Shemar Tyrell
Professor Scanlan
ENG 3407 Gothic Literature
October 25, 2020
Midterm essay
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 individuals 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 persona at will, but this did not work In his favor because 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”(chapter 2). 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. Both stories also potray gothic irony.
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 emotion of cruelty and violence
The importance of violence and cruelty when comparing these two characters is too show the similarity between their disconsolate ending. Both characters change for the worst after starting off as good. Although their reasons are different, they end up on the same path of darkness and despair. Jekyll wanted to be able to control his good and dark side at will but went about it the wrong way by taking a potion that he became addicted to. Now look at him, stuck as hyde with no hope of ever returning to his normal self. He became violent and cruel, Hurting and even killing people for no reason at all just like the narrator of black cat. His change, just like jekylls, was unintentional. I say that because after he got married he fell into the darker side of him and alcohol is to blame. I don’t believe that his intentions was to become an alcoholic, but just like jekyll he took something that he became addicted too. He begins to abuse his pets and his wife and soon kills them.
Another gothic element both these stories contain is gothic irony. Both texts had unexpected events that the readers were surprised about. We see this in the black cat when the narrator cuts out plutos eye. “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity”(page 5). When we first learned about the narrator one of the biggest aspect of him was his love for animals. Knowing his cat pluto was his favorite, we did not expect him to do something so horrific to it. In “ the strange case of dr.jekyll and hyde” we see gothic irony when find out that hyde is actually jekyll counter part. We find this out when utterson reads jekylls confession letter. “I will say but one thing, Utterson, and that (if you can bring your mind to credit it) will be more than enough. The creature who crept into my house that night was, on Jekyll’s own confession, known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every corner of the land as the murderer of Carew.”(chapter 9). We would never had suspected jekyll to be hyde because if his kind, good mannered nature but when we were shocked to find out that he is also a cruel murderous creature by the name of hyde.
To conclude, both characters show similar features and because of that they lead themselves to a world of despair and darkness. Jekyll who was nice and civilized at first was taken over by his own creation and became a violent and cruel person. He couldn’t stop drinking that addictive potion. And that’s what lead to his demise. The narrator of black cat started out the same way as jekyll. The only difference was his love for animals. But like jekyll he too changed into a violent and cruel person. The only difference was that his potion was alcohol. Both stories as a whole even showed similarities. They both showed character development and downfall in the same manner.
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