The significance of the use of multiple perspectives in criticizing the victorian hypocrisy as seen in Stevenson`s Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - USD Repository
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE USE OF MULTIPLE
PERSPECTIVES IN CRITICIZING THE VICTORIAN HYPOCRISY
AS SEEN IN STEVENSON’S
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
RIA INDAH KUSUMANINGRUM
Student Number: 024214050
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2007
Two wrongs don’t make a right
For
My beloved mother
in the most beautiful place
in heaven…
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would thank Allah for every single bless given to me so that I finish writing my thesis. I would also like to show my gratefulness to all my lecturers in English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University for sharing their knowledge with me during my study. I really do thank Dra. Theresia Enny Anggraini, M.A., for giving me advices during the completion of my thesis. I appreciate her patience in waiting for each draft submission. I would like to thank my co-advisor, Tatang Iskarna, S. S., M. Hum., for the suggestion to improve my thesis.
I would like to thank my father and my little sister for always supporting and praying for me, my Okman Budiardi for being my spirit. I want to say thank to my friends in English Letters 2002; Minthul, Ajenk, Evi, Nina, Dyah, Sheilla, Memey, me what best friends are meant to be. I also want to say thank to Dharvit for his support.
I want to thank mbak Nik for willing to give my draft to Miss Enny when I cannot do it by myself.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone whom I forgot to name who has helped me finish this thesis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………….. i APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………………… ii MOTTO PAGE ……………………………………………………………... iii DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………………………. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………… v TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………… vi ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………… vii ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………….. vii
………………………………………….. 1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ………………………………………..
1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………
3 C. Objectives of the Study ………………………………………….
3 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………...
4 ………………………………….
8 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Review on Related Studies ………………………………………
8 B. Review on Related Theories …………………………………….
11
1. Theory of Point of View ………………………………………
12 2. Theory of Society in the Novel ………………………………..
14 C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………….
20 ………………………………………... 22
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study ………………………………………………
22 B. Approach of the Study …………………………………………...
23 C. Method of the Study ……………………………………………..
23 ………………………………………………… 26
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS A. The Depiction of the Victorian Hypocrisy in the Third Person Limited Point of View………………………………………………………...
26 B. The Depiction of the Victorian Hypocrisy in the First Person Limited Point of View…………………………………………………………... 29
C. The Use of Multiple Perspective in Criticizing Victorian Society.... 36 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ……………………………………………..
45 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………….. 53
ABSTRACT
RIA INDAH KUSUMANINGRUM (2007). The Significance of the Use of the
Multiple Perspectives in Criticizing Victorian Hypocrisy as Seen in Stevenson’s Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters,
Sanata Dharma University.Stevenson’s is a novel which explored the inner struggle
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde between the two contradictory impulses within a human mind, good and the evil side.
The novel itself has its own eccentricities, one of which is the use of multiple perspectives in narrating the story. This multiple perspectives makes the story become layerred so that readers are likely presented with several different narratives. However, the multiple perspectives are not further seen merely as the author’s creativity in presenting the story but also as his criticism toward the society at that time. The novel was written at Victorian era, an era characterized with high morality standard, and its subject matter was said to be a criticism toward Victorian middle-class society. Instead of discussing its subject matter, this study then is more focused to analyze the multiple perspectives and its significance in revealing the hypocrisy, the subject matter of the story.
There are three objectives in this study. The first is to analyze the depiction of the Victorian hypocrisy in the third person limited point of view. The second objective is to analyze the depiction of the Victorian hypocrisy in the first person limited point of view.
The third objective is to find out what Stevenson actually criticize from Victorian society In analyzing the novel the socio historical approach is applied. It is used to analyze Stevenson’s criticism toward Victorian hypocrisy and how the multiple perspective signifies his criticism.
The finding of the analysis shows that the use of the multiple perspective firstly is aimed at criticizing Victorian society’s reaction toward the hypocrisy. In the first part of the novel which uses the third person limited point of view, Stevenson creates certain circumstances so that the hypocrisy is likely being hidden and refused. This hiddenness of the hypocrisy seems to be his criticism toward victorian society. In the second part which uses the first person limited point of view, the hypocrisy is eventually being revealed. These parts are not merely used to state the existence of the hypocrisy in the story but through the first person perspective Stevenson also criticizes the hypocrisy. It can be found in Jekyll’s statements that the hypocrisy in the story is not only caused by the existence of the duality in an individual but because one cannot longer repress the darker side. Stevenson likely wants to show that the hypocrisy is also rooted from the way one sees his/her position among the society.
