If I could choose one text from this semester and teach at any level I wanted I would choose to teach in a high school classroom and the text would be Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s, “Decolonizing the Mind”. I chose this text because I felt it was one of the most important we covered and most applicable to our society today. I think it’s extremely important to be mindful of other cultures and respecting them. I chose this grade level because in my experience I found history courses very “white-washed” and watered down. The brutal history and barbarity of colonialism and imperialism was never really discussed when talking about world history. I think it’s important to be honest and learn early in life about the role colonialism had to form the world we know today culturally and socially. Also, I feel that by not speaking in depth about the issues illustrated in “Decolonizing the Mind”, you are contributing to the marginalization of millions by ignoring it happened. Across the world there are many societies that are a melting pot of ideas and cultures. By understanding and respecting these diverse places we can make a more aware, enriched world. Also, if you were a instructor of some sort, these individuals will make up the student body of your classroom and classrooms are meant to be safe, honest places so we shouldn’t gloss over this history.

Out of all the texts that covered similar topics I chose “Decolonizing the Mind” because I felt it wasn’t as compartmentalized as the other texts. The other texts in the unit either told fictional stories or focused too much on the author’s experience. I felt that author Wa Thiong’o blended his experience and the broader picture perfectly because colonialism affected pretty much the entirety of the globe. Also, instead of telling a conventional story, Wa Thiong’o spoke in a manner similar to a lecture. This piece covers a lot of ground with telling the story of how the author experienced colonialism first hand but also the generational effect it had on his country and home. The subject matter is very engaging and keeps the work from being dry. It is also rather short so I think the average person should not find this text that difficult to get through and analyze.

Another reason I think the text would be easily accessible by students is who Nugugi Wa Thiong’o is as a person. He has dedicated his life to discussing the message of how colonialism affected Africa and other parts of the world negatively. He is obviously very passionate about what he wrote and the way he wrote this particular piece made it very easy to comprehend while speaking on such a complex and uncomfortable subject. Wa Thiong’o also lived through all that he speaks about, giving the work that much more credibility. I think that students knowing this is a true account from the author himself and seeing how the author sees the situation makes the reading more understandable and the student more open to the concepts presented. I also liked that this particular text was so much more different than other material we had covered with being a true story.

The story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson has many qualities and themes that would be beneficial to be taught to students, especially to a higher grade like 11th or 12th, or even to college students in an English class. Some of the themes that I think are the most prominent and would be important to teach along with the story are things like the duality in the nature of man, the reality of science versus science fiction, the conflict of man versus society, and the ongoing struggle between what is good and what is evil. These themes are all important, and they are also all prominent in this gothic novella.

Duality of Man: Good and Evil

The concept of the duality of man is that, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, each person has two sides to them that are opposites: one is good, and one is bad, or evil. As seen in the story, Dr. Jekyll is the good side of himself. Dr. Jekyll is a well-respected doctor in his town, with “…every mark of capacity and kindness…” (1120) and many friends, such as lawyer Mr. Utterson. He is even described as “…handsome…” (1130), and he seems happy. He holds dinner parties for his friends and appears to be good company to keep. 

However, in contrast to Dr. Jekyll is his counterpart and evil side: Mr. Hyde. He came into being when Dr. Jekyll decided to experiment on himself and discovered a potion that could separate himself from his darker, more sinister side. This way, he could commit crimes and have nobody suspect him of committing them. Mr. Hyde is described as indescribably awful. When Mr. Utterson asks his cousin to describe Mr. Hyde, the response is: “he is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point… I can’t describe him” (1125). Everyone who looks upon him sees something deformed about him, but nobody is ever sure what it is that is deformed. He is seen as ugly, and he is also very violent and rude to others.

At first, when Dr. Jekyll starts out trying out this new potion of his, he says that he has control over Mr. Hyde. However, Mr. Hyde grows so uncontrollable, however, that he commits a murder, which results in him locking himself up in his home and then dying.

Duality of man, and the concept of good and evil, are very common themes throughout a lot of literature that students learn within their classes, and Stevenson provides an allegory in this story that makes these concepts easy to understand. This way, students reading literature that involves duality of man will be more comprehensible to them.

Man Versus Society

One of the main conflicts of the novella is the struggle between Dr. Jekyll and the society that he lives in. In this story, Dr. Jekyll is being forced to hide a part of himself from everybody in his society until it is too late: once he ends up telling his friend Dr. Lanyon, he loses control of when he is able to turn back from Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll and ultimately dies as Mr. Hyde. One of the ideals of a British Victorian society, where this story takes place, is that wealthy people living in this society were expected to be perfect examples of model citizens. They had to be good people, and Dr. Jekyll, being a higher member of society, needed to keep up the image of being a wholly good person by hiding the part of himself that soon became Mr. Hyde.

