Kwame Clarke

Professor Sean Scanlan

ENG3407 (Gothic Literature and Visual Culture)

10/26/2020

                 The Black Cat/The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Idea of depravity and the depths of how low the human ego can sink is a concept that has been explored for many years. In my opinion, two people who both emphasize these traits are Dr. Jekyll from “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and the narrator from the story “The Black cat”. Throughout each of these stories, different forms of gothic elements present themselves such as The Spirit of Pervessness, Gothic Irony, and The uncanny and I believe that these characters are the prime examples of these traits as we the readers observe their slow degeneration.

The story “The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde” starts off with the introduction and character of Henry Jekyll a well-Known doctor in his community and is especially noted for his decent and charitable habits to all. Dr.Henry however was involved in some less than virtuous acts in secret and found having to deal with the stress that came from such activities was too much of a burden. Henry then experiments to try and find a way to separate his “good” and “Evil” sides this results in the creation of a potion. This potion gave birth to a new side of Henry Aptly dubbed Mr.Hyde.With this Henry’s alter ego at the time, Mr.Hyde Commited increasing horrid acts when he was in control and as the story progresses we see that this only continues to devolve further to me this touches on The Spirit of Perverseness. I believe that the best scene the exemplifies this was when Henry said “At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing that was projected was Edward Hyde.” This Quote shows that slowly over time that Henry had to try and suppress Mr.Hyde as at the slightest moment his dark thoughts and actions could easily take over. This also causes the concept of gothic irony to show up as mentioned in the final parts of the story “I do not suppose that, when a drunkard reasons with himself upon his vice, he is once out of five hundred times affected by the dangers that he runs through his brutish, physical insensibility; neither had I, long as I had considered my position, made enough allowance for the complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil, which were the leading characters of Edward Hyde. Yet it was by these that I was punished. My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.”  Here we can see that Henry has fully given up on trying to repress Mr.Hyde as doing so seems to make behave in a state as if he was intoxicated and at the end instead of trying to suppress his urges, he let them loose despite fully accepting that Mr.Hyde is now a permanent part of him and his life.

In the Story “The Black Cat” We begin with the narrator who introduces himself and the events of his life. At the start of this story, it seems all is well as the narrator talks fondly of things such as how he married at a young age and his apparent love of animals. In particular, he mentions a fondness for a cat named pluto. As the narrator continues talking you can notice a change in his speech such as violent mood swings and apparent abuse he inflicts upon his wife. He can be shown to have the same likeness at first as Dr. Henry Jekyll and a kind person who was respected by those around him. Similar to Dr. Jekyll the narrator can be observed showing things like The Spirit of perverseness I  think this is best shown when says “One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; — hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; — hung it because I knew that it had loved me and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense”. We see that he delved into the spirit of perverseness committing a heinous act for the one purpose of committing such an atrocity. The narrator also experiences gothic irony When he says “Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?”. Here we see that like Dr. Jekyll he embraces what is now becoming from a once virtuous man who believed in the principles of order embracing discord for no other reason than because he can.

The Stories “The Black Cat” and “The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ Show even the most upstanding characters of society can be influenced by not only their primeval natures but also by trying so hard to suppress and avoid the things that would be considered evil by most