How Does Stevenson Create Intrigue & Interest for Th E Reader

Explore how Stevenson creates a sense of intrigue and engages the reader’s interest in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. Throughout this novel Stevenson consistently uses his characters to create and engage the reader’s curiosity; Utterson first stokes the mystery of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde when he regards to Mr Enfield; ‘Did you ever remark that door? – Enfield returning with the recital of an unusual story in which Mr Hyde is mentioned for the first time. Stevenson uses Hyde’s brutal and seemingly horrifying mentality to arrest the reader’s attention; ensuring not to give the reader to much detail so as to capture their interest and leave them hanging on the end of every unanswered question.

As the story continues, Stevenson strategically places events and clues to give the reader a wider picture of the elusive Mr Hyde without giving them too much information; an example of the mystery being gradually expanded is in chapter two when Utterson is searching for Hyde – the reader discovers that Utterson has the will of Dr Henry Jekyll in which the reader learns that Hyde is entitled to Henry Jekyll’s inheritance and that he is allowed to pass freely in and out of Jekyll’s house; the will and Jekyll’s trust in Hyde being used in order to establish a link between the both of them.

In chapter four the reader learns that Hyde has murdered Sir Danvers Carew; a man of high status, giving us further insight into Hyde’s true and careless nature and awarding the reader with a further link between Hyde and Jekyll.

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When the reader discovers in chapter five that Dr Jekyll has forged a letter for Mr Hyde it is important to note that Stevenson is constantly challenging the reader as to why Jekyll and Hyde are connected since the two are classed in different ranks of society; Jekyll was a respected doctor whom was described as a ‘large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty’ with every mark of capacity and kindness’ who lived in a ‘square of ancient, handsome houses’ whereas Hyde is hated by many and was ‘pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation’ who lived in ‘the dismal quarter of Soho’ ‘with its muddy ways, and slatternly passages’ – it’s a wonder to the reader what Jekyll saw in the lower class Hyde. Stevenson creates Dr Jekyll in contrast to Mr Hyde using vivid yet entirely opposite descriptions of the two men to create an interesting dynamic within the novel; challenging the reader as to whether the lower and higher class people within Victorian society can walk on an equal level. In the final two hapters Stevenson reveals to the reader that Henry Jekyll has been manipulating science in such a way that, using ‘unscientific balderdash’, he has split the human conscience; the good side of the conscience being Dr Jekyll and the evil side of the conscience being Mr Hyde - the reader is horrified that science has been used in such a way but the shock of the novel is stimulating and has been written in such a way that the raw brutality of the story gives the reader a thrill. The way in which Stevenson intrigues the reader is mainly down to the way in which he withholds and presents particular details from the reader so that through the novel they can only accumulate a shaded judgement of ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and that only in the final chapters, when every clue is given a meaning, can they truly understand Dr Jekyll’s true nature; it is in this way that Stevenson induces excitement, curiosity and mystery into his novel and creates an outstanding air of intrigue and interest.

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