How important is the setting in R L Stevenson’s portrayal of a double life in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Essay

The strange expression of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was scripted in 1886 by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Robert Lewis Stevenson was born and brought up in Edinburgh in the 1850s. He was part of a middle class family, his p bents were strict Christians and it was very grand to them that Stevenson behaved respectfully. When Stevenson was a child, Stevensons nanny frightened him with stories of hell and suffering which whitethorn have contributed to his ideas in the new.When he was a young man in Edinburgh he may have used a false let on or a hidden identity in stray to mar himself in forbidden activities or he may have fantasized or so them, like evil, aff argumentations and homosexuality. In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson uses his experiences to describe the unpleasant lieu of career. The reinvigorated is nearly how Dr Jekyll leads a double up action and its devastating consequences. The book reflects strait-laced concerns about city life such as crime and poverty.The sweet i s site in the city of London and is significant in the raw because in general most gothic fables at that time were rig far away or in unfamiliar surroundings, yet Stevenson sets the novel in London which shocked readers because it was a place they each(prenominal) knew which make them think that the themes discussed in the novel could be happening near them. This makes it to a greater extent frightening to the reader and therefore made it a more fashionable novel. In the novel Stevenson describes London as labyrinths of lamp lighted city. This declares that the city makes it possible for pack to easily lose themselves in London. We see this in the novel when Stevenson says he was often absent for instance, it was nearly two months since she had seen him public treasury yesterday (the day of the executing). This tells us that Hyde was often absent and it relates back to people losing themselves in the city. some other important aspect of the tantrum is the weather, which for most of the novel is set forth as fogged city moon This creates an atmosphere of closed book and unknown and it to a fault suggests that something might be about to happen. The chapter which describes the Carew murder case is an important event in the novel because the murder forces Mr Utterson to investigate and atom together the link between his friend Dr. Jekyll and the murderer Mr Hyde.The reader learns, until now, that they are the same person. Stevenson sets the murder scene in a lane which the wet-nurses window overlooked and interestingly chooses the murder to be bright lit by the full moon. He does this in order to display every detail of the murder and to show the viciousness of the attack. For recitation the murder is described as a storm of blows, under which the bone were audibly shattered. This tells us how brutal and violent the murder was by the maid world able to hear the victims swot being broken. It also gives the reader the full affect of the damage that had been done. The murder is particularly shocking because it enables the maid to describe the murder so rise as a result of the murder scene being so brilliantly lit by the moon.The characters houses in the novel also suggest something about them, Dr Jekylls house, for example, is described as having a great air of wealth and comfort. Hydes rooms are described as well furnished, but theyre located in Soho which is a seedy area full of unrespectable people.The themes in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, for example crime and concealing forbidden activities touched on issues overnices were concerned with because it was set in a familiar place and it made people think the build of themes discussed in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde could be happening around or near them. Darwins ideas about evolution and how human beings descended from apes changed Victorian beliefs. His ideas about people being evolved from apes suggest that animalistic urges and desires might be present in all men. Victorians t ended to see crime as being carried out by the poor, who they scene of as being more brute(prenominal) or animal like. Hyde is described as ape like but he is the other side of Jekyll, so Stevenson is state all men are capable of brutish deportment, regardless of their class.He is also described like this because of the brutal deportment he shows during the Carew murder case. This suggests that Hyde is less evolved than other human beings. The reader learns however that Hyde is also Jekyll this makes the reader think that anyone is capable of ape like behaviour.Another theme that is discussed in the novel involves people leading a double life. The idea of a double life, like the one Jekyll leads, would have appealed to Victorian readers because of the familiar background the novel was set in. Also Victorian codes of behaviour and social rules were strict and repressive, so people liked the idea of breaking out of this.In this novel the setting is important because it creates a whizz of uncertainty and creates atmosphere because of the novel being set in unyielding and fog for most of it. Stevenson created a genre called urban gothic, this is because he set the novel in a familiar place and also at the time he wrote the book. He created a modern urban setting in order to engage his readers which mean they feel all the emotions more intensely because they can imagine it happening to them.The idea of the double life in the novel not only is of interest to Victorians but also to modern day readers because of the familiar setting. The phrase Jekyll and Hyde reputation is used immediately when someone shows two very different sides of their personality because the book is about Dr Jekyll who leads a double life as Mr Hyde. So by saying a Jekyll and Hyde personality it is like saying a split personality. We can see many of the ideas that are in the novel in our present times for example leading a double life and this suggests that the ideas behind the novel are still as relevant forthwith as they were in Victorian times.