Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Psychological Doubles - Papers

Psychological Doubles


The Gothic theory of the double is both reductive and powerful. It assumes that we are all playing a role in life; that a raving beast waits within for the chains to loosen or snap. Doubles stories seem to proliferate when people sense an unnegotiable divide between the true self and society, between nature and culture. (Edmunson 48)
Such duality of roles is expressed in terms of split personalities in both The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James (1843-1916) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). In these fictional works, the characters are unable to cope with the split.
Stevenson seeks to reproduce the double by way of splitting a ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers


The society of men is Stevenson’s main focus and is evident in the number of ways in which he presents Hyde in terms of society. If Jekyll and Hyde is characterized in Gothic fiction’s exaggerated tones of late-Victorian anxieties concerning deterioration of social status, and the idea of ‘criminal man,’, it invariably situates those concerns in relation to the practices and discourses of lawyers like Gabriel Utterson, doctors like Henry Jekyll and Hastie Lanyon, or even ‘well-known men about town’ like Richard Enfield. The novel in fact asks us to do more than simply register the all-too-apparent marks of Edward Hyde’s ‘degeneracy.’ It also compels us also to examine how those marks come to signify in the first place.
To make his point, Stevenson creates a monster that is both the model of decay, but is also the most sophisticated and the most accepted by his fellows. Arata points out that the split is ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.


Already a member? Login

his ‘stigmata’ turn out to be troublingly difficult to specify. In fact, no one can accurately describe him. ”He must be deformed somewhere,” asserts Enfield. ”He gives a strong feeling of deformity, though I couldn’t specify the point. He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir . . . I can’t describe him” (DJMH 35-37). That last, nearly oxymoronic formulation of unexpressed deformity, nicely captures the troubled relation between the ‘text’ of Hyde’s body and the interpretive practices used to decipher it. In this way Stevenson underscores how the act ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library.
Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports,
and research papers in 2 minutes or less.


CITE THIS PAGE:

Psychological Doubles. (2006, July 11). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Psychological-Doubles/48969
"Psychological Doubles." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 11 Jul. 2006. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Psychological-Doubles/48969>
"Psychological Doubles." Essayworld.com. July 11, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Psychological-Doubles/48969.
"Psychological Doubles." Essayworld.com. July 11, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Psychological-Doubles/48969.
JOIN NOW
Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays


PAPER DETAILS
Added: 7/11/2006 10:41:49 AM
Category: Miscellaneous
Type: Free Paper
Words: 2052
Pages: 8

Save | Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS
Save and find your favorite essays easier

SIMILAR ESSAYS
» A Tale Of Two Cities
» Tale Of Two Cities Charictariz
» Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ar...
» Methamphetamine: Built For Spee...
» Youth Violence
» How Media Influences Women
» The Life And Times Of Edgar ALl...
» Child Obesity
Copyright | Cancel | Contact Us

Copyright © 2024 Essayworld. All rights reserved