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Category: Midterm Essay (Page 2 of 2)

Salim Adamu
Gothic Literature 3407
Oct15,2020
Dr.Jekyll and M,r.Hyde/Narrator of Black Cat
In literature there are many components that make up a story and they become key components throughout. Two main components of this kind of literature called gothic literature is The spirit of perverseness and Central Gothic Irony(CGI).They two components are what help portray the stories image through characters actions and surrounding. To be more specific two stories held these components to high regard throughout its whole plot and these two were the “Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe and the “Strange Cases of Dr.jekyll and Mr.Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson. The way the characters of those stories were portrayed showed a very similar mental state through out change towards the end they were similar in a lot of aspects and in the “Strange Cases of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde” the two main characters showed their sides of view and the way the viewed their actions and feelings and the same occurred in the ‘Black Cat” for the narrator. The spirit of perverseness which is when a character does something bad or continues to do something bad even if they know it is harmful for others,themselves or both them and others. Then it was the Central Gothic Irony which is when the character tries to come back to a state of normalcy after they have gone through and been a source of chaos in a way. So what makes them Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde so similar to the narrator of the “Black Cat”?
In “The Strange Cases of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde” Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde are the same person. The story is about the struggle between Jekyll and his other side Hyde which was caused by a potion Jekyll made to see the other side of people, the dark and bad side, not the side made to compromise to society’s norms. At first it was him in control and he got younger when he tuned to Hyde and he was doing little mischievous stuff he always wanted to do but no one could say nothing because they don’t know him,but later he lost control and Hyde got his own consciousness some way and caused an accident and killed Sir Danvers Carew. When he came to Jekyll couldn’t stop him anymore because Hyde started to come out anytime without Jekyll’s permission and even came out when Jekyll went to sleep and continued his violence. Even though Jekyll knew what was happening he still took that potion it made him feel good and that when his addiction was shown and he saw only two options to regain control or to commit suicide and he chose the latter suicide,.His guilt came to him and he died and left a letter explaining everything about him and Hyde as a way to redeem himself and even left his close friend Mr.Utterson his will.Through that you can see the aspect of the spirit perverseness and the (CGI) from Jekyll and the cause Hyde.
In the ‘Black Cat” the story is about the narrator and his rising violent tendencies because of his drinking problem which leads to delusions. In the beginning he and his wife were people who loved animals. It was their nature but later the narrator changed. The drinking that caused him to fall into his delusions,all of his delusions were all put onto his black cat Pluto. Even though he saw what was causing him to go crazy, which was the drinking he never stopped always went back to or at the end of the day. His anger towards the cat grew which led to abuse and then even led to him killing the cat. Later on he starts to come to a realization of his actions and gets a new cat because it reminded him of Pluto but because he reminded him of Pluto when it was home he started to abuse it more and led to him trying to kill it but instead killing his wife who tried to protect the cat. In the end he looked back at his action which caused him to see his wrongs
Those parts of the story show how Jekyll Hyde are two parts of the narrator of the Black cat. They both show signs of the spirit of perverseness from an addiction which is for Jekyll him being addicted to the potion which turns him into Hyde. It is proven when Jekyll commits suicide and it says “Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer”(Stevenson 52) which showed light on his suicide but as well as person who destroys his body with his addiction.Then the narrator of who is addicted to his drinking problem was shown when it stated that “my disease grew upon me—for what disease is like Alcohol!—and at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish—even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper”This showed how his addiction turned him into something else a bubble of rage as for Jekyll it turned him into Hyde who was also a bubble of rage which is why they all seem so similar(Poe). Another aspect which was similar was when they tried to return to normalcy(CGI) It was when his letter said I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.(Stevenson) Showing he understood his mistake and was trying to go back to how he was in some way to redeem himself though accepting what he’s due. As for the narrator it was when he said “I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame.” (Poe) it helped to see how he started coming back to his senses and saw his wrong doing) which was just like Jekyll seeing all the bad turning into Hyde did.
That was the similarities between these three characters from, different stories How Two character rep[resented two different sides of a character from another story. Which in this case was the two from “The Strange Cases of Dr.Jekyll And Mr.Hyde” and the narrator of the” Black Cat”.It showed their likeness to one another and how one had two sides to a good which turned bad because of drinking and then one who transformed to one accustomed to society tried to escape the norm with a potion and turned into a whole another person with bad intention as his focus. The bad sides both murdered and the good both understood in the end they had ti\urned to something horrible. So yes those aspect is what made them so similar with SOP and CGI as a main point of both stories to add on it.

