Robert Louis Stevenson

1850-1894

Background

Born 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland Was a sickly child Father was a lighthouse designer Stevenson attended Edinburgh University

where he studied literature instead of engineering

Life after university

Poor health (tuberculosis) forced Stevenson to spend time in warmer climates.

While recuperating in the French Riviera, he met and fell in love with Fanny Osbourne, a married American.

Stevenson followed Osbourne to San Francisco where he awaited her to divorce her husband.

The journey from Europe to America and California almost killed Stevenson but Fanny nursed him back to health.

The two were married upon Fanny’s divorce.

Stevenson’s Writing Career

In spite of constantly moving because of his poor health, Stevenson wrote many popular books including travel books.

Some of his works include:Treasure Island (1883)A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885)Kidnapped (1886)The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)David Balfour (1893) – sequel to Treasure Island.

The South Pacific Years

In 1888, an American publisher asked Stevenson to write a travel book about the South Pacific.

Stevenson and his wife chartered a yacht from San Francisco to the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, and Hawaii.

In 1890, Stevenson settled in Samoa.

He died in Samoa on Dec. 3, 1894, at the age of 44.

Stevenson’s tomb in Mt. Vaea

Epitaph on a Plaque Near Stevenson’s Tomb

“Under the wide and starry sky,Dig the grave and let me lie.Glad did I live and gladly die,And I laid me down with a will.This be the verse you grave for me:Here he lies where he longed to be;Home is the sailor, home from sea,And the hunter home from the hill.”

“Requiem” Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde an Introduction

FYI

Stevenson intended the last name of his famous

doctor to be pronounced JEEK-uhl. Such a

pronunciation would have been more common in

the author’s Scottish dialect. In spite of

Stevenson’s insistence, the tormented doctor’s last

name has been pronounced as JECK-uhl by

readers, actors, and critics ever since the story first

appeared.

Introduction to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

NOVELLA – longer and

more complex than a

short story but shorter and

simpler than novels.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Takes place in London, 1880s

Settings include: Jekyll’s fine home in a formerly grand neighborhood now in

decay Lanyon’s comfortable home in Cavendish Square Hyde’s house in Soho, a part of London known for its immigrant

populations

Background/SettingVictorian England

Victorian Society = CHANGE Divided sharply by social classes A time of general prosperity and accomplishments (Industrial

Revolution; expansion of British Empire overseas) Increasing population in cities led to many problems – sanitation,

crime, poverty, etc. Changes in traditional structure of society frightened many England’s increased involvement in wars and other problems led

to a widespread disillusionment for people by the end of the Victorian Era

What does it mean to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality?

Doppelganger: German translation literally means “double goer.” It is the concept of the “double self” or “ twin” and it became a popular literary genre in the 19th century.

Other well-known literary works from this time period that

fall under the doppelganger genre: Frankenstein Dracula The Picture of Dorian Gray

Romantic Literature Characteristics

Romantic Period Literature Characteristics:• Love of Nature• Love of the Common Man• Neo-Classicism• The Supernatural• Nationalism• Heroism• Strange and Far-away Places

Romantic Literature Characteristics

 

Love of Nature

Emotions and instinct became more important thanreason. There was a glorification of “The Natural Man”, the“noble savage,” and the primitive and untutored personality.Primitivism, meaning the thought that the simple andunsophisticated life was best, also grew popular. These ideasled to an interest in old civilizations, glorification of Greeksociety, a study in archeology developed as a science, with Egyptianand Medieval areas important to study. Also, the Medieval studies,urged by nationalism, helped nations develop identity, which was animportant aspect of Romantic Period ideas.

Romantic Literature Characteristics

Love of the Common Man The social and economic classes were disparaged,or put down. An era of revolutions opened whenthe governments were overthrown, due to the factthat it often seemed to require elimination of socialclasses. The American writers also provided a wayto satisfy a cultural need for lore, or a mythologysuitable to a new nation. The literature presentedthis in many pieces.

Romantic Literature Characteristics

Neo-Classicism

Neo-Classicism means a return to the Classic

ideals of: clearness, elegance, symmetry, and

repose produced by attention to traditional forms. It

was sometimes synonymous with excellence or

artistic quality of high distinction. Also, the term

refers to the admiration and imitation of Greek and

Roman literature, art, and architecture.

Romantic Literature Characteristics

The Supernatural Fascination with the supernatural was a

characteristic of the Romantic Period. This included: the unexplainable, horror, and anything that evoked the emotion of fear.

Romantic Literature Characteristics

Nationalism

Nationalism was a reaction against the

dominating influences of German literature.

Writers aimed to write works which were

expressive and characteristic of their own

nationality by: using scenes from their country’s

life, history, folk-tales and legends as a basis for

operas, songs, literature, and symphonic poems.

Romantic Literature Characteristics

HeroismThe idea that anyone, especially the common man, could be ahero is a characteristic of the Romantic Period. Heroism is theovercoming of our natural fears and limitations to achievegreat things.

Strange and Far-away PlacesThis characteristic relates to the love of exotic locationsaround the world and in time and space. This could includethe past or the future as well as strange places or situationsin the present.

Gothic Literature

Is a reaction against some of the elements of Romantic Literature

Writers composed Gothic narratives during the Victorian Era largely in response to anxiety over the change in social and political structure brought about by such events as the French Revolution, the rise in secular-based government, and the rapidly changing nature of the everyday world brought about by scientific advances and industrial development, in addition to an increasing aesthetic demand for realism rather than folklore and fantasy.

Gothic Literature

Combines elements of horror and romanticliterature Terror (both physical and psychological) Mystery Supernatural (ghosts, haunted houses, darkness,

etc.) Death and decay Doubles (doppelganger) Madness

THEMES for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Human ugliness originates in the soul People who succumb to the temptations of

evil risk losing their capacity for good People who suppress their natural desires

risk having them surface out of control

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The novella was an instant success in 1886

It was so successful that a parody of the novella appeared in Punch (a popular English satirical magazine) within a month of the publication of Jekyll and Hyde