“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde” not only shows readers what was expected of people in a Victorian society, but also how difficult it could be for people to not be able to be their complete selves in society.

Reality of Science Versus Science Fiction

This story also shows readers that there are limits to what science in real life can do versus what people can write into their science fiction stories. “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is a good example of a science fiction story. This is because the potion that Dr. Jekyll created for himself cannot be recreated in our lives, because science in our lives does not have the means to create something like it. It is impossible for us to separate the evil part of ourselves into a whole different person, but, in this science fiction story, Dr. Jekyll can turn himself into Mr. Hyde easily.

All of these themes that are manifested in the short story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, and that is why I think it would be a good idea to teach this story to students.

Works Cited

McGlinn, Jeanne M, and James E McGlinn. “A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Jekyll and Hyde TG, robert-louis-stevenson.org/wp-content/uploads/penguin-jekyll-hyde-treachers-guide.pdf.

I think one of the most prevailing themes in literature is the idea of good and evil. As a human race we have created mythologies and belief systems centered on this innate desire to know what it means to be good or bad. Many of our origin stories center on the idea of good and evil, in a Christian society we are introduced with this idea through the famous Adam and Eve and the tree of knowledge. This story has created a shared representation of evil to christians, the serpent and the apple. We have folktales about good and evil, like Red Riding Hood, the sweet and innocent girl on a trip to visit her grandmother and is stalked by the Big Bad Wolf. There are fables with moral purpose like the boy who cried wolf, which warns children against lying and paints the horror that would happen when you become a liar. There are even stories like Hansel and Gretel which is a tale of innocence being taken advantage of by evil veiled under the guise of something sweet.  

Our folk tales of old tend to make the answer pretty simple, innocence vs. evil. As we have gotten more complicated as a society so too has our ideas of good and evil. There are no more burning bushes or the direct wrath of God sending you locusts to eat your crops that tell you if you are doing the right or wrong thing. Philosophers have written on the subject, questioning the nature of man and whether he is intrinsically good or bad. There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer to these questions and now our literature reflects that. One of the modern stories that poses this question is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This story represents one of the shifts in the struggle of good and evil because the answer there isn’t exactly simple. 

Dr. Jekyll is not strictly good because Mr. Hyde is an extension of his own evil that lies within. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shows what it means to be a real person with real motivations that aren’t as simple as following the word of God or Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder as your moral compass. Sometimes people can’t explain why they commit evil and as we have changed over time we have to find a way to rationalize our evils. 

I don’t think we’ll ever stop questioning the nature of our existence or let go of the desire to figure out good and evil. Our stories will continue to ask the question that may never get answered: Who will win in the end, Good or Evil?

During the Victorian era, there was scientific advancement, economic growth, and social anxieties that led to literary movements specifically referring to realist fiction novels. The realist novellas depicted everyday life events, moral attitude, and interior struggles of a Victorian character/ author’s point of view in the Victorian period. In the Broadview Anthology of British Literature concurs stating the “climate in which people longed for a sense of verisimilitude in their literature in order to guide them through changes and upheavals, both private and public, which they themselves faced.” seeking these factors allegorically explained numerous authors and their works (527).

“[T]he best known Victorian novels contain elements of the fantastic, the supernatural, and the mysterious” (528).

No better reflection of these literary factors than the 1886 gothic novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. This marvelously horrific story documents a Lawyer, Gabriel John Utterson, in London that plays the role of a detective for his friend Dr. Jekyll after encountering various unfortunate events that happen to be all linked back to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll’s behavior was driven by his unrelenting devotion in science who sought to split two aspects/entities of himself and to keep the good side. 

Dr. Jekyll was described as a good well-mannered wealthy scientist. On the contrary, Mr. Hyde is understood as a crude, mysterious and violent young man. The science he used was a drug he digested that led Mr. Edward Hyde out wreaking havoc while Henry Jekyll is unconscious to Hyde’s mishaps. Stevenson’s great fascination with the forces of good and evil led him to create an exaggerated moral complexity for Dr. Jekyll in the novella. 

The Victorian era presented struggles with sexual prudence, low criminal activity, religious morals, and societal conventions (526). Stevenson’s novella served as a surreal presentation that sent Dr. Jekyll down this spiral. From a well-respected scientist trying to attempt to suppress negative/evil thoughts, goes against his societal religious beliefs using science, creates a dangerous counterpart, becomes the criminal activity, fights against himself and society to prove there is good in himself or Mr. Hyde. 