ABSTRAK
RIA INDAH KUSUMANINGRUM (2007). The Significance of the Use of the
Multiple Perspectives in Criticizing Victorian Hypocrisy as Seen in Stevenson’s Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas
Sanata Dharma..karya Stevenson adalah sebuah novel yang
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mengeksplorasi pergulatan batin antara dua sisi dalam jiwa manusia, sisi baik dan jahat.
Novel ini sendiri mempunyai beberapa kekhasan, salah satunya adalah penggunaan multiple persperktif dalam mengungkapkan cerita. Penggunaan multiple perspektif ini membuat ceritanya menjadi berlapis dan pembaca seolah disuguhi beberapa cerita yang berbeda. Tetapi lebih lanjut multiple perspektif tidak semata-mata dipandang sebagai kreatifitas pengarang dalam menyajikan cerita tapi juga kritikannya terhadap masyarakat pada saat itu. Seperti diketahui novel ini ditulis pada era Victorian yang dikenal dengan standar moralitasnya yang tinggi, dan inti cerita dari novel ini disebut sebagai sebuah kritikan terhadap masyarakat kelas menengah Victorian. Studi ini lebih difokuskan untuk menganalisa multiple perspektif dan signifikansinya dalam mengungkapkan hipokrisi yang merupakan inti cerita novel ini daripada membahas inti cerita itu sendiri.
Ada tiga objektif dalam studi ini. Yang pertama adalah untuk menganalisa pengungkapan Victorian hypocrisy dalam cerita yang menggunakan sudut pandang orang ketiga. Objektif yang kedua adalah untuk menganalisa pengungkapan Victorian hypocrisy dalam cerita yang menggunakan sudut pandang orang pertama. Objektif yang ketiga adalah untuk menemukan apa yang sebenarnya di kritik oleh Stevenson dari masyarakat Victorian dan bagaimana multiple perspektif menjadi signifikan dalam mengungkapkan kritikannya tersebut.
Pendekatan sosio-historikal diterapkan dalam menganalisa novel ini. Pendekatan ini digunakan untuk menganalisa kritikan Stevenson terhadap hipokrisi zaman Victorian dan bagaimana signifikansi multiple perspektif terhadap kritikannya.
Hasil analisa menunjukkan bahwa dengan menggunakan multiple perspektif pertama-tama Stevenson ingin mengkritik reaksi masyarakat Victorian terhadap hipokrisi itu sendiri. Pada bagian pertama novel ini yang menggunakan sudut pandang orang ketiga Stevenson telah menciptakan situasi tertentu agar hipokrisi itu sendiri seolah seperti disembunyikan dan ditolak. Kesan tersembunyi dari hipokrisi ini sepertinya merupakan kritikannya terhadap masyarakat Victorian. Pada bagian kedua novel ini yang menggunakan sudut pandang orang pertama hipokrisi dalam cerita pada akhirnya terungkap. Bagian-bagian yang menggunakan sudut pandang orang pertama ini tidak semata-mata digunakan untuk mengungkapkan adanya hipokrisi dalam cerita, tapi melalui sudut pandang orang pertama Stevenson juga mengkritik hipokrisi itu sendiri. Dari pernyataan-pernyataan Jekyll dapat disimpulkan bahwa hypocrisy yang ada dalam cerita tidak hanya disebabkan oleh adanya duality pada setiap individu tetapi karena ketidak-mampuan seseorang untuk mengendalikan sisi gelapnya. Stevenson sepertinya
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study In many literary works, society often plays an important role. It provides inspirations to be written and aspects of life to be criticized for an author in his/her work. Society usually affects the content of literary works which will be produced. The
relationship between literary works and society become an object of many studies of literature.
One example of literary works which will not be easy to be separated from the influence of society is a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was written in 1885 in the reign of Queen Victoria in England. Lunt in his History of
England said that Victorian era was the era of growing capitalization and industrial
scientists made life become much easier. The invention of steaming-ship played an important role in transportation and supported England to grow its industrialization.
