Shemar Tyrell
Is change worth the risk?
In both novels, “the strange case of dr.jekyll and mr.hyde” by Robert louis Stevenson and “the black cat” by Edgar Allen poe , both characters dr.jekyll and the narrator of the black cat shared significant similarities but also shared some differences. Both of these characters started out as nice people but changed drastically towards the end of the novels. Both characters portrayed gothic emotions such as violence, passion, and cruelty.
In “the strange case of dr.jekyll and mr.hyde” dr.jekyll was a physician and a very prosperous one at that. Throughout the story he battles with the good side of himself and the bad side. That’s when we are introduced to mr.hyde who is basically jekyll’s alter ego. Jekyll develops a potion that allows him to separate his good and evil side at will but this did not work In his favor. Eventually hyde took over. One example of gothic emotions portrayed by Hyde is cruelty. “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 tramples calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground”(2.49). This shows cruelty for both jekyll and hyde. Although it wasn’t really dr.jekyll who walked over the child’s body it was his creation.
The story black cat is based off the narrator who writes the novel from his jail cell after the events transpired. The narrator describes himself as a very compliant person that had a love for animals. He married young and owned a lot of pets. His favorite was a his black cat pluto. The narrator begins to suffer from mood swings due to the facts that he had a obvious drinking problem. He comes home drunk one night and lashes out at pluto and cuts the cat eye. He wakes up the next morning feeling remorseful. Just like jekyll, he has two different personas due to an addictive drug. Only in this case its alcohol. He continues to be violent by killing the cat and later on kills his wife until he loses complete control of himself. This also shows the gothic terms violence and cruelty
Shemar,
Thanks for sharing this draft. As you continue to work on this, please be advised that a higher level of proofing and care in sentence structure and grammar will be expected. Make sure to look toward my first page example for guidance on the ways to craft a strong thesis and method. Also, focus on the key gothic terms that we’ve discussed. Violence and cruelty may be evident, but why are they important to the comparison? Do they lead readers to consider CGI?
-Prof. Scanlan