Midterm Essay

Rachel Xie

Gothic Literature 3407

                                          “ Mr. Hyde/Invisible Man/Dr. Jekyll/Blond Hair Man “

                   

                In “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” by Robert Louis Stevenson and the “Invisible Man”, by Ralph Ellison,  we can see that there are many differences and similarity traits between each characters. Each characters were portrayed differently but they also have some similarities, and one of the character is Mr. Hyde, he was created by Dr. Jekyll when he was experimenting and now there’s two different character in one body. In the story, of the “Invisible Man”, his was just a normal human being until the unexpected night occurred that changed him. Throughout the story there are horror, spirit of perverseness, gothic actions, uncanny, coming from each character. 

             “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”,  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. During the story, it shows how violent and cruel Mr. Hyde can be. Dr. Jekyll has the opposite character trait of Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll was a scientist, who is wealthy and an intelligent man who had a butler named, Poole. 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, like he doesn’t exist. 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. 

              In the story of, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” one of the gothic term describing Mr. Hyde, is spirit of perverseness, with Mr. Hyde’s personality traits he is capable of doing things without caring about the consequences. He was  evil, as he tramped over a little girl’s body as she screamed in horror and he murdered a man named, Sir Danvers Carew. That shows Mr. Hyde’s actions of being irrational, acting chaotic, going against prohibitions, and being sacrilegious. According to the text, “All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a 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.”[1]  For the “Invisible man,” one of the gothic term is uncanny, it was based on the narrator, who was telling his story. The narrator does show that with his existence, he was being insulted or we can say treated differently, and because of how he was treated, he uses violence to suppress his anger. For example, in the text of the story, he said “One night I accidentally bumped into a man, and perhaps because of the near darkness he saw me and called me an insulting name. I sprang at him, seized his coat lapels and demanded that he apologize. He was a tall blond man, and as my face came close to his he looked insolently out of his blue eyes and cursed me, his breath hot in my face as he struggled. I pulled his chin down sharp upon the crown of my head, butting him as I had seen the West Indians do, and I felt his flesh tear and the blood gush out, and I yelled, “Apologize! Apologize!” 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.” [2] The man with blond hair and blue eyes, must have said something very insulting that the narrator would react the way he did, but in the end the narrator did feel bad for beating him up, but what would the insulting words be?.

                   The similarity between Mr. Hyde and the Invisible Man was their actions of violence. This is an example of horror, they leave their victims screaming in pain and unable to move with fear. In the text of, the “Invisible man” the narrator said, ” He lay there, moaning on the asphalt; a man almost killed by a phantom.”[2] The difference between Mr. Hyde and Invisible Man was that Mr. Hyde doesn’t feel remorse and as for the Invisible man, he does feel bad, in the text of the story he says, ” It unnerved me. I was both disgusted and ashamed.” [2] . And another differences between Mr. Hyde and the Invisible Man was that Mr. Hyde did murder someone, and the Invisible Man was prepared to slit his throat, but left the blond man with blood and bruises lying on the floor moaning in pain. Dr. Jekyll was different from Mr. Hyde and most certainly was different from the narrator of the ” Invisible Man”,  he was a very well known scientist and he redeemed himself and Mr. Hyde in the end, by confessing everything. According to the end of the text, ” God knows; I am careless; this is my true hour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself. Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.”[10]

             This concludes,  in the story, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” by Robert Louis Stevenson and the “Invisible Man”, by Ralph Ellison, we can see that there are many differences and similarity trait that are shown between each characters. Each characters were portrayed differently and they do have some of their similarities and one of the character is Mr. Hyde, he was created by Dr. Jekyll due to an experiment and now there’s two different character in one body. In the story, of the “Invisible Man”, his was just a normal human being until the unexpected night occurred that changed him. Throughout the story there are horror, spirit of perverseness, gothic actions, uncanny, coming from each character. 

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