Besides the development in science and technology, England also experienced a remarkable condition in social life. In the late nineteenth century England was characterized by high moral tone, rigid standards of personal morality, and strong emphasis on duty. Victorian’s moral conduct was rooted from their religious conviction which at the bottom evangelical. Literature of this era shared strong sense of social responsibility and moral duty. Writers of this time offered thoughts to moral and social
Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde describes also the society of this Victorian era in its story. Readers can look at the life of middle-class gentlemen in London through the characters of Jekyll, Utterson, Lanyon, and Enfield. Readers are also brought to recognize the hypocrisy of the Victorian society through Jekyll’s perspective. Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde is based on Stevenson’s own experiences with middle-age gentlemen in
London and Edinburgh. He sees his surrounding as a world of appearance and not substance. Someone is judged based on their social status and not their attitudes. Clearly Stevenson believes that his novel explores the hypocrisy of this time as well as the innate evilness that occurrs in the society (
The original idea of the story occurred from a nightmare. After reading the initial manuscript to his wife and being suggested that much can be done to the story so that it did not become a straight forward horror story, Stevenson burnt the draft. The rewriting undertones as his wife had suggested (http:/www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheStrangeCaseofDr.JekyllandMr.Hyde).
In his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson depicts an issue about duality of human
- – the evil and the good. Dr. Jekyll, a middle-class gentleman, with the help of a certain type of potion can bring out the dark side of him into a being who is later known as Hyde. This story also demonstrates the inner struggle to control the dark side of one self. Guest says that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a story about curiosity of discovering one’s primitive impulse side which finally get out of hand and ends up in a suicidal act. Jekyll’s curiosity
However, what makes the researcher interested is not the basic issue presented in the story but the way the author presents it. In his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Stevenson uses multiple perspectives to narrate the story. There is a part of the story which is narrated through the third person’s perspective and the other parts which are narrated through the first person’s perspective. By using this kind of perspective the author has made a difference in showing this duality of human in the story. Related to the Victorian hypocrisy of that time, it is interesting to discuss this multiple perspectives used by Stevenson in showing this duality of human. Therefore, this study will further discuss about the multiple perspectives and try to find out its significance in criticizing Victorian hypocrisy.
B. Problem Formulation
In order to limit the points of discussion and make the writing clear, three questions are provided. The questions are formulated as follows:
1. How is the hypocrisy depicted in the third person limited point of view
2. How is the hypocrisy depicted in the first person limited point of view?
3. How is the multiple perspectives used to criticize the hypocrisy of Victorian society in England?
C. Objectives of the Study The analysis of this study is to answer the questions in the problem formulation.
The researcher will discuss about the multiple perspectives used in the story to present the duality of human. In discussing the perspectives used in the story, the researcher uses several theories of point of view. As it is known, point of view is the author’s tool to reveal the story. It is carefully chosen to fulfill the intended effect of the story. Using point of view, the author can direct the perspective which brought the readers into the story.
One interesting example of manipulating perspective to create certain effect intended by the author is Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In discussing the work, the researcher will relate it to the historical background especially Victorian era in which the work was written. Considering the situation within the society at that time, the researcher will try to find out the significance of the perspectives used in the story in by the use of perspective in revealing his idea of certain issues within his involvement in his society. Hopefully, this paper will give a better understanding in studying the work.
D. Definition of Terms
In this part, the researcher will define some words related to the research in order to help the researcher in analyzing the topic. Some sources including books and articles from the internet will be used to give the most appropriate definition of the specific terms.
1.Victorian hypocrisy
The Victorian hypocrisy meant by the researcher here refers to the hypocrisy happenned in Victorian era. Thus, the word “Victorian” refers to the era, Victorian era in England, and not to a particular hypocrisy. The term hypocrisy in this study is not merely seen as a psychological matter but more considered as a sociological matter. It can be concluded from an article in the internet page that the hypocrisy as what is happenned in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is not the kind one suffers from multiple personality disorder as what is known in psychology though it also comes from the existence of the duality, the good and the evil sides, in man’s psyche. The need to be two- faced in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is seen as a response toward social convention prevailed in the society. For Henry Jekyll, the two-faces are performed because the situation that he deals with requires it. He needs to accommodate his darker side but there is a strict rule in the society which forbides any behavior that disregard moral values. Therefore, the two- nicety but life-saving tactic. It is a reaction toward the conflict between an individual and his society (http;//www.zetatalk.com/beinghum/b63.html).
