Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde example essay topic

We have been looking at the nineteenth century story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the post world war II text, The Darkness Out There. Both of the stories focus on split personalities but we must compare the similarities and differences of the stories before we judge how they relate back to the idea of split personalities. We should also consider the context and form of each piece. The Darkness Out There, was written by Penelope Lively and The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson, a popular writer with mass appeal where as Penelope Lively is a more literary writer. In addition, The Darkness Out There was written as a short story and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written as a short novel.

The stories both deal with physical individuals, with two personalities occupying them and shifting between the two. This happens even within one sentence in some instances. Mrs. Rutter would go from being kind and friendly, asking Sandra to Put a bit of coal on the fire, and saying Theres a good boy to Kerry, to talking about the deaths of German war soldiers she saw dying and describing their deaths in the encounter as good riddance to bad rubbish. However, the two texts both show this shift in very different ways. They both use a variety of techniques and both relate to different relevant aspects of the theme. Hence, we should also consider the historical and physical as well as when the texts were written.

The Darkness Out There is set after the Second World War, in a pretty and idyllic countryside setting. The strange case of Jekyll and Hyde is in respectable Victorian London, which is none the less a dark and harsh place. Thus both of these respectably set locations have blemishes to them. The Darkness Ou There features Packers End which has many deathly feelings and darkness too it, the three men who died horrid deaths in there, the chills which Sandra gets from thinking about the place. When Packers End is talked about, night time is used which is a mighty contrast to the sunny images of fields and meadows, the spilt in the location, a split personality in the story, light and dark. The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde has the wealth of Victorian society already supporting it but then has the small and cramped dirtiness, the foggy evenings where a man was once beaten.

Both the stories are showing splits and this can be related to the theme and way the story puts its self across, the split personality of the story. A respectable front is displayed and then through this we see glimpses of the black bad side. The stories generally have this bad side hidden but we are still able to see. The Darkness Out There focuses mainly on the summery meadows but we then hear indirect descriptions of Packers End. This differs in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as the story is based on the respectability of Victorian London like The Darkness Out There and uses Mr. Utterson the trustworthy and conservative figure to generate a respectable image like Mrs. Rutter is used in The Darkness Out There, but we are then led further into the story and see the blemishes in the respectability are seen through the narrative, not experiences being recited to us as experiences of Packers End are. We see for ourselves here the dirt, back streets and the beatings unlike the other side of The Darkness Out There.

The setting in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is at one point mentioned as very cool and a little damp, and full of premature twilight. This is a first hand example of the split personality coming through, the darkness showing through too early, damp, a total opposite to the respectable setting of Victorian London. The Darkness Out There focuses on a post world war piece and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a pre world war piece. Penelope Lively uses World War II in the story to show how our society has moral imperfections. We are shocked when we are shown how Mrs. Rutter showed a murderous and evil side, which goes against our society self image. This reflects the split in the personality of the society itself with Mrs. Rutter as a representative, showing them that parts of society have a dark and hidden side even though we tell ourselves we are correct.

The stories here both show the theme of a split personality with one split understated. It is almost as if the authors are lifting up the bed slightly to show us some of the dirt that has been brushed under there. The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde does this by relating to individual places like the street in which Dr. Jekyll lab is located, the eyewitness account of Mr. Hyde beating an elderly man. Both the authors show us the private side of peoples minds which are not usually exposed, in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this is shows differently as the two sides are represented as two different physical forms unlike The Darkness Out There which has Mrs. Rutter who carries both sides of the visible personality. This can become a shock to the characters in the story and to the reader when they discover something about that character when they thought differently of the character, like when Sandra and Kerry in The Darkness Out There are shocked to discover another side to Mrs. Rutter.

This can be seen in the way that Kerry becomes quite aggressive in the way that he speaks and leaves the house, Sandra becomes quiet and shows the shock that way. The children both show a split in personality here. Peter in The Darkness Out There is busy doing jobs for Mrs. Rutter, his T-shirt is wet with sweat as he is working so hard, he then shows the other side of his personality when he is about to leave by disrespecting her and even goes as far to say that he never wants to go near that old bitch again. He was willing to work for her and then badmouths her but away from her face. Sandra on the other hand simply nods at Kerry and doesnt say anything but she still acknowledges what he is saying. Sandra shows a split in her personality by looking at Kerry in a different light.

She realises that you can get people all wrong and she realises this about Kerry but this also reflects what she thought of Mrs. Rutter when she first met her and when she left the house. With Sandra being the narrator, she shows a split in the story which we can see. A split in the personality of her thoughts on the matters of the story, showing how she changes to see things deeper. Instead of the tidy room to go on, she also has the dirt under the bed to alter her opinions. In The Darkness Out There, Mrs. Rutter is graphic about the destruction in the German war plane crash, being very matter of fact and not being moved by any of the gory details, it was all smashed up by the time I saw it, she said and she chuckled when she talked about how she saw it come down, and then goes onto saying to Sandra Drop more milk dear, if you dont mind. From Gruesome to being respectable and polite.