Looking through Stevenson’s perception, Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a response to the Victorian societal constructs that had them repress feelings and emotions. Dr. Jekyll determined to fit in a place where Mr. Hyde would be commanded and killed. Dr. Jekyll’s scientific advancements were his hope to resolve his moral complexity that the Victorian society created. As an author, Stevenson’s work continued a push toward a better literary expression, presenting the authenticity and the issues that made this an important period for British literature.

     The Rector by Margaret Oliphant’s follows the story about a rector who replaces the death of Carlingford’s old rector. Even though Carlingford is a fictional town, we can relay back to our textbooks definition of Victorian Realism and see how Oliphant uses realist aesthetics throughout The Rector.

     The Broadview Anthology of British Literature has one definition of Victorian Realism that reigns true for most writers of this aesthetic, which was coined by Carla Reeve as “the Novel is a picture of real life and manners, and of the times in which it was written. The Romance in lofty and elevated language, describes what never happened nor is likely to happen” (p.617). This definition of Victorian Realism fits how Oliphant is perceiving life in Carlingford and how peoples reaction to the new rector are accurate for the time period.

Firstly, Carlingford is a fictional English town, but stays true to Reeve’s idea that it is a picture of real life for many who live in other real English towns. Oliphant describes the details of the town to give a more relatable description of the town, so her audience can see it as a picture of real life, within the large framework of English society. In the first paragraph of The Rector, Oliphant describes the people and feel of the town as the following: “it is a pretty place—mild, sheltered, not far from town; and naturally its very reputation for good society increases the amount of that much-prized article. The advantages of the town in this respect have already put five per cent upon the house-rents;… you can go through an entire street of high garden-walls, with houses inside full of the retired exclusive comforts, the dainty economical refinement peculiar to such places; and where the good people consider their own society as a warrant of gentility less splendid, but not less assured, than the favour of Majesty itself” (par. 1). Even though, not every town in England was as well-off and privileged as Carlingford, it nonetheless, perceives a picture of real life for many English people. Furthermore, the small details about a 5 cents increase on house rents is another sign of Victorian realism; a 5 cent increase in rent now is unthinkable, in its cheapness, yet for the time period the 5 cents increase helps Oliphant to stay true to Reeve’s idea that a realist story will resemble life of its era in history. Furthermore, the people of Carlingford are an example of realism, in regards to their behaviors and attitudes towards others within English society. They compare themselves and their town to that of the Queen of England, which exposes the truth of many upperclass sentiments towards the lower classes; they are  unrefined and lesser in stature. Meanwhile, certain materialistic possessions are deemed worthy in the eyes of society (e.g. the high garden-walls), which reinforces Reeve’s realism definition, that the people Carlingford are true to their time period for caring about high-garden walls, the 5 cent rent increase, and the comparison to the Queen.

Along with Carlingford and the people that reside there, the new rector fits Reeve’s idea that realist works must be true to the time period. The people in Carlingford were highly concerned if the new rector will be Low, High, or Board Church and if he’ll fall into Evangelicalism or Anglicanism. This worry about the principles of the new rector reveals the truth and religious history for this time period; people are highly religious and are concerned with certain religious movements that may not be as profound in English society today. By having the dialogue and concern with the new rector, Oliphant is displaying the realistic nature of religion and how people, like the ones in Carlingford, find it important. Currently we live in a far more secular society; therefore, it is interesting to see a realistic take on how religion pervaded everyones daily lives.

The Victorian Era and the Industrial Revolution brought new times and never before seen accelerated advancement of science and technology. With this new technological age, much of Victorian literature followed a strict leaning towards realism. All of Europe (except England) had been involved in sweeping revolutions in 1848 and these failed revolutions brought a new light to the nature of nationalist wars. The Broadview anthology states on this matter, “…the revolutions of the nineteenth century created a climate in which people longed for a sense of verisimilitude in their literature in order to guide them through the changes and upheavals, both private and public, which they themselves faced (615). So the Victorians, in the aftermath of huge confusing political changes around them, and societal changes right in front of their faces, sought out realistic fiction that would act as a moral guide in their actions. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is not a work such as these that centered on realism. This novella is a reaction to the realism the preceded it. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde brings some elements of victorian realism’s emphasis on morality by making the existence of evil a very tangible idea. Dr. Lanyon, Mr. Utterson, and even Dr. Jekyll himself are seemingly average run-of-the-mill kind of men. It is the horrendous Mr. Hyde that brings the immoral and fantastic element to the otherwise completely normal men.