Another argument still from the internet also discuss about the social hypocrisy in . It says that “the novel has been noted as ‘one of the best guide
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
books of the Victorian times because of its piercing depiction of the fundamental
th
dichotomy of the 19 century outward respectability and inward lust’ as it had a tendency for social hypocrisy”..(http://www.enwikipedia.org/wiki/TheStrangeCaseofDrJekyllandMrHyde).
2. Multiple Perspectives
Kennedy and Gioia define perspective in their book, An Introduction to Fiction,
Poetry and Drama, as a special angle of vision. It is a special angle of vision from which
a story will be perceived by the readers. In order to define the perspective of the story we shall know who is the narrator, and to identify the narrator of the story and describing any part he or she plays in the story and also the limitation he or she has upon his or her knowledge is to identify the story’s point of view. Thus, perspective is closely related to point of view. The point of view will determine the perspective of the story. If we are told a story from the third person point of view then we will perceive the events of the story from the third person’s perspective. Similarly when the story is employing the first person point of view then we will have the narration to be revealed from the first person’s
The term multiple perspectives is used by Hutchins in mentioning the internal eccentricities of Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The story in Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde is revealed through the perspectives of few different characters. In the beginning of
the story the author uses the third person limited point of view to narrate the story and reveals the events and actions within the story through the Lawyer’s perspective. Almost in the end of the story the author shifts the perspective from the Lawyer to Lanyon and Henry Jekyll and employs the first person point of view in this part. Thus, the story is revealed through the perspectives of Lanyon and Henry Jekyll himself. This multiple perceive the story in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (http://www.caxton.stockton.edu/victoriannovels/stories/story Reader$11).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies One interesting part in Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the changing
narrator. In the end of the story the narrator is shifted from the lawyer to the fellow doctor of Jekyll, Dr. Lanyon and also Henry Jekyll himself. These narrators, Lanyon and Jekyll, give their voices as their letters of will are read. The perspective will also shift from the third person perspective to the first person perspective. Discussing this changing narrator, there is a criticism in the internet which says that Stevenson feels the need to clarify certain part in the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. From the very beginning readers are brought into the story through the third person perspective, that is the perspective of the lawyer. The narration is based on what this character experiences, feels, thinks, or sees.
Therefore the story about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde itself seems to lay underneath this narration by the lawyer. It is as if there is a story within a story throughout the novel, and until the end of the lawyer’s narration the readers are given an access only to one. Jekyll’s full statement and Dr. Lanyon’s narrative reveals this hidden story and unravel all the mysteries about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. All events that seem puzzling or inexplicable before are suddenly explained ().
Hutchins says that Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has its own internal eccentricities. Besides the multiple perspectives discussed above, it is also unique of the external circumstances that have brought about the final product we have before us. Further he says that its composition is the result of a number of factors, including what he calls dream work, cocaine, Stevenson’s conscious effort to compile his narrative, Stevenson’s knowledge of Edinburgh’s criminal- by-night, and the feedback of his family (
The first and second factors, dream work and cocaine, still by Hutchin, refer to the process of getting the original idea for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is said that the original idea comes from a nightmare. Stevenson took cocaine to help quell the effect of tuberculosis. The effect caused by cocaine and its ensuing dreams were possibly combine to produce at least two chapters of the story (
Discussing the third factor, Hutchins says further that Stevenson grappled with the duality theme for some time and tried to find the vehicle for that strong sense of a man’s creature. In his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde it is clear that Stevenson success in finding that vehicle (
Stevenson’s knowledge of one of the most notorious scoundrels in the annals of Edinburgh history, Deacon William Brodie, also inspired his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, especially in the depiction of Jekyll and Hyde’s characters. Brodie was a respectable trade man who became a daring thief by night. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was also criticized by Stevenson’s wife, Fanny, when its initial manuscript was first read to her.
