Gender Roles In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Gender Roles of The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde The Novel The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson is a book published in 1886 in the United Kingdom. The story is placed in Victorian London. The novel is about two characters, one named Dr.Jekyll and the other Mr.Hyde, who strangely enough are end up being the same person, living two completely opposite lives. All the men in the story are every lonely and independent, none of the characters are married or have any sort of romantic woman figures in their lives. However, all the women are portrayed as weak, servants or caretaking figures. It is questionable whether or not with the men's emotions would be altered by the presence of women in the story. …show more content…
In the beginning of the book, there is a little girl that gets trampled by Mr. Hyde ( Stevenson, pg 3). Mr. Hyde and, a 8 year old girl were walking on a sidewalk and they both came around a corner of a street, at the same time, and they ran into each other. Mr.Hyde proceeded to trample over this little girl, not apologizing, or looking back. It would be different if Mr.Hyde would have apologized or even assisted the little girl up but he keeps walking. Someone had to run after him and bring him back to the girl, and otherwise he would have just kept walking. It turns out that the girl is okay, but what kind of person with such abominable morals would run over a child, and not check to make sure they are okay? The girl portrayed as weak, but so are most children were at this time. As a way of fabricating some kind of reimbursement for the girl and her family, he gives them 100 pounds, which would be equivalent to about 12,000 pounds today. Which is a lot of money, and 12,000 pounds is equal to about 15,000 u.s.d. today. He could have just stopped himself after he trampled her and apologize to …show more content…
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fit the stereotype for the women in Victorian London. The role of women was to be submissive and subservient. This was clearly exhibited in the story. As a result, the stereotype of the women in the victorian era was to provide for their husbands. The women were expected to provide for their husbands by cleaning the house, making food and take care of the children. When people got married, everything a woman owned was immediately handed over to man. So, basically, men had complete ownership over the women. The woman in Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, especially the last two encounters, completely follow this stereotype. The maid is a woman! Which most often all maids were and are women. Because that also fits the stereotype today that cleaning is a woman's job. She is described as a servant. Women were servants to their husbands, the women were not considered equal to men. So why does Stevenson choose to have a limited amount of women in his book? Well, there isn’t a correct answer to this question, there can be many different answers. One common theory about why there is an absence of woman in the book is that in most Victorian novels, women play a large part in the actions of moral decisions. If more women were in The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde maybe the men in the story wouldn't have made the decisions they did. If Dr.Jekyll was married, maybe his choices would have been different. Because the woman maybe would have more of an

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Essay on A feminist reading of Doris Lessing’s ‘To Room Nineteen’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson using ideas discussed in ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir

1105333226 2004 English Advanced Notes Hussain Essay

Gender Roles In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Related Documents: Gender Roles In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Essay on A feminist reading of Doris Lessing’s ‘To Room Nineteen’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson using ideas discussed in ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir

1105333226 2004 English Advanced Notes Hussain Essay