Robert Stevenson Biography

My author, Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13th, in 1850. Stevenson was from Edinburgh, Scotland and was the son of Thomas and Margaret Stevenson. At the age of 17, Stevenson, attended Edinburgh University. He entered the University to become a lighthouse engineer, just like his father. His plans to become a lighthouse engineer did not succeed. Instead he studied and prepared for the Scottish Bar, that also fell through since he was never in interest to practice. Rather than Stevenson becoming a lighthouse engineer or a lawyer, he finally got to become what he desired to be. Eventually Robert Louis Stevenson was a Novelist, Poet, Essayist, and a writer of travel books. Stevenson was the author of three most popular novels to
ever be written: “Treasure Island”, “Kidnapped”, and “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. In 1873, while having stressful conflicts with his father, he met a life-long friend that soon became his wife. Her name was Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne and they married in May of 1880. Stevenson was considered very sick throughout his entire life. From, two to eleven he struggled from digestive upsets, feverish colds, gastric fever, bronchitis, and pneumonia. In 1873, he suffered a Respiratory illness that sent him to the French Riviera. Stevenson had multiple things that were wrong with him throughout his life. Medical historians still cannot figure out today, to what cause his poor health sicknesses. Stevenson died December 3rd of 1894, and his death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. When Stevenson was still alive, he didn’t let his poor health conditions affect his work. Stevenson finally convinced his parents to support his career. They provided a couple of the major influences on his literary works. One of the influences was his home and environment, and the other one was his health. From all of Stevenson’s health issues, trips back and forth to checkups, and search for better climates, it caused his education to become at risk. His attendance to Edinburgh University was disrupted but luckily he was still able to return. Two of his journeys due to search of reasonable climates led to, An Inland Voyage in 1878, and Travels With a Donkey in the Cheyenne’s in 1879. The inspiration of Stevenson’s work came from a couple of important sources. One was his childhood and another was his family nurse Alison Cunningham. She was named “The angel of his infant life”. Cunningham, told him many ghost stories and supernatural tales which led to his later fiction. Appearing in a few of his short stories such as, “The Body Snatchers”, “The Merry Man, and “Thrawn Janet”. One of Stevenson’s novels, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde begins with two men named who were named Richard Enfield and a cousin, Gabriel John Utterson. While roaming down a familiar street they came across an abandoned building. Enfield claims that he once saw a sickly-tempered man drag down and trample a child at the entrance of the empty building. Enfield and people watching made the stranger that was named Hyde, to pay a certain amount of money towards the child's welfare. (Masterplots). Utterson has a few reasons to be involved with Hyde. Utterson is a lawyer who, wrote Dr. Henry Jekyll’s strange will. This will lead that when Jekyll’s death takes place, Hyde will receive all of Jekyll's wealth. Utterson now observes him, to see if his cousin was right about him being the same guy who was named to receive the money. (Masterplots).

Now Utterson is afraid that Hyde might be blackmailing Jekyll so he can go after all of his money, and might murder the Doctor. In the next year Hyde was actually convicted for senseless murder of a nice elderly man who was named Sir Danvers Carew. Dr. Jekyll showed the lawyer and police a letter with Hyde's Signature, which states his meaning of escaping from England Forever. The end of the letter is Hyde apologizing for his abused friendship with Jekyll. (Masterplots) Another Sunday Enfield and Utterson are back onto their walking routine.
They saw that the side of the old building had another door to a laboratory that is attached to Jekyll's house. When they took a glance at the house, they suddenly witnessed Jekyll's expression turning into a face of pain. One day Utterson and a man named Poole return to Jekyll's home to sneak into the laboratory and use and ax to break inside. They witnessed that the man committed suicide by poisoning himself. (Masterplots).
The man they saw was Hyde, then Utterson and Poole try and find Jekyll's body. There was a note from Jekyll to Utterson. The note was dated on the same day all of this happened. In the note, it explains that Jekyll arranged to disappear, and rushes for Utterson to read what it said. Jekyll's owns up to his confession at the very end. (Masterplots). Utterson returns back to his office to read the letter on Lanyon. In the letter; it says that Poole brought a request to Lanyon asking if the Doctor can go back for the mysterious drug in Jekyll's science lab and deliver it to Mr. Hyde. Hyde took the drug right in front of Lanyon, and the shock that, Lanyon felt was indescribable, that it led to his death.
(Masterplots). Jekyll begun early in his life to live two of them. He rehearsed strange negative qualities without hesitation. He seemed to be infatuated with the doppelganger idea and living two different lives. He created a potion to become Hyde which was his evil self. In this case, he self-directed himself to haunt the lonesome. (Masterplots). It took Jekyll all that he could to guard himself with disguise. He completely blackmailed himself for Hyde. He did everything cautiously until he awakened to his evil self, one morning without even taking the drug. He panicked so bad that he was set on murdering the person of Hyde. Instead, he tried putting his mind on other things, like the people he desired. Jekyll wasn’t strong enough for this, so he was being tortured by the person that he was turned into. He was now built up with so much anger and evil, which lead to him murdering Carew. After the murder happened, he allowed himself to destroy his visions of being Hyde, but one day he was strolling through the park, he converted into Hyde and was forced to make Lanyon give him the drug that would change him back to Jekyll. Ever since that day, the nature of Hyde still affected him all the time. Finally Jekyll had enough, and committed suicide. The Novel is an important gothic-science fiction novel.
The entire book according to Stevenson took an amount of ten weeks to be written and published. The novel relates to the idea of the double personality inside of every person. Dr. Henry Jekyll, a Scottish Doctor who leads a double life, one of a respected and learned scientist and the other who is a self-serving monster. Hyde is not the double of the sinner, but a conscience. A reporter explained it as Hyde being a personality of "hideous caprices and appalling vitality, a terrible power of growth and increase". Stevenson wasn't the first to use this idea of works, but he did give it a different twist. It's one of those rare fictions that can make you comprehend the value in literary art. The novel follows the basic template written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in Frankenstein: or the modern Prometheus in 1818. The two novels carry on secret experiments that suddenly go out of control. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is a theme of duality. The behaviors are opposite and antagonistic. This novel also explains the exploring effects of drug use. Other criticizers link it to a certain concern of the post-parwinran world of the late nineteenth century. Robert Louis Stevenson once said, "We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend" (BrainyQuote). This is still true today because you shouldn’t ever give up what you love to do even though
you may go through rough patches in life