The allegorical undertone of the story was the feedback of the family which Hutchins defined as the fifth factor of the story (
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is criticized also for its subject matter. Guest in an
internet page writes that Stevenson put across the duality of human through Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. However, according to Guest Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde do not really represent good and evil. Jekyll is not of pure good nature, he represents the control one has over primitive spontaneous passions and desires. Dr. Jekyll thus symbolizes the idea of repression in a respectable individual. Hyde is not purely evil either, after having trampled calmly a little girl, Hyde himself speaks in a sincere manner and offers compensation for his act. In that way, both sides of Jekyll are both good and evil. One can say that the duality in Stevenson’s novel is not about good and evil but more about a curiosity to discover one’s primitive impulsive side ( been considered an criticism of Victorian double morality, but it can be read as a comment on Charles Darwin's book The Origin of Species - Dr. Jekyll turns in his experiment the evolution backwards and reveals the primitive background of a cultured human being. Modern readers have set the story against Freudian sexual theories and the split in man's psyche between ego and instinct, although the "split" takes the form of a physical change, rather than inner dissociation. The conflict between Jekyll and Hyde reveals also era's class phobias ( ).
There is also a criticism in the internet that says Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a not heterosexual or homosexual sin. The novella is noted as one of the best guide books of the Victorian times because of its piercing description of the fundamental dichotomy
th
of the 19 century outward respectability and inward lust as it has tendency for social hypocrisy. Stevenson never says exactly what Hyde takes pleasure in on his nightly forays, saying generally that it is something of an evil and lustful nature, and thus in the context of the times, abhorrent to Victorian religious morality (
Positioning the discussion in this study among those criticisms, the researcher will like to agree with the criticism about the theme of the novella, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is said that the novella is about the duality of human and not about homosexual or heterosexual sins. However, this study will emphasize more on the multiple perspectives used in the story and its significance in criticizing Victorian hypocrisy instead of discussing its theme. The theme, human duality, will be seen as the part of the hypocrisy of the society in which the work is produced.
B. Review of Related Theories
This study will be focused on two important points; those are the perspective and the socio-historical background of the story. Perspective is a special angle of vision (Kennedy and Gioia, 1999: 20). This perspective uses to define our position in perceiving the events and actions of a story is called point of view. Therefore, in finding the perspective used in the story the researcher is guided by several theories of point of view.
1. Theory of Point of View
Point of view is a term used in the analysis and criticism of fiction to describe the way in which the reader is presented with the materials of the story or, regarded from another angle, the vantage point from which the author presents the action of the story (Holman, 1906: 386). To find the point of view used in a story we should identify the narrator of the story and describing any part he or she plays in the story and also the limitation he or she has upon his or her knowledge. Abrams in his book, A Glossary of
Literary Terms , gives a clear classification of point of view into two kinds, the third-
person narrative and first-person narrative. The third-person narrative is further divided into two, the omniscient point of view and limited point of view (Abrams, 1981: 143- 144).
In third-person omniscient point of view the narrator acts like God. He knows everything that needs to be known about the agents and events, he is also free to move as access to a character's thoughts and feeling. However, if a narrator limits the perspective of the story through one single character or at most by a very limited numbers of characters and narrated the story according to what is experienced, thought, and felt by this character then the narrator is employing third-person limited point of view (Abrams, 1981: 143-144).
Another type of point of view, still by Abrams, is the first-person narrative. This mode, insofar as it is consistently carried out, naturally limits the point of view to what the first person narrator himself know, experiences, infers or can find out by talking to
To complete the theory on point of view, the researcher also put one kind of point of view according to Kennedy and Gioia, that is objective point of view. In their book, An
Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama , the objective point of view is the point of
view in which the narrator does not enter the mind of any character but describes events from the outside. The narrator just tells us what the characters says and how their faces look, and leaves the reader to infer the characters' thoughts and feelings (Kennedy and Gioia, 1999: 23).
Besides analyzing the types of point of view used in the novel, the researcher needs also to analyze the advantages and disadvantages each point of view to help the researcher finds out the significance of the multiple perspectives toward the story. According to Guerin in his book A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, the third person omniscient point of view can be used to avoid the story to go in several directions. By using the third person omniscient point of view the center of the story can write in their book An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama, that the third-person omniscient point of view requires high skill to manage; without the storyteller’s losing his way in a multitude of perspectives. Further they say that having a narrator who does not know everything, an author can artfully withhold information to create suspense (Kennedy and Gioia, 1999: 25).
Other types of point of view are the first-person limited point of view and third- person limited point of view. According to Stanton in his An Introduction to Fiction, the two types of limited point of view can still bring us to the character’s mind. Using these perceiving a story through the first-person limited point of view readers may find it difficult to think about the character himself; the readers, the character, and the author may simply fuse together. Another disadvantage of this type of point of view is that the author cannot comment upon this character directly (Stanton, 1965: 28-29).
