‘The texts you have studied are truly products of their own time’ do you agree?
The novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the movie, The Nutty Professor, both draw upon influential events, controversies and trends to adhere them to the conventions of their time of origin. Both texts are true products of their own time. The novel, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written in 1886 during the Victorian era by Robert Louis Stevenson. The movie, The Nutty Professor, starring Eddie Murphy was created in 1996. The settings, genres, themes and characters of both texts produce insights to the era in which they were set.
In The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the chosen setting of London is an essential element of the novel as it was the epitome of the Victorian era. The façade of London’s “perfect gentlemen” created an idolized expectation of rational, respectable, good Christian men. The maintenance of this standard was vital as it was the end of the 19th century, and London was the centre of a vast empire and therefore, placing its citizens on a pedestal for the rest of the Victorian world. An example of a typical upstanding gentleman is present in the character of Mr. Utterson. “A lawyer and a lover of the sane and customary sides of life” “[his countenance] never lightened by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse”. Mr Utterson complies with the stereotype of a polite, resigned, rational man of the era. The effect of providing a character displaying the genuine qualities of a Victorian gentleman is to establish the expected disposition of the time period creating contrast between the nature of London’s populace, and the dual natures of the character of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The Strange Case ofDr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde coincided with aspects of Gothic literature that greatly appealed to the Victorian era. Following the romantic period, sensational and gothic literature came to a pinnacle as works of Canon Doyle and...