Comparing Human Nature in Macbeth and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde CA
The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written in the Victorian Era by Robert Louis Stevenson, this novella dwells into the concept of the duality of human nature. The narrative is extremely fragmented structure due to the use of multiple narrators and through the use of mixed media, in the form of letters and accounts. The inconsistent structure conveys that of a gothic detective story; which were very popular in the Victorian era. Victorian London at the time was the largest city in the world, with a total population of around 4 million people in the 1880’s, and was one of the first cities to become completely urbanised. For the first time, more people were living in towns and cities than in the country. This forced them to increase the interiority of their lives, through having little involvement with the society outside their blacked out windows. This made it a perfect setting for mystery novels like ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.
Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1604. It is set in Scotland and is considered one of the darkest and most powerful tragedies in literature. The play dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects which occur when the evil inside a person is chosen as a way to fulfil the ambition for power. Shakespeare performed this play and was paid by the monarch, King James I; this meant that the sovereign had a large effect on the outcome of the play.
In this essay, I will be comparing how and why the writers use strong feelings about human nature in Macbeth and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Stevenson goes out of his way to paint Hyde as animalistic—“It wasn’t like a man”. Here, Stevenson cleverly uses the personal pronoun “it” to emphasize the inhumaneness of Hyde and to show how out-casted he is from society. Utterson describes him as a “troglodyte,” or primitive creature and he is constantly referred as doing things in an “apelike” manner. Yet, if Hyde were just an animal, it wouldn’t
The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written in the Victorian Era by Robert Louis Stevenson, this novella dwells into the concept of the duality of human nature. The narrative is extremely fragmented structure due to the use of multiple narrators and through the use of mixed media, in the form of letters and accounts. The inconsistent structure conveys that of a gothic detective story; which were very popular in the Victorian era. Victorian London at the time was the largest city in the world, with a total population of around 4 million people in the 1880’s, and was one of the first cities to become completely urbanised. For the first time, more people were living in towns and cities than in the country. This forced them to increase the interiority of their lives, through having little involvement with the society outside their blacked out windows. This made it a perfect setting for mystery novels like ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.
Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1604. It is set in Scotland and is considered one of the darkest and most powerful tragedies in literature. The play dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects which occur when the evil inside a person is chosen as a way to fulfil the ambition for power. Shakespeare performed this play and was paid by the monarch, King James I; this meant that the sovereign had a large effect on the outcome of the play.
In this essay, I will be comparing how and why the writers use strong feelings about human nature in Macbeth and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Stevenson goes out of his way to paint Hyde as animalistic—“It wasn’t like a man”. Here, Stevenson cleverly uses the personal pronoun “it” to emphasize the inhumaneness of Hyde and to show how out-casted he is from society. Utterson describes him as a “troglodyte,” or primitive creature and he is constantly referred as doing things in an “apelike” manner. Yet, if Hyde were just an animal, it wouldn’t