The third-person limited in the other hand, enables the author to comment upon this directly. By using this third-person limited point of view the author has also the freedom to tell the readers what several characters are thinking simultaneously (Stanton, 1965: 29).
2. Theory of Society in the Novel
In discussing the second point, the socio-historical background of the story, first the researcher needs to understand about the society in the novel and the real society which refers to the society outside the work itself. Langland writes in her book that conventions, beliefs and values, their institutions – legal, religious and cultural – and their physical environment. This society sometimes reveals through human relationships, through characters’ patterned interactions and their common expectations of one another (Langland, 1984: 6).
Society in the novel does not depend on points of absolute fidelity to an outside world in details of costume, setting, and locality because a novel’s society does not aim at a faithful mirror of any concrete, existent thing. As soon as novelists select, arrange, and organize the disparate elements of culture, the arrangement takes on meaning or value
Society plays an essential formal role within a novel: antagonist to individual protagonists, a context, if not an obstacle, to the characters’ growth and self-realization.
Langland says in her book that the function or the formal roles of society in the novel is determined by the relationship between character, society, and narrator or implied author.
These relationships are further classified into four basic arrangements:
a. Characters enmeshed in a social milieu are presented as being in a conflict with the society. Individual potential meets social possibility, and the result is some personal limitation or sacrifice. Writers who use this kind of arrangement are interested in exploring what meant to be an individual with special needs and particular talents in a milieu that is usually conservative, established, and generally unresponsive to particular needs. In this formal pattern the individual may succeed or fail in establishing the validity of his values vision.
b. The narrator may choose to become engaged in the world of his novel and by his
c. Society can be depicted as inevitably of human possibility. The sociological or naturalistic novels weight the conflict between individuals and society in such a way that the most admirable characters are most subject to destruction since their best qualities, rather than setting them apart from society’s inimical values, leave them more vulnerable.
d. The fourth possibility for the formal relationship between character and society may be one of basic congruence. Society, despite its faults can be flexible enough to accommodate the full realization of human possibility. In this fourth category, society and social convention functions as yardsticks to measure individual moral growth and to
Langland explains in her book that the way society is structured – how it is depicted, how its elements were organized – defines its formal role. So, when we speaks of the formal role of society, we are speaking of the ways in which structural elements of a particular depiction are combined and evaluated to make society itself an integral part of a novel’s form, a significant element in the principles generating a particular work (Langland, 1984: 9).
Society in a work of fiction is a part of its setting. Therefore, in doing this study the researcher also need to understand about theories of setting.
3. Theory of Setting
Stanton in his book, An Introduction to Fiction, says that the setting of a story is the environment of its events, the immediate world in which they occur (Stanton, 1965: 18). The definition of setting can also be found in Holman’s A Hand Book to Literature. the action of a narrative (novel, drama, or short story, poem) takes place (Holman, 1906: 465).
Further he says that there are four elements which make up a setting. Those elements are: a. the actual geographical location, its topography, scenery, and such physical arrangements as the location of the windows and doors in a room; b. the occupations and daily manner of living of the characters;
c. the time or period in which the action takes place, for example, epoch in history or d. the general environment of the character, for example religious, mental, moral, social, and emotional conditions through which the people in the narrative move.
C. Review of Victorian Era
Since this study is related to the socio-historical background of the story, therefore it is important to have a clearer description about the society in which the work is produced.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written in 1885. In that era England was under the
reign of Queen Victoria so that the late nineteenth century in England was known also as Victorian Era.
W. E. Lunt writes in his book, History of England, that the improvement in means of transportation during the nineteenth century caused extensive changes in British commercial and industrial organization and affected profoundly the lives of all classes. speedier means of transportation. This stimulated the rapid development of civilization and culture. The improved transportation was a factor of primary importance in producing the enormous expansion of British industry and commerce which took place after 1850 and made Great Britain for the next quarter of a century “the workshop of the world” (Lunt, 1945: 743-744).
Similar to Lunt, David Thomson also describes mid-Victorian society in his book, , by writing that the background of mid-Victorian was
England in the Nineteenth Century
growing material prosperity, and a level of industrial production and foreign trade which set England far ahead of all other countries. The situation induced in large sections of the upper and middle class a mood of comfortable complacency (Thomson, 1951: 100-101).