This is different to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the way that Dr. Jekyll changes physically as well as mentally from himself into Mr. Hyde and back. In that story there are never two personalities shown together, only one or the other at a time. The spilt in personality of Mrs. Rutter is far subtler, she changes mentally and is this is only noticed from listening to what she says. As a result The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a much cruder story compared to The Darkness Out There: the horror of the story is graphic, described as it happens.

The personalities of the main characters in Jekyll and Hyde are very apparent. The darkness out there shows subtlety in the way that the horror is used and the personalities are manipulated. Jekyll and Hyde has Hyde beating a man in the street, you have an experience of the split personality; it is described whereas Mrs. Rutter only gives hints through her eyes and her words. Mrs Rutter glints from her chair, and her eyes examine him, when she looked at Kerry in the story, Mrs. Rutter is gives hints of her split personality through suggestive and opinionative actions. We dont on the other hand get, so much detail about the characters of Jekyll and Hyde and how we think of their characters depends mainly on actions, we get no reports of Mr. Hyde in general so we can make our own judgement for example, we learn from hearing of things like the beating of a man on the street committed by Mr. Hyde. There is a fascinating amount of imaginary connected with eyes in The darkness out there.

Mrs. Rutters eyes examined, Sandra. Mrs. Rutter says to Sandra only me to see a bit of bum, when Sandra is cleaning and mentions her pretty skirt. - she uses visuals. She talks about how Kerry puts the gel on his hair, sticky looking, and says to Sandra she hopes she keeps her shape and stays that way. She chuckled as she reminisces how she saw it come down all right, the plane, which was all smashed up by the time she saw it. This is the plane that no one else seen it come down.

As she tells this her eyes were on the girl, and describes how she went back for another look. The Darkness Out There shows the theme of a split personality with this, relating to things like the way Mrs Rutters eyes give a clue to the other side of her personality. We know that what we see physically of Mrs. Rutter is the opposite of her evil side and the idea of seeing in the story can relate to how her other side, opposite to her appearance, speaks out. The evil split of her personality we get clues about through her eyes could be thought of being just as present in the story as her physical self, her physical self making us see the stereo type grandmother spilt, the good and obvious side of her personality. We must read far deeper therefore into The Darkness Out There as it is far more a story to read over slowly than The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which tells a story by projecting explicit images in to the mind to help the reader imagine the two sides of its split personality, the two sides of Dr. Jekyll. The different sides of the characters in the stories are very similar.

Dr. Jekyll is respectable, looks smart and is a good citizen whereas the same man but under Mr. Hyde is corrupt and shows the reality that Victorian London looked to be prosperous and a world leader with gracious and good people, but under the surface hid evil while people suffered, an image behind which this darkness was hidden. Mrs. Rutter shows the Respectability of an older woman with kindness and warmth but then shows a corrupt side with an inner evil. This shows a split in the personality of how the appearances of the characters match the actions of their minds. The two sides of the personalities are corrupt with each other and go in different directions. The darkness out there is far more compacted and information about the story is available in every paragraph.

Penelope Lively drops hints and we can see attitudes of the characters, actions and see the plot, maybe not directly, straight away. This parallels the idea of a split personality allowing us to pick on every little detail of Mrs. Rutter, the split personality. We can observe things which give us clues and show us Mrs. Rutters split personality in action. Jekyll and Hyde does more to set the scene to add to the story all the way through. The scene makes the story and creates the atmosphere.

This is done to allow us to incorporate not only the two physical forms Dr. Jekyll is able to take, his split personality, but also we can incorporate the two sides of Victorian London, the two sides of the industrial revolution, the prosper and the poverty, the split personality of the age and the people there. This is done in The darkness out there but for totally different reasons. It works with the atmosphere in the first part to shock in the second. Jekyll and Hyde describes scenery, which is in the story and is important, you are entertained with a story. The darkness out there includes irrelevant details to persuade you to think about and perceive Mrs. Rutter and the other characters in a certain way, the cottage loaf of a woman, the pictures of big eyed flop-eared rabbits and beribboned kittens and flowery milkmaids lead us to believe she is a harmless and kind woman. Then the moral becomes apparent, the moral is a sharp contrast to the way the story unfolds.

This reflects the way that Mrs. Rutters personalities have a sharp difference. We see he physically as round and soft, she is described as a chintzy mass and she has folds in her skin, this is a sharp difference in comparison to her hidden split of her personality, harsh, evil and with no soft edges. This compares to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as quite different. In that story, we find out this change in personality as we read though the story, there are no subtle hints there simply becomes the black and white story of the split in the mental and physical state of Dr. Hyde.