In the 1880s and 90s realism started to take a turn way from popularity. The growing movement, to be referred to as “Aestheticism” was a reactionary movement away from the confines of moral teachings and strictly “true” literature. This movement stressed the ideas of imagination and independence in art and literature, urging the freedom of expression no matter how strange, outlandish, or even perverse. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written in 1885 and well within the timespan of the Aestheticism movement. The novella breaks away from realism and delves into the idea that science can go too far. It also toys with the moralism often depicted in victorian realism because the entire reason that Dr. Jekyll creates Mr. Hyde is to find a way to separate himself from his darkest urges. Victorian realism and the Victorian concept of morality held high expectations for what it meant to be an upstanding citizen. These high expectations are what would have pushed Dr. Jekyll to desire to be separated from his darkest urges. Mr. Hyde, after all, is only a projection of the kind of evil Dr. Jekyll would have been capable of had he been able to let go of his inhibitions and position as a respected doctor. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a direct reaction to the excessive expectations of Victorian realism in literature. It is the surreal Aesthetic, the exact opposite. 

As the Broadway Anthology described it, “many of the best known Victorian novels contain elements of the fantastic, supernatural, or the mysterious…” No description could better describe what  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is all about. However, even though this story contains many aspects of a supernatural piece, there are many areas of realism as well, qualifying it to be a true Victorian work.

The Victorian era didn’t like “‘falsifying” sensibilities of the romantic mode” they wanted to “center on the everyday experiences, moral progress, and inner struggles of an ordinary individual…” and though it isn’t an everyday experience to switch back and forth between two different people by drinking a potion, Dr. Jekyll is mostly an ordinary man who has a pretty normal life. The Broadway Anthology also brings up how Victorian readers looked for moral and ethical guidance in the literature they chose to read, and one of the major themes of this story is morality and another is the battle between good and evil. The story truly tackles how every man/woman has both good and evil in them and the difficult decisions that are faced everyday. At the ending of this novella, the audience is left wandering what is more powerful– good or evil? The reader becomes familiar with the inner struggles that Dr. Jekyll faces day to day such as having to hide who Mr. Hyde really is to Mr. Utterson and the constant fear of Mr. Hyde taking over him out of his control.

All in all, this novel is no doubt a realism tale especially for the Victorian definition. The author creatively developed a sci-fi story with realist aspects to them. He successfully incorporated how actual people would react and deal with these situations and triggered emotions in the reader for how they would feel in the given circumstance while continuing the supernatural area of the novella.

When reading “The Speckled Band”, it is clear that it does not immediately fall into the realism category. Almost everything that happens in the story is so bizarre that there would be no way for it to happen in real life. Though if we were to come at this story with the task of connecting it to realism, we could. For example, the emotions the characters feel in the story. Sherlock sympathizes so much with the main character he offers his services for free. Helen oozes out fear, because her stepfather is coming after her. The raw emotions that we see from the characters are what make this story realistic, not Sherlock’s unattainable knowledge or the exotic animals used as murder props. It doesn’t seem as if Doyle intended to fall under the realism umbrella, it seems as if he wanted to stray far away from it in the plot of the story, but in making his characters so open with their emotions we can connect this story to realism. Although this story is not flat out realism it still draws audiences in with the insane plot and keeps the audience with the relatable traits of the characters, even though some of them are harder to relate too than others.

Even though “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson may not be seen as realistic, it holds many qualities that are often found in works of Victorian Realism. Victorian Realism was a response against Romanticism to show how life truly was, and even though “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” may have examples of science fiction and things that are not particularly seen in our natural world, it shows the struggle of trying to hide parts of yourself from the world which is also a common goal of many Robert Louis Stevensons pieces.

Victorian Realism is defined by the Broadview Anthology as “everyday experiences, moral progress, and inner struggles of an ordinary individual” (Broadview 615). Of course, Dr. Jekyll transforming into Mr. Hyde(especially against his will) is not something that would be found in the natural world, but the nosiness and neediness of Mr. Utterson to find closure is quite ordinary, as well as Dr. Jekyll’s temptations to follow dark impulses. Dr. Jekyll is represented as a civil, respected, intelligent man which is an interested juxtaposition to who he is behind closed doors. Victorian Etiquette was very important and people were expected to act, dress, and present themselves in certain ways depending on their peers and their surroundings. Because Mr. Utterson is so anxiously eager to find out what has changed with his friend Dr. Jekyll, his friendly perseverance to help his friend do the right thing takes over his thoughts and even his dreams. As I stated before, the Broadview Anthology makes it clear that moral progress was very important in Victorian Realism, or at least making it seem as if there is moral progress.

In some ways “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” acts against the usual norms of Victorian Realism. Yes, the things that Dr, Jekyll did are impossible but the topic of “mad” scientists were actually quite common in Victorian Times. But overall I believe that this chilling story is a good example of Victorian Realism because the protagonist faces moral struggles towards bettering himself(in his own opinion) and the morale of the story serves as a word of caution for those who read it.