Compare And Contrast Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
The two books I have chosen for my open study are: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The first one, written in 1890 by Oscar Wilde, is the story of a young, aristocratic dandy who, influenced by a friend, becomes a hedonistic, selfish man who ends in tragedy. The second, written in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson, is the story of a scientist, Dr. Jekyll, who, under the effect of a potion, mutates into a terrifying monster every night, killing whoever doesn 't please him.
Choosing the books was not a difficult task for me: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray ' is a book I read last year, and took great pleasure in reading, but I felt as if I didn 't get some of the messages and ideas of the novel. This is why I thought that choosing …show more content…
One is the obvious difference in the type of description but it is to be noticed that there are also the different narrative techniques that the authors use: The Picture of Dorian Gray is smooth and slow-paced, going on fluently with some elements of poetry such as alliteration: "rich odour of roses" (p.3), "perfume of the pink-flowering thorn" (ibid.). In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde instead, the narrative is fast-paced, frenetic and angry, making the reader interpret the passage swiftly. Stevenson creates this effect by using many monosyllabic, harsh words "lean, long, dusty, dreary" (p.29), long sentences but a huge amounts of punctuation, making the phrases look chaotic and in no particular order: "He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years"(ibid.).
Something else that I would like to point out is the theme of duality in human nature, recurring in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde more than anything, but present in The Picture of Dorian Gray too. In different ways, the doctor and the young man, both develop a second personality through the book. The first, to become a fierce monster each night and change back to normality in day-time and the other to actually alter his personality permanently to the opposite that he was
Choosing the books was not a difficult task for me: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray ' is a book I read last year, and took great pleasure in reading, but I felt as if I didn 't get some of the messages and ideas of the novel. This is why I thought that choosing …show more content…
One is the obvious difference in the type of description but it is to be noticed that there are also the different narrative techniques that the authors use: The Picture of Dorian Gray is smooth and slow-paced, going on fluently with some elements of poetry such as alliteration: "rich odour of roses" (p.3), "perfume of the pink-flowering thorn" (ibid.). In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde instead, the narrative is fast-paced, frenetic and angry, making the reader interpret the passage swiftly. Stevenson creates this effect by using many monosyllabic, harsh words "lean, long, dusty, dreary" (p.29), long sentences but a huge amounts of punctuation, making the phrases look chaotic and in no particular order: "He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years"(ibid.).
Something else that I would like to point out is the theme of duality in human nature, recurring in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde more than anything, but present in The Picture of Dorian Gray too. In different ways, the doctor and the young man, both develop a second personality through the book. The first, to become a fierce monster each night and change back to normality in day-time and the other to actually alter his personality permanently to the opposite that he was