Both the stories show complete opposites, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both being different physical forms and mental states, Dr. Jekyll is respected and well known, Mr. Hyde evil and for example violent. Mrs. Rutter similarly going form being explicitly soft and rounded to sharp and hard. The stories both focus on detailed graphical descriptions in the first parts. Jekyll and Hyde on London, Mr. Utterson and the whole mystery and grayness about the whole story, the dark alleys, the back streets, The darkness out there similarly on the setting and the gist of the story, revealed to be false later on. Both showing splits in the settings of the story. Victorian London, respectable and prosperous but we are shown dark and dirt, the meadows around Mrs. Rutters house to then focus on Packers End where the truth about Mrs. Rutters actions and personality live, her physical self and a split of her personality live in the middle of the meadow with the long grasses and lady birds but her other side lives deep in Packers End in the rain and dark.

The two stories use very different characters to allow us to see into the story. The Darkness Out There uses a young and innocent girl, Sandra, happy and care free with Jekyll and Hyde using the serious aged lawyer, Mr. Utterson. Again with Jekyll and Hyde, Mr. Utterson tells the story, he processes events he encounters to us but with the Darkness out there, it is quite different. There is a hidden moral. We see through Sandras eyes, she represents us. She is a soft and innocent young girl.

She learns two things One that Mrs. Rutter, is old and innocent looking but when the surface is scratched and the face beneath the make-up comes clean, we see the other side of Mrs. Rutters split personality. By saying this I mean when you investigate the controversial suggestions she makes, she begins to express new feelings and ideas. Dont take people at face value. Sandra uses appearances to judge how Mrs. Rutter should be thought of, we see through Sandras eyes and we are led to think the same way as her for example, with Kerry, he is not recommended to us, Sandra notices his chin explosive with acne, for example but after her experience starts to think otherwise. This again reflects the idea of a split personality but differently to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. No miss interperatations are made, no lessons to be learned.

We see Dr. Jekyll for who he is and he stays that same person, Mr. Hyde is shown in his true colours all the way through. We have different sympathies for them but we indeed know the general personalities of the split men, we learn that Kerry, not presenting such a respectful appearance, is under his surface good, unlike the personality change in comparison to Mrs. Rutters appearance and general actions. Penelope Lively uses the basis of the 2nd world war to give the message that all human nature has a dark side. She shows that there is darkness out there and often harmless looking light, i.e. Mrs. Rutters appearance is that of a masking light. The war is used to here to give an example. In the war, Britain, to the British was all well and good, but the truth of the matter was they were just as bad as the Germans.

Mrs. Rutter is an example. She shows us how younger generations cannot always trust the all knowing and advising morals of the elder generations, the good taught to children of how we acted in the war is a mass split in our personalities and an over-looking the other half of our own personality. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde uses the industrial revolution to illustrate the same thing. A strong and new advance in our society, prestigious and respectable but in the back streets of these developed areas are the black bits, the split personality of a mass of peoples triumph, but unlike The Darkness Out There, The strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde uses different people but from the same original source to give split personalities rather than a variance in one entity. When Sandra touched, secretly, the soft skin of her thigh. She feels herself to be young and near perfect, maybe she is trying to see if she is experiencing this awakening, to the darker side of life, whilst, still in contact with the soft, neat youth of innocence which she believed to be true.

Sandra here is realising the split personality of life, life has its other ideas which she is getting tastes of now. She poked in a crack at a clump of fluff, means to me that once looking in the hidden cracks, you find the dirty fluffy other split of the reality in life. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde entertains us instead of educating us with plain facts of the spilt personality of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The language of Jekyll and Hyde is far more old fashioned and factual. Again it seems to tell a story to entertain.

It could be described as something for the reader to gain instant entertainment from. The Darkness out there requires you to read between the lines or you will not fully benefit. You partly tell yourself the story and make your own mind up. For example, the yellowing newspapers and smell of mouse.

These can be visualise d and interpreted, even included into the story as much as desired. This relates to the idea of a split personality, you can see between what the author has written and you notice the splits in the story. Both evil characters show themselves enough for the others to notice them but hide away enough so that it is only suspicion until they are finally revealed. We see glimpses of each. The darkness out there has Mrs. Rutter expressing her evil side quickly in sentences and through her eyes quickly. Jekyll and Hyde has Mr. Hyde appearing at night and only being seen briefly.

They are there but havent been seen to their full extent. One hidden physically, Jekyll and Hyde and the other mentally, The darkness out there. This relates to the fact that we never see the full personalities in these two texts together. They are split and we can only guess the full personality from the parts of the two sides we see. Overall, Jekyll and Hyde is a story and the Darkness out there is reality, it is an informative example of a moral. This is designed very well to awaken you and at the same time make you remember.

Even subtleties like using the word bitch to describe an old woman work very well in doing this. Hearing an old woman calling a German soldier she is allowing to die slowly and painfully a tough bastard whilst dabbing her mouth with the utmost etiquette, shocks! But maybe we can now link the two together. The dabbing of her mouth is very smart and respectable, but can it be shown to symbolism her thirst for evil and maybe she could even said to be drooling over the thought as someone who laughs at death in such a way would be capable of that, the good side of her is mopping up the bad sides effect. The delicateness of her actions could compensate for the bluntness of her evil actions. The two sides of the personality balancing each other out.