Coffeehouse #4 Midterm Essay Draft

Rachel Xie 

     “ The comparison of Mr. Hyde, Invisible Man, Goodman Brown and Dr. Lanyon”

                   The comparison of Mr. Hyde, Invisible Man, Goodman Brown and Dr. Lanyon, have their differences and similarities. The gothic terms for each characters, are based on what happened to them in the story, and the gothic term for Mr. Hyde would be his gothic actions, the second gothic term for the Invisible Man would be the spirit of perverseness. The other two characters that have their similarities and differences would be Dr. Lanyon and Goodman Brown, and the gothic terms for Lanyon would be the uncanny and the other gothic term for Goodman Brown would be the fantastic. Mr. Hyde, Invisible Man, Goodman Brown and Dr. Lanyon have a story and a personality trait of their own, and they show examples of the gothic limits, whether it’s violence, death, and a return to normalcy, they each have their ways of gothic limits. 

                Mr. Hyde from the story of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, was described as small, very plainly dressed, pale, deformed and was evil looking. There wasn’t much description about Mr. Hyde appearance, but it was described enough about Mr. Hyde’s personality and that he was pure evil and cruel. The narrator from the “Prologue to the Invisible Man”,  described himself as a man with substance of flesh and bone, meaning he is a real human being, but people simply refuse to see him as one. He feels like a bodiless head in the circus like he was surrounded by the mirror of hard, distorting glass. Although not much was described about his appearance but he does see himself as a great American tradition of tinkers. As for Dr. Lanyon, another well mention character in the story of  “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, he was described as hearty, dapper, healthy, with white hair and a well manner man.  Dr. Lanyon was a close friend to Mr. Utterson, the Lawyer and to Dr. Jekyll. The last character to mention was Young Goodman Brown, he was married to his wife, Faith, three months ago and he was Christian and a good man in the story. 

               The gothic terms of the story of Mr. Hyde is gothic actions, with Mr. Hyde’s personality he is capable of doing so. Mr. Hyde was pure evil, as he tramped over a little girl’s body as she screamed and he murder one of Mr. Utterson’s client which was, Sir Danvers Carew. That shows Mr. Hyde’s actions of being irrational, acting chaotic, going against prohibitions, and being sacrilegious. For the invisible man, one of the gothic term would be the spirit of perverseness, it was based on the narrator describing his story, the Invisible Man show spirit of perverseness, knowing it would lead him to trouble, yet he still continued with his violent actions. For example, in the text of the story, he said “But he continued to curse and struggle, and I butted him again and again until he went down heavily, on his knees, profusely bleeding. I kicked him repeatedly, in a frenzy because he still uttered insults though his lips were frothy with blood.” The gothic term for Dr. Lanyon would be the uncanny, although Dr. Lanyon’s death was unexpected, it still connect his death to Dr. Jekyll, his cause of death was being shocked to death which can be possible. The action of Dr. Lanyon, does fall under the definition of Todorov’s three terms. The final gothic term for Goodman Brown is fantastic, it wasn’t clear whether what Goodman Brown was witnessing devil is real or if it was just a dream. Young Goodman Brown, he was on his was way to travel and he told his wife, Faith, to say her prayers as he leaves.  When Young Goodman Brown, was on the road  he ran into a man who is dressed in regular clothes and the man looks normal, except for the walking staff. The man tries to offer the staff for him to walk faster, but Goodman Brown refuses. As Goodman Brown continues to walk he witness a witch who admitted that she was the devil and then he saw what looks to be his wife, Faith, and he told her to look up heaven and resist the devil. As he return to the Salem Village, he has changed thinking that everyone in the village was the devil, he didn’t look at his wife or other people the same way. This shows that the action does fall under the definition of Todorov’s three terms as well, which the term was fantastic.  

                   The similarity between Mr. Hyde and the Invisible Man was their actions of violence. They leave their victims screaming in pain and unable to move. For example, he said ” Oh! yes, I kicked him! And in my outrage I got out my knife and prepared to slit his throat, right there beneath the lamplight in the deserted street, holding him by the collar with one hand, and opening the knife with my teeth– when it occurred to me that the man had not seen me, actually; that he was far as he knew, was in the midst of a walking nightmare! And I stopped my blade, slicing the air as I pushed him away, letting him fall back to the street.” The example for Mr. Hyde was he trampled over a little girl’s body. Mr. Enfield said, “All at once I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street. Well sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground.” Another similarity was Mr. Hyde and the Invisible Man stared at a person, for example in the text, the Invisible Man said “I stared at him hard as the lights of a car stabbed through the darkness.” Mr. Hyde also stared straight at Mr. Enfield after trampling over a little girl’s body, in the text, Mr. Enfield said “He was perfectly cool and made no resistance, but gave me one look, so ugly that it brought out the sweat on me like running.” Another similarity between Mr. Hyde and Invisible Man was they don’t feel remorse when it comes to violence. As a matter of fact, the Invisible man began to laugh after he left the man lying on the ground covered in blood, and he laughed so hard that he was about to rupture himself.  The only differences between Mr. Hyde and the Invisible Man was that Mr. Hyde had murder someone, but the Invisible Man hasn’t kill anyone yet. The next two character pairs that have their similarities and differences was Dr. Lanyon and Goodman Brown. One of the similarity between them was that they don’t see the people who was once closed to them the same anymore. When Goodman Brown came back to Salem Village after traveling from the road, he never look at his wife and people in the village the same. In the text it said, ” But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.” He act distant towards her after his long journey to the roads and what he witness was the devil. As for Dr. Lanyon, he was having a discussion with Mr. Utterson when he was ill and he doesn’t want to talk about Dr. Jekyll anymore. Mr. Utterson, Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll had a small party on January 8th, until Mr. Utterson went back to the doctor’s place on the 12th, 14th and the 15th, but the door was shut on him, so he went to see Dr. Lanyon. Dr. Lanyon said, “I wish to see or hear no more of Dr. Jekyll,” he said in a loud, unsteady voice. “I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead.” This shows that Dr. Lanyon  doesn’t see Dr. Jekyll the same anymore or even want to see him. The differences between Dr. Lanyon and Goodman Brown, was that Dr. Lanyon had died due to being scared to death, and Goodman Brown was still alive but he  sees his wife, the minister and everyone else in the village as a devil. As for personality wise, Goodman Brown was Christian and he was a good man to his wife, Faith and as for Dr. Lanyon, he was a doctor and very different from Dr. Jekyll. 

                    This conclude that, comparing Mr. Hyde, Invisible Man, Goodman Brown and Dr. Lanyon, have had their differences and similarities. Gothic terms for each characters, describing them in story, and the gothic term for Mr. Hyde would be his gothic actions, and the gothic term for the Invisible Man would be the spirit of perverseness. Another two character that have their similarity and difference would be Dr. Lanyon and Goodman Brown, and the gothic terms for Lanyon would be the uncanny and the other gothic term for Goodman Brown would be the fantastic. Mr. Hyde, Invisible Man, Goodman Brown and Dr. Lanyon have their own story to show an example of the gothic limits, whether it’s violence, death, and a return to normalcy, they each have their ways of gothic limits.