Jekyll's Letter In The First Person example essay topic

The story opens with the voice of an omniscient 3rd person narrator (i.e. one that knows all but is not present in the action) describing the character of Mr Utterson, one of the main characters of the story. This description presents the reader with a picture of a quiet, "cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse loyal, professional "that was the lawyer's way", gentleman while at the same time foreshadows the role he will play in the story "it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance... of down-going men". In this scene setting the narrator also introduces us to the character of Mr Enfield, a friend of Mr Utterson. The effect of the unnamed narrator is to create some trustworthy characters for the reader to follow. The reader is simply being told a series of facts needed to establish the context for the next narrator who takes over the story on page 7. Enfield now becomes the narrator when he tells the shocking story of the little girl being "trampled calmly over" by what seemed like a "damned Juggernaut".

Enfield narrates, in the first person, the first encounter with the Mr Hyde. This is the discourse of gossip and while gossip and hearsay usually have little credibility in this case we believe the story as it was an eye witness account "pedantically exact" according to Enfield. A shift back to 3rd person as the narrator continues the story again happens we see the mystery unfolding, mainly from Utterson's point-of-view. Although sometimes we get information from another's point-of-view the maidservant's view of Hyde killing Carew, for example, which strengthens the foreboding we have about Hyde by adding another voice to story. This is the discourse of Gothic mystery, the monstrous Mr Hyde so hideous he defied description in words threatens the respectability of Utterson's friend Henry Jekyll. The narration does shift throughout the rest of the text on several notable occasions.

For example there are a number of first person narrations in the form of letters: Jekyll writes to Utterson a "pathetically worded" letter about his estrangement from Lanyon and subsequently from society. Here we are given a first hand glimpse of the strain Jekyll is under although we, like Utterson can still only guess at its origin. In "The Last Night" in a letter to Utterson Jekyll tells us the end is nigh. On page 48 Doctor Lanyon takes up the narration and here is an example of the confusing narratology of this book.

After a brief introduction by Lanyon He introduces a letter form Jekyll and the narration shifts again as we read Jekyll's letter in the first person in which he asks Lanyon for help. The inclusion of the letter adds to the air of desperation we are feeling surrounding Dr Jekyll and brings us to the shocking climax as we have a first hand account of the realty of the two, Hyde and Jekyll, residing in the one body. Utterson may have been able to ignore this story as fancy if it had not come from his respected friend who was himself a doctor. This quality gives it impact in the reader's mind as well.

The last word of the story is left to Dr Jekyll himself in his confession but As Mark Curie notes: The third person narration of 'the Last Night' has already described events beyond the end of Jekyll's narrative, and Dr Lanyon's narrative has made it clear that Jekyll and Hyde are one. The narrative of Dr Jekyll and Me Hyde shifts throughout the story to give the reader more than one view point from which to see this mystery unfold. Jack George.