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Dubliners by J.Joyce (riferimento a 'Eveline' e 'The dead')

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“Dubliners” is a collection of fifteen short stories written by James Joyce in which the author analyses the failure of self-realisation of inhabitants of Dublin in biographical and in psychological ways. The novel was originally turned down by publishers because they considered it immoral for its portrait of the Irish city. Joyce treats in “Dubliners” the paralysis of will in four stages: childhood, youth, maturity and public life. The paralysis of will is the courage and self-knowledge that leads ordinary men and women to accept the limitations imposed by the social context they live in. In “Dubliners” the style is both realistic - to the degree of perfectly recreating characters and idioms of contemporary Dublin - and symbolic – giving the common object unforeseen depth and a new meaning in order to show a new view of reality. Joyce defines this effect “epiphany” which indicates that moment when a simple fact suddenly explodes with meaning and makes a person realise his / her condi...
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Similarities and differences between “The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” by R.L.Stevenson and “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley

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In 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) wrote The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, one of the most important psychological realism and crime novels in English literature.

This novel talks about Henry Jekyll, a highly- reputed scientist who is obsessed with the idea that man’s evil tendencies can be separated by man’s good side, giving birth to two human beings: one wholly good and one wholly bad.
Discovering a drag that causes this division, he takes it and finds that it turns him into a new person, Mr Edward Hyde, who is physically deformed and has an evil nature.
With time, Hyde’s evil nature grows to the point that he commits murder and is ready to do more. Jekyll is frightened by this and tries to rid himself of Hyde forever, but finds that he has lost control over him.
So, seeing he has no way out of this situation, Jekyll kills himself, leaving a long letter in which he explains his case.


The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde treats one of the greatest modern myths: the “double personality”, which has its roots in Greek mythology (for example Narcissus and Hermaphrodite).
Talking about this theme, Stevenson strikes at the core of the Victorian compromise and at the fundamental duplicity of the age’s moral standards.
Henry Jekyll, in fact, is apparently a highly reputed and moral scientist, but, behind this beautiful facade, there is Mr Edward Hyde, a deformed man who wants to realize his wildest and passionate desires.

The theme of double personality is also treated in Frankenstein, a gothic novel written by Mary Shelley.


Even if the two novels are different, there are some similarities.

First of all, the two main characters who give the title to the two novels are men of science and their “creatures”, the monster for Victor Frankenstein, and Mr Hyde for Dr Jekyll, are responsibles for their death.

Another similarity between the two novels is the narrative technique; in fact, there are three narrators in each work: a third narrator who tells the story of main character, the point of view of main character who explains his experiment and his death, and the flux of thoughts of creature who tells her relationship with her creator and the world around her.

Then, Mary Shelley and Robert Louis Stevenson highlight the behaviour and psychological side of main characters and their creatures through the combination of psychological realism, symbols and other elements like gothic components in Frankenstein and items of a crime story in The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

However, there are some differences between these two masterpieces.

First of all, the creators’ thinking about their creatures or inventions are different.
In Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein creates a monster starting from pieces of corpses and, in this phase, he is very glad. But, when the monster opens his eyes, Dr Frankenstein is afraid and decides to abandon his inventions and go away, wishing he had never given him life. So, Dr Frankenstein speaks of his creature as a failure and when he is aware of his creature’s murders, he suffers enormously.

Instead of Victor, Dr Jekyll fully enjoys several experiences that his creature can give him. When he tells his story in the last chapter, he does not hide his double life as a young man: a respectable facade, which hides his wildest desires.

By this double personality, he has the necessity to find a scientific method to separate the respectable side of man from the animal side. This experiment is not a conquest for humanity but the possibility for Jekyll to listen to his evil inclinations and to live a life without limits. For this reason, when Mr Hyde turns into Dr Jekyll, the respectable doctor is satisfied with his nightlife even if he performs unethical actions.

The fight between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde describes the Victorian Compromise, where the important thing was the appearance, which hides the unethical actions of a man.

Another difference between the two novels is the creatures’ nature.
The creature in Frankenstein is fundamentally good, who is looking for someone that is able to see beyond her physical aspect and discover her kind soul.
In The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Mr Hyde has a terrible physical aspect that represents his evil nature.

Another difference is the place where the events take place; in fact, Frankenstein is set in Switzerland, Germany and North-England, while The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is only set in London.

In spite of everything, Mary Shelley and Robert Louis Stevenson show in their novels the same concern, the double personality, with a language and a psychological realism to the point that they can be considered forerunners of psychoanalysis.

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