Though there are moments Stevenson depicts London a cherry atmosphere describing the city with "its freshly painted shutters" and "well-polished brasses," our author primarily focuses on the much darker aspect of the town (62). Immediately after describing the delightful street, our author juxtaposes the initial description of London with "a sinister block" and a house with "no windows" and "nothing but a door on the lower storey" (63). This house is a metaphor which describes the characters' mysterious personalities. I believe this description to be one of terror because it inspires reason in both Utterson and the readers. Who lives here? Why does he not want to be bothered?
Stevenson built another aspect upon the Gothic setting. The reader is forced to reason between the conflicting aspects-- beauty versus terror and awe versus fright. For example, in the evening after Carew is murdered, Utterson describes the fog to be "dark like the back-end of evening" with a "glow of rich, lurid brown, like the light of some strange conflagration" (80). It is truly the beauty and the beast which make the setting so intriguing. Stevenson's contrast between two very different elements of the evening draw a similar parallel to Dr. Jekyll's duel character as well. He is one man of two natures-- the author's symbolism of nature compliments the storyline.
I agree that his Stevenson was incorporating the dual personality thing in several ways. I also agree that he was trying to instill terror and not horror because all of the situations inspired confusion but we could eventually rationalize and understand what's going on.
ReplyDeleteStevenson does a wonderful job of painting an image in the readers mind using the setting. While the author uses dopplegangers with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he also uses this idea with the describing the duality of the city. I thought is was interesting how the author incorporated this into the novel. The way in which the author used the setting to portray the events and dual personalities of the characters was awesome. I completely agrees with what you had said.
ReplyDeletei completely agree with you. Stevenson did a good job in mirror London and the mysterious room with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I liked how he describe every single detail of the bright and dark side of London. We can see that symobolizes the doppleganger in the story.
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