The Late Victorian Era is a very special period in the history of Britain on a boundary of the beginning of the XX century. That is why it has brought such productive results to the work of numerous cultural figures including the masters of the literature genre. In the following paper, I have my goal to observe the Late-Victorian Age and its main tendencies based on Stoker’s novel “Dracula” and Stevenson’s novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde”. I will primarily try to notice the way the main tendencies during the Late Victorian Era including “reverse colonization”, “The Woman Question” and a crisis of religious faith due to new sciences such as evolution theory and industrial progress are considered in the literary works of that period.
Speaking about the concerns of the British during the late-Victorian era including “reverse colonization”, “The Woman Question” and a crisis of religious faith due to new science such as evolution theory, it should be stated that those important issues were raised in British society of those days due to the historical peculiarities of those times. First of all, women managed to receive access to more and more rights and freedoms. The so-called movement of feminism established its new and very productive era of development. Women kept on fighting for their rights and freedoms and managed to achieve considerable results. This finds a very significant response in the literary works of those days. Writers address gender-related matters in their literature works more and more actively. The other significant feature of that period in the history of British society is the unprecedented development of scientific thought that pushed religious faith far aside showing it as old-fashioned and narrow-minded; which also found its response in the literary works of that period. In particular, the authors begin to reject the faith in the existence of God being inspired by the gaining momentum evolution theory by Darwin. In addition, Britain’s prosperity does not stay unnoticed by the happiness-seekers from the other countries. People want to have their share in the well-being of Britain of those days. This process receives the title of “reverse colonization” and also finds its reflection in the literature pieces of those days. Stoker’s Dracula can be interpreted in the light of these questions. In the novel, we read about Count’s Dracula desperate efforts to relocate from Transylvania to England which suggests the topic of “reverse colonization”. Dracula resorts to the use of numerous lawful and unlawful practices to achieve his goal, however, he fails to do so. In addition, Dracula by Stoker largely touches on the role of women in the Victorian Era. In the novel along with the men, women strive to overtake Count Dracula showing great courage and bravery; they tend to avoid their mild and cowardly nature showing their desire to have equivalent rights and abilities along with the men. In addition, the religious faith is shown in its crisis in the novel. In particular, the characters are depicted as well-educated people who believe in science rather than religion. For example, Jonathan rejects taking a crucifix from a villager woman who strives to protect him from evil. Jonathan only relies on his own new Western religious ideal; he mainly believes in modern Western values like science and progress. However, later he changes his mind and it becomes his main power against Dracula. Still, religious matters are addressed the controversy in the novel. This conclusion can be made if to take into consideration the experience with the captain of the Demeter who used a crucifix to fight the evil, but it never helped him to be protected from Dracula. Thus, Stoker questions the value of religious faith in his novel.
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde” novel by Stevenson is about a lawyer from London, Gabriel John Utterson, who investigates the strange case of his friend Dr. Jekyll and Edward Hyde. Dr. Jekyll has two different personalities both evil and kind. During the whole story-telling, it becomes evident that Dr. Jekyll is no longer able to control his metamorphoses into evil Edward Hyde. Thus, he is frustrated and commits suicide to stop all the wicked acts by Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is a well-respected and prominent city medical doctor of middle-age. The man is shown as an extremely rich person with a wealth of more than two million dollars. Dr. Henry is handsome and tall. He is a decent person with high moral standards, however having some wickedness inside him, which he is striving to control and to keep away from the look of others; his hypocrisy constantly keeps on increasing with the development of the novel’s story-telling. He has numerous great qualities and is very friendly and sociable thus he has a lot of friends. On the contrary, Edward Hyde is younger than Dr. Jekyll and is everything that Dr. Jekyll is not. He seems to have no occupation. Speaking about his appearance, the very first thing to be mentioned is his ugliness: he is short and deformed. Hyde is often compared to animals, which implies he is not a human being exactly. He is also horrific, violent, and mysterious. Hyde is even described as “pure evil”. The novel can be interpreted as a story about the dangers of repression. People are constantly scared to be repressed on the reason of their differences with the requirements of the regime. That is why they often hide their true inner world and try to pretend the kind of personalities society wants them to be seen. However, the novel shows that such a situation may be compared to “the genie in the bottle” who can escape suddenly in a very unexpected period. This is what happened to Dr. Jekyll. He was striving to fight his undesirable parts of personality simply hiding them. Eventually, that caused a catastrophe. This addresses the double lives of some Victorians. Just as the main protagonist of the novel they had a practice of hiding their real personality so that to meet the demands of society. However, such false virtue might hardly lead to good results in real life as well.
Comparing the novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and the 1931 film “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, it should be stated that they have a few significant similarities. In particular, both the film and novel show Dr. Jekyll as a controversial person who tries to fight with the evil he has inside, but fails as hypocrisy he resorts to the use of is not a way out of such situation. Secondly, both the film and the novel relate the same crimes committed by Edward Hyde, including the murdering of a young lady and Sir Danvers Carew. However, the differences between the novel and the film are abundant. Two of the differences that I have identified are at the end of the film and the novel: in the film, Dr. Jekyll in the face of Mr. Hyde is killed by the police after his best friend Dr. Lanyon reveals his mystery whereas in the novel Dr. Jekyll kills himself; and the differences are in the way Dr. Lanyon ends up: in the novel he dies out of shock, seeing how Dr. Jekyll metamorphoses into Edward Hyde, and in the movie, he is saved by the police. Speaking about the differences between the novel and the film, I would say that to my mind the film has a better story-telling and a better ending as everything becomes evident about the mystery metamorphose of Dr. Jekyll; whereas, the novel leaves numerous questions open.
Reflecting on all the facts to be mentioned so far, it should be concluded that during the Late Victorian Era the gender questions were of great importance and this finds its reflection in the literary works of that period. In this paper, the novel “Dracula” by Stoker and the novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Stevenson were explored to prove this important fact. Along with the gender questions, this novel also reveals the other important issues of those days in Britain. In particular, they are “reverse colonization” and the crisis of religious faith.