The double: Oscar Wilde and Robert Louis Stevenson by

Oscar Wilde

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 07:43:49 UTC

Born in Dublin, he studied in Oxford and got a degree in Classics.
A dominant personality In English and French salons.
He became famous in Paris, London and in the USA.
He married and had 6 children.
He was tried and imprisoned for homosexuality and ended his life in poverty in Paris.

The dandy

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 07:50:15 UTC

His lifestyle provided endless material for gossip. This figure has no origin in any particular field, in fact the first dandies actually had no particular talents, being just stylish and famous. It was Oscar Wilde who gave the dandyism a philosophical intent: the pursuit of pleasure and the research of pure beauty in art.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 07:57:15 UTC

ART FOR ART'S SAKE

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: plot

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 08:09:16 UTC

Henry Wotton visits his friend Basil Hallward, who is painting a beautiful young man, Dorian. Basil worries he let his feeling his feelings for him seep into the image and never displays it.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 08:13:45 UTC

Henry praises Dorian's beauty and starts corrupt his innocence, slightly turning into cruelty. Dorian wishes he could be forever young as his portrait. After falling in love for an actress and then abandoning her, he clearly sees a wrinkle on his face in the portrait and understands it absorbs all his corruption: he has a deal with the devil.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 08:16:43 UTC

The years pass by and Dorian, who is now 38, still looks handsome.

His friend Basil worries him of the bad reputation he has. In the climax of the story Dorian stabs the painter to death.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 08:22:52 UTC

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 08:27:42 UTC

After discovering the actress he was in love with committed suicide, Dorian starts to realize how many lives he ruined and wants to change.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 08:34:48 UTC

Dorian stabs the painting, which had become increasingly ugly and hideous, and all the years it had absorbed go back to him, who dies on the floor in front of the painting.

THEMES AND DUALITIES

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 08:37:49 UTC

Reputation vs character

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 09:06:40 UTC

The first is the perception other people have of someone, while the latter refers to the person's own nature. In the narrative technique of this novel, both reputation and character are described. In particular, dorian has a bad reputation that precedes him.

Art vs Life

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 09:11:19 UTC

According to Wilde, art should be high quality and therefore requires style.

The double

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 09:51:31 UTC

It is presented by the duality between Dorian Gray's beauty and his portrait that mirrors his corruption.

This novel is a Decadent one but it is also deeply allegorical and full symbolism on the theme of the double.

The picture represents Dorian's double nature, the dark side that is the symbol of his immorality, of dirty conscience and also of Victorian middle class. On the other side, Dorian with his pure innocent appearance represents the Victorian bourgeoise hypocrisy.

Dorian’s double existence reflects the contradictions of the Victorians: his beauty represents the importance given to external appearance.

This novel was initially banned as immoral when it appeared: in fact the moral message behind it is that excess in life must be punished. In fact when Dorian tries to destroy the painting he’s punished in the the worst way: his own death.

Louis Stevenson

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 09:56:50 UTC

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburg in 1850.

He spent his childhood in bed because of his poor health. He decided to devote himself to writing and he became popular as a novelist in 1880, when he published "The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".

THE STRANGE CASE OG DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE: plot

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:06:13 UTC

The Strange case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde is both a detective story and a Gothic story. It tells the story of Dr Jekyll, a well-reputed gentleman and doctor in Victorian London, who carries out an extraordinary experiment based on chemistry.

Dr Jekyll wants to separate the evil part of man's soul from the good one in the hope that all evil in the world will disappear.

The experiment succeeds and the doctor manages to isolate the dark side of his soul in Mr Hyde.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:14:38 UTC

Mr Hyde represents the evil alter ego, different also from a physical point of view; while Dr Jekyll is tall and slim and acts as a gentleman, Mr Hyde's deformity reflects his evil nature.

Mr Hyde commits several crimes and lives a vicious life at night.

Although they are two aspects of the same personality, Jekyll and Hyde lead opposite lives: they also use two different doors of the same house, the front facade representing Victorian values of respectability, decor and morality and the back door used at night by Hyde, representing depravity, moral corruption and evil.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:28:36 UTC

When Jekyll wants to return to his usual self, all he has to do is to take the drug again. However, fearing that for some reasons he might remain trapped within the body of Hyde, Jekyll gives instruction for his house and servants to be at Hyde's disposal, opens a bank account in Hyde's name and even makes him his sole heir in his will. This particularly worries his friend, Mr Utterson, who tries to discover more.

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:34:33 UTC

In time, Hyde's evil nature grows, to the point that he commits murder and is ready to do it again. Jekyll is frightened by this and tries to rid himself of Hyde forever but finds he has lost control over him; it is Hyde, in fact, who takes over Jekyll's body without needing the drug anymore. When he realizes he has no way out of this situation, Jekyll closes himself in his laboratory and commits suicide, leaving a long letter in which he explains all his case.

THEMES

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:36:53 UTC

Good vs Evil

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:46:34 UTC

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are the symbols of the duplicity of the Victorian Age: on one side Jekyll represents the public face of the individual and is the respectable man; on the other side, at night in the bad lit street of London, there is Mr Hyde, who represent the dark and evil side of man's personality.

Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde are both the same person and a different one.

The double nature of the setting

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:53:41 UTC

The novel is set in London but reflect Stevenson experience in Edinburgh; the two cities have both a double nature:

LONDON

Divided into the respectable West end and the appalling poverty and slums of the Eat End.

EDIMBURGH

Divided into the new part of the city with its wide squares and Old town where crime was a pressing problem.

The weakness of human nature

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 10:59:05 UTC

Stevenson seems to tell us that evil triumphs because human beings are weak- willed. Does Jekyll keep changing into Hyde because Hyde is too strong, or because Jekyll craves the more interesting and exciting evil personality?

alessiacreti10 — 2024-05-30 11:03:31 UTC