Why the strangeness of Jekyll stood out above the rest.

I chose the topic because the abstractness of it captured my attention. I like the duality of nature and how it's relates to people in general. The story to me represents society as a whole, how we tend to put on a good face in public and really are different people in private. People are not who we think they are, but only who they portray to be, the real is not what you see, but what you don't see. I have seen many movies of the Jekyll/Hyde relationship and I didn't see the correlation to the story. I hope to explain this story in vivid detail and investigate more into why this story is so prevalent to whats going on in the world presently.

Inside The Mind Of Robert Louis Stevenson

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Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on November 13,1850 to Thomas and Mary Isabella Balfour Stevenson. Stevenson spent most of his short life sickly and even as a child he has to be tended to by a nurse. He grew up in a very religious middle class family who taught him the history of the Presbyterian Scottish movement and how its related to their belief system. As he grew up his ideals changed and when entered college at Edinburgh University, his natural talents for writing flourished. His father pushed in to join the family career to be an engineer which he declined to do because he truly wanted to be a writer. His father naturally disapproved and pushed him to pursue a degree in law. In 1875, Stevenson attained a degree in law which he barely used.

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After he graduated, he went from country to country writing essays about the essential goodness and humor of mankind. During one of these writing exploitations in France, he met  Fanny Van De Grift Osbourne who was a married american who was ten years older than he was. The beginning of the relationship was a very estranged one, she sent him a wire letting him know she had reconnected with her husband again back in their homestead in California. The distraught Stevenson who was sick and broke, spent the last of his savings and sailed to New York and then another arduous overland train trip from there to California in pursuit of Osbourne where he fell gravely ill. His parents got news of his condition and sent him money to save him from poverty. Stevenson was nursed back to moderate health and in 1879, he moved to San Francisco from Monterrey. A short while later, Fanny Osbourne received a divorce from her husband and quickly her and Stevenson were married in May of 1880.

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During the early hours off an afternoon, Mrs. Stevenson (Fanny) described hearing her husband scream loudly, she rushed and awakened him and he responded very angrily, "Why did you wake me, I was dreaming a fine bogey tale. It was made know that this particular dream was Jekyll's first transformation into Hyde. A lot of the story actually came from dreams Stevenson had and he rewrote them to fit the plot of the story. Stevenson spoke of dreaming of being a doctor falling asleep and waking as another and doing very mischievous activities during the night. Since he laid sick the majority of the time this book was reading he had many dreams that developed into more of the storyline of the book he was writing. In 1886, he published The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It would be notably one of his greatest accomplishments of his life. On a cold December day in 1894, Stevenson passed away due to a cerebral hemorrhage and complications of tuberculosis.

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Works Cited

"Robert Louis Stevenson Biography." UNet Users' Home Pages. Web. 08 May 2011.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Robert Louis Stevenson Biography - CliffsNotes." Get Homework Help with CliffsNotes Study Guides - CliffsNotes. Web. 08 May 2011.

Theme: Jekyll's Conception Of Duality Of Man

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It is revealed in Chapter 9, That Jekyll believes that man is not truly one but two. His conception is that everyone is virtually dual in nature composed of good and evil personalities which conflict with the other. Jekyll believes it to be a curse for mankind to have to live with a dual nature. With this concept, he is inspired to find a way to split the good from the bad, so mankind can be completely good and eradicate bad altogether. The decision Jekyll ultimately leads to his untimely demise, but showcases that the concept is true. Taking a scientific route, Jekyll creates a potion to allow him to experience both sides himself, but as time progresses he loses sight of what's truly right and wrong. The story highlights someone losing themself in abstract thinking and has to pay a very high cost in the end.

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