This two writers also write about another aspect of Victorian society instead of its industrial growth. Thomson writes in his book that there were two other forces effected Victorian’s thoughts instead of materialism. One was religion, which played a very large
part in mid-Victorian life and thought: the other was the generous humanitarian impulses which derived partly from evangelical religion, partly from liberalism. The most generaly accepted and practised form of Christianity at that time was that which may be broadly called evangelicalism, with its emphasis upon moral conduct as the test of the good Christian (Thomson, 1951: 106-107).
According to Lunt in order to appreciate fully the outlook of Victorian on society, politics, business or almost any other aspect of life, their strong religious convictions must be taken into account. Their beliefs were at bottom evangelical, but they were not the Bible and in a future life of eternal bliss or woe. A man’s future reward or punishment was determined in part by his faith, but above all it was determined by his conduct. So nearly universal was this point of view that it was imposed upon all alike a code of moral conduct which could be broken only at the risk of strong social disapproval. Duty, self- restraint and self-improvement were regarded as outstanding virtues. Pleasures was not banned, but it was not to be pursued as an end nor should it occupy too large a place in the scheme of life. It was well “to be serious, to redeem the time, to obstain from gambling, to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. This religious outlook produced pruderies which it was easy enough to hold up to ridicule. No doubt the outward acceptance of the code by some who dared not reject it led to hypocrisies. Yet a commonly accepted religious belief which inspired men to find pleasure in doing their duty was a force which affected profoundly the thoughts and actions of Victorian men and women (Lunt, 1945: 751-752).
Literature of Victorian era also had its own characteristic. According to Lunt during the first quarter of the nineteenth century the prevailing trend was romantic. The fields in which the romanticists found their subjects were many and varied. Reason and common sense are the proper literary guides. The beauties and mysteries of nature, the history of periods rather than that of Roman classical antiquity, distant and little known portions of the world, and man in his natural state as distinguished from man bound by existing social conventions supplied the greater part of the themes which were popular with both writers and readers. Famous author of the period not only influenced affected thought on political and social aspects of life. Victorian literature was so diversified in style and content that no single label would cover all of it, or even indicated the main trend. It was written to entertain or instruct the new middle-class, and it reflected more fully and accurately than in most periods the intellectual and moral outlook of those whom it informed or amused. It was a good mirror. An exceptionally large amount of it also portrayed one aspect or another of the life of the period in which it was written, and some of the imaginative literature advocated social reforms. The enthusiasm of Victorian literature for social truths as an instrument of social reform, of good fortune. The spirit not only found expression in fiction and in poetry, but it also actuated several writers who criticized the complacency and apathy of the middle-class.
They told us much concerning contemporary ideals both by the aspects of society which they criticized and by the profound influence which they exerted upon the thought of the time (Lunt, 1945: 752-755).
Victorian society forbade the discussion of many issues, sexuality stood at the top of the blacklist. Late Victorian literature contained many subtle allusions to covert acts of socially unacceptable sexual behavior, often referring to or symbolizing homosexual activities (
D. Theoretical Framework
In doing this research, the information about Victorian society is absolutely needed to give a clear description of the situation in the society at that time: the social information, the researcher finds that the hypocrisy is indeed exist in the Victorian society. This information also give a clear reflection on how an individual may live and survive within that kind of society. Thus, considering that the work, Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
, was written in that era, it is not something fancy to suspect that Stevenson may be
Hyde
effected by the hypocrisy of the society surrounded him in writing this work. Those information will lead to a better understanding on the outside factors that may effect the final product we have before us. Eventually the researcher can find out the aspect of the society which being criticized by Stevenson in his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The theories of point of view will help the researcher to discuss the perspective used within the narration. This theories explain also the advantages and disadvantages of each point of view. By analyzing the perspective used in the story and its advantages or disadvantages the researcher will try to find the significance of the multiple perspectives toward the story. The result of this analysis will further help the researcher to find the author’s intention in using the multiple perspectives in his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how this will help him to achieve his purpose in criticizing Victorian hypocrisy.
The theories of setting will be used to define how society is depicted in the story. In discussing the novel and Victorian society, the researcher will use the theories of society in the novel in Langland’s book, Society in the Novel, to understand the relationship between the real society and the society existed within the story.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is chosen to be analyzed