Mr. Hyde is described as evil while Dr. Jekyll is described more favorably. I chose to analyze chapter 1's excerpt about Mr. Hyde. Stevenson uses another character to describe him and see another character's reaction to him. Mr. Enfield says that it is not easy to describe Mr. Hyde. He uses words with very negative connotations. The speech he uses is meant to form a bad image in the reader's mind as to what Mr. Hyde's appearance is like. Enfield's describes Hyde as "displeasing" and "deformed". Through Enfield's character, Stevenson develops the idea that Hyde is not an attractive or appealing man using a negative voice.
Dr. Jekyll is more so described as a kind man. I chose to look more closely at chapter 3's excerpt about Dr. Jekyll. Stevenson uses a much different approach to describing Jekyll's character as opposed to Hyde's. Stevenson uses narrating descriptions to describe Jekyll, instead of through a character like with Hyde. By doing this, Stevenson does not provide the audience with other character's reactions to Jekyll's appearance or their thoughts and feelings as much. The narrator describes Jekyll using more positive adjectives than were used to describe Hyde. For example, Jekyll is said to be "handsome", "well-made", "smooth-faced", and "kindness". This words used to describe Jekyll's appearance are stark opposites to that of Hyde. This provides the assumption that these two characters are opposites.
Dr. Jekyll
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Mr. Hyde
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I am Dr. Jekyll.
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I am Mr. Hyde.
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I am attractive and strong.
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I am deformed and displeasing to the eye.
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I am a loyal friend and can be trusted.
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I care about no one, only myself.
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I am intelligent and educated.
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I am angry and do not become close to anyone or anything.
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We are opposites with completely different personalities.
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We are opposites with completely different appearances.
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I am a doctor and enjoy helping others.
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I have no regret for being brutal or hurtful.
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I want to be more charitable and be more religiously affiliated.
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I want to do harm to those who have everything.
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We think completely different and have vastly differing personalities.
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We think completely different and have vastly differing personalities.
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My purpose for including elements discussing appearance and motives in my poem are because in those excerpts I described above, I learned a lot about the two characters' in the way that they were described. I was also able to bring up some parts of each of their differing personalities because they are opposites. My purpose is mainly to establish their stark differences and their main points of contrast: appearance and personality. The intended effect that I hope my poem creates is to leave the reader with direct answers. I want this to be the effect because I felt the opposite when reading the novella. So playing on Stevenson's use of opposites, I wanted to provide the opposite effect of the novella. I hope my poem helps my readers establish direct characterization about both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde so they aren't left with many questions like I have been thus far after reading half of the mysterious novella.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, et al. The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Longman, 1978.
Works Consulted
Stevenson, Robert Louis, et al. The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Longman, 1978.
Taylor, this is a very well written blog. First, I really like your analysis of Hyde, and how Mr. Enfield uses negative connotations to explain the physical description to Mr. Utterson. Also, I approve of your poem and I think that it accurately portrays them as opposite people. Good post, Dilly Dilly.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how concise your blog post was, which really helped with sharing your positive and negative views of Jekyll and Hyde. I also thought this goal was well-accomplished in your poem, as your purpose was to offer a clear characterization of the protagonists. Awesome post, I really enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of the two was well done and I like how you pointed out that only narrative descriptions were given for Dr. Jekyll. I believe this is one reason why people disliked Mr. Hyde so much. Your poem was very affective and it did provide me with an understanding of who the two characters were. You're amazing!!!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your decision to focus more on the physical differences between Jekyll and Hyde rather than the inner character traits. Many times when we look at these two characters the differences in terms of good and evil are very apparent, but there is also a staunch contrast in their physical aspects as well which you depicted in your analysis. I also thought your poem did a good job of encapsulating the differences and commonalities of the characters by showing the personality as well as physical of both characters.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting how Stevenson describes Hyde through the use of a different character, but with Jekyll he does not. The descriptions of Hyde come from Mr, Enfield, but the descriptions of Jekyll come directly from Stevenson describing the character. I also enjoyed reading your poem because the distinctions between characters were obvious and clear. You went into good depth with your poem varying from physical descriptions, to personalities, to motives.
ReplyDeleteSome good points here (I especially like that you thought about the change in descriptions of both characters). I wish you had done a bit more with part one- incorporating textual evidence, really diving into the passages to look at how Stevenson presents both characters. Be carefully that you are not just providing surface level analysis- look closely at the text provided (so the passages) to really pick apart what is important and why.
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