confidant. Guest is also
an expert in handwriting. His skill proves
particularly useful when Utterson wants him
to examine a bit of Hyde’s handwriting.
Mr. Guest
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
11. CHARACTERS
Jekyll’s butler. Mr. Poole is a loyal servant,
having worked for the doctor for twenty
years.
Mr. Poole
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
12. THE PLOT
“Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged
countenance that was never lighted by a smile;
cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse;
backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary
and yet somehow lovable.” Pg. 1
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
20. THE PLOT
CHAPTER NINE: Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative
“…on the ninth of January, now four days ago, I received
by the evening delivery a registered envelope, addressed in
the hand of my colleague and old school companion,
henry jekyll…”
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
22. THE PLOT
CHAPTER TEN: Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case
“My Dear Utterson—
When this falls into your hands, I
shall have disappeared under what
circumstances I do not know. But my
instinct tells me the end is sure and must be early.”
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
23. THE PLOT
CHAPTER TEN: Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
26. There’s always a doctor
• Dr. Victor Frankenstein
• Dr. Van Helsing
• Dr. Henry Jeckyll
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
27. Gothic ambientation
Exatamente ali, um casarão sombrio projetava sua
fachada sobre a rua. Possuía dois andares, mas não
apresentava janelas, somente uma porta no andar
inferior e uma sacada desbotada no superior.
Transparecia, em todos os cantos, as marcas de uma
contínua e sórdida negligência.(p. 12-3)
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
28. The gothic being
““He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong
with his appearance; something displeasing, something
down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked,
and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed
somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity,
although I couldn’t specify the point.”(p. 12-3)
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
29. The double humanity
With every day, and from both sides of my
intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew
steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery
I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that
man is not truly one, but truly two. (p.70)
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
30. The height of Mr Hyde
Again, in the course of my life, which had been, after
all, nine tenths a life of effort, virtue and control, it
had been much less exercised and much less exhausted.
And hence, as I think, it came about that Edward
Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than
Henry Jekyll. (p. 73)
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
31. “I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll,
I had awakened Edward Hyde”
“[…] and I began to spy a danger that, if this were
much prolonged, the balance of my nature might be
permanently overthrown, the power of voluntary
change be forfeited, and the character of Edward
Hyde become irrevocably mine.” p.77
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
32. Reason vs. unconscious
• Não é a razão, a consciência; que controla a vida
humana; mas sim o nosso inconsciente. (Freud)
• O "id" se constitui na versão pecaminosa e amoral,
que revela uma porção do ser humano totalmente
avesso aos nossos padrões morais e éticos. Um ser
primitivo e sem freios e, assim como Mr. Hyde,
totalmente oculto e inconsciente à nossa percepção.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
33. MAIN THEME
Good vs. Evil
An allegory about the good and evil that
exist in all men, and about our struggle with
these two sides of the human personality.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
34. MINOR THEMES
1. Repression
Victorian England: no sexual appetites,
no violence, and no great expressions of
emotion, at least in the public sphere.
Everything is sober and dignified, and
you’re really not supposed to be happy.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
35. MINOR THEMES
2. Friendship
Aside from human curiosity, Mr. Utterson is
compelled to uncover the mystery of the evil
man because of his friendship with Dr. Jekyll.
Fraught with competition, anger, and eventually
na irreconcilable quarrel, that friendships can be
ruined by differences of opinion.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
36. MINOR THEMES
3. Science
Science becomes a cover and justification for
supernatural activities.
Dr. Jekyll’s brand of science, however, veers towards
the "transcendental" (indeed, supernatural), while Dr.
Lanyon adheres to a more traditional set of scientific
notions.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
37. MINOR THEMES
4. Appearances
Appearances figure in the novel both
figuratively and literally.
In a literal sense, the appearances of buildings
in the novel reflect the character of the
building’s inhabitants.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
38. MINOR THEMES
5. Religion
God and Satan - figure prominently;
Mr. Hyde is frequently likened to Satan.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
39. Violence against innocents;
The Reign Of Terror;
Silence - deliberate & genuine;
MOTIFS and SYMBOLS
Jekyll’s house & Laboratory;
Mist & Moonlight;
Letters & Documents;
Hyde’s Physical Appearance;
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
40. Duality of Human Behaviour;
Workings of Human Mind;
Nature of Human Society;
How a Human Being perceives LAW;
Preserving one’s Reputation;
Science becomes a Cover;
EXPOSITION
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
41. FEATURES
• “The double” in Oscar Wilde and Stevenson;
• Respectability in Victorian Age;
• Language and Style;
• Landscape;
• Some curiosities.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
42. “THE DOUBLE”
IN OSCAR WILDE
• In 1891 Wilde added to the double nature of
man the Victorian attempt to hid the corrupted
side of ones personality under the mask of
respectability and beauty. "The picture of
Dorian Gray" is profoundly allegorical and it is
a 19th century version of the myth of the Faust.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
43. “THE DOUBLE”
IN STEVENSON
• In the novel written by Stevenson, “The strange
case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, the duplicity
of the human nature becomes more explicit. In
fact the same man, drinking a potion, can make
dominant the one or the other disposition of
his soul.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
44. “THE DOUBLE”
IN STEVENSON
• Ambivalence reinforced by the symbolism of
Jekyll and Hyde’s house:
• two opposite sides of the same man;
• the front of this house, used by the doctor, is fair;
• the rear side, used by Hyde, is "part of a sinister
block of buildings, which showed no windows".
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
45. “THE DOUBLE”
IN STEVENSON
• Mr Hyde is deformed and smaller than Dr.
Jekyll. (the evil part is a small part of the human
feelings);
• When Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde, he
becomes able to satisfy all his hidden wishes.
• Mr. Utterson X Dr. Jekyll’s features.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
46. RESPECTABILITY IN
VICTORIAN AGE
• The Victorian Age is all a show of respectability, serenity
and virtues, trying to imitate the queen Victoria.
• But, behind these virtues, this respectability, there is the
“dark side of the human world”.
• Victorian Age is not only a great age of great virtues, but
also of murders, atrocious rituals, blasphemous rites and
sexual violence.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
47. LANGUAGE AND STYLE
The use of some puns and learned allusions:
• “ ‘If he be Mr. Hyde’, he had thought, ‘I shall be Mr.
Seek.’ ” (chapter 2nd, pg. 21)
• “ ‘Such unscientific balderdash,’ added the doctor,
flushing suddenly purple, ‘would have estranged
Damon and Pythias.’ ” (chapter 6th, pg. 53)
The language is simple and clear. Some important features:
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
48. LANGUAGE AND STYLE
• There isn’t any female character: the story reflects
the male patriarchal world of Victorianism
• Utterson has the role of a detective, like Arthur
Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes
• For the description of Hyde, Stevenson drew
inspiration from Darwin’s studies: in fact, Hyde is
similar to an “homo neanderthalensis”
The language is simple and clear. Some important features:
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
49. LANDSCAPE
An important feature is the landscape: London.
In fact there is a beautiful detailed description of
London, that reflects the double nature of the
capital, the hypocrisy of Victorian society, and the
situation and the mood of the main character, Mr.
Utterson.
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
50. SOME CURIOSITIES
“The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” had
immediately an enormous success. But it increased the
numbers of murders did by doctors, lawyers, etc. Like,
for example, the most known assassin “Jake the Slayer”
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima
52. CONCLUSION
“In each of us, two natures are at war – the
good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes
on between them, and one of them must
conquer. But in our hands lies the power to
choose - what we want most to be, we are."
-Robert Louis Stevenson
João Antonio dos Santos de Lima