Comparing Dual-Self Characters in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and A Study in Scarlet and Sign of Four :: comparison compare contrast essays

Dual-Self Characters in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and A Study in Scarlet and Sign of Four The character, Jekyll/Hyde, from The rummy Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Lewis Stevenson, and the characters Bartholomew and Thaddeus Sholto from A Study in Scarlet and Sign of Four, written by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, exhibit dual-self characteristics. The Jekyll/Hyde and Sholto twin characters have many strong similarities as well as distinct but related differences. Interestingly, many of the argonas of differences are ultimately the most vital aspects of the characters. The premise of the dual self kind of probably has its roots in the waking survey of science and the subject of Charles Darwins Origin of the Species. There was an upsurge in discoveries that made people of this time-period find out that there was a great deal they didnt know or understand. as well adding to this anxiety was the prevalence of disease, an aging Monarchy, and the shifting hierarchy among the classes. Changes in parliamentary procedure and the fears that plague a society eventually find their way into literature, as witnessed in both of these texts. When Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll are first together in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson describes Dr. Jekyll as, -a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast, perhaps, but every marker of capacity and kindness-- (12). We are also told that Dr. Jekyll has a handsome face (13). through with(predicate) the text, we learn that Dr. Jekyll was a hardworking, likable gentleman with a deep refer in science. Unfortunately, Dr. Jekyll had a strong desire to perfect himself by split his good qualities from his bad by separating himself into two separate identities It was on the lesson side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and old duality of man I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I coul d rightly be said to be either, it was unless because I was radically both . . . If each, I told myself, could be but housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable the cheating(prenominal) might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin and the simply could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and contrition by the hands of this extraneous evil.