The novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is reminiscent of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. Frankenstein was published in 1818 and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published almost 70 years later in 1886. Although I am not sure if Stevenson ever read Frankenstein, it is possible that he did and used the novel as inspiration when he wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
For example both novels have dark gloomy atmospheres and are about doctors who create monsters. Another similarity between these two novels is, both Mr. Hyde and the Monster from Frankenstein, cause havoc in the towns where they live. Mr. Hyde tramples a young girl and also kills Sir Danvers. The Monster in Frankenstein also commits murder, he kills some people in his town as well as members of Dr. Frankenstein's family.
Another similarity I found between these novels is that both doctors did not originally fear the monster's they created, nor did they find them repulsive, as the other people who encountered them did. An example of this is, when Dr. Frankenstein created his Monster he created him from parts he thought were beautiful, and he thought that his creation was beautiful. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide, Dr. Jekyll says in his confession letter to Mr. Utterson "And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human. In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance I had been hitherto accustomed to call mine (pg. 88)." In this quote Dr. Jekyll is explaining that at first he didn't see the evil side of Mr. Hyde, his other half, nor did he think that he was ugly.
Another example of how these two novels are similar is that neither doctor could escape the monster they created and as a result, they die. After continuous consumption of the potion, Mr. Hyde takes over Dr. Jekyll's body and the good doctor dies because he can not be the man he once was. In Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein eventually dies from an illness brought on by grief and the exhaustion of chasing the Monster he created.
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2 comments:
I could definately see the parallels of Frankenstein as well, although the monsters are very different in each book. Both of the ultimately are wretched creations of (somewhat) wellmeaning scientists. Each man wants to do somemthing to relief some pain from himself and thus the monster is born. Whether it is the desire to overcome death or the desire to suffer no ill conscience due to the duality of self, it seems like it is selfishness that we are supposed to avoid. Selfishness and a desire to fix an unfixable problem creatures the monsters.
I completley agree! The more I read Jekyll and Hyde the more it reminds me of Frankenstein. The biggest tip off for me is idea in both novels of marrying science and nature. To scientifically alter a person's physical or moral makeup is, in my opinion, as interesting an idea today as it was hundreds of years ago. Also, both novels deal with the idea of remorse. After Frankenstein plays God he realizes, by how evil his monster is, the gravity of what he has done. Jekyll in the same way realizes he has made something evil when he begins unwillingly turning into it.
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