ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

INTRODUCTION:
A Scottish author, he wrote various kinds of works, from the
fantastic to the adventurous. He thought a novel could not be
realistic. It had not to be an imitation of reality.
He was obsessed with the theme of mans double personality
connected with the theme of evil that, in his opinion, is present in
each of us.
LIFE:
Stevenson was born in 1850,in Edinburgh, in a puritan family .
Robert was a frail, sickly lad, who developed a permanent form of
tuberculosis. His poor health urged him to move from a place to
place in search of milder climates. In 1888 set out for a long South
Seas Cruise. In eighteen months of travel he visited Thaiti, Australia
and the Samoan Islands where, fascinated by the climate, the
scenery, and people, he decided to settle and buy an estate which
he called Valima. He spent the last five years of his life there .He
died in 1894.
WORKS
Stevenson was a very prolific writer, produced novels, tales, poems,
essays and fiction, often inspired by his voyages .He is considered
the master of adventure fiction. We remember about his works:
Treasure Island(1883):
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(1886): a
psychological study of the struggle between good and evil
within human soul.
The black arrow(1888):an adventure story set at the time of
the Wars of the Roses.
Fiction: James and Stevenson
James stated that the novel had to be realistic. Opposing James s
theory, he wrote that a novel just its differences from life. A writer

was at his best when he wrote of the things he had dreamt of rather
than of the ones he had actually done. Stevenson refused the
realistic canons of the time, in his fiction we find supernatural,
adventures and sensationalism.

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR

HYDE
This novel is so well know, also because of frequently inaccurate
stage and film.
PLOT
Dr Jekyll is a respected London physician. He works out a theory
according to which man could have two physical beings
corresponding to the two personalities. To confirm his theory, he
starts experimenting with drugs. One day he chances into a
repulsive person of brutal and animal nature taking the name of
Hyde. As Hyde, he practices all vices inspired by the evil side of his
nature; as Jekyll, he goes on living his normal life. Gradually, his
better nature weakens, one day he turns into Hyde without the use
of the drug. Realizing that he is losing any control over Hyde, he
poisons himself.
GENESIS
Published in January 1886 in a very successful popular edition. The
work was inspired by a dream. Stevenson wrote in his diary of a
nightmare he had one night ,in which he saw a man, in laboratory,
swallow a drug and turn into a different being. When awake, he
developed his dream, he decided to write a terror story about it,
but his wife disliked it and suggested that he should write a story
with an ethical message.
Style
His style is usually simple, consisting of short words and sentences,
the frequent use of alliteration and first person narration.

Symbolism
The novel is a symbolical story, a metaphor of the moral dichotomy
of the human soul. The co-existence of good and evil in man is in
fact emphasized through many symbolical devices:
-Names: the names of the protagonists have been variously
studied, and one of the possible interpretations is that Jekyll may
stand for the Anglo-French words Je Kill, while the pronunciation
of Hyde suggests something secret , hidden within something else;
-The door: Jekyll s house has two doors, a front door opening on a
respectable square and a back door looks like a kind of opening on
the unconscious ,on hell, on what is different from the normally
accepted social values;
-The house: while the front of Jekyll s house is typically Victorian
and respectable, the back is sinister, dirty, without windows and
with a blind forehead, arousing disgust and horror. The house, in a
word, is itself half Jekyll and half Hyde;
The weather: the fog, the cloudy sky, the night persistent
throughout the book all convey a sense of real and symbolical
darkness;
The mirror: It is the most emblematic symbol of dualism.
THEMES:
-The ethical theme: the ethical message suggested by Fanny,
Stevensons wife is contained in the final chapter of the novel and

it might be summed up in very few words: it is dangerous to indulge

in sin as it may master man;
-The theme of double: Stevenson had been obsessed with the fear
of losing his own personality ,cause the use of drugs that he had to
take to cure his illness. This resulted in an obsession with the
problem of mans double nature: He thinks that everybody has a
good side and a bad side.
The theme of evil: the theme of the double was connected with
the theme of evil, which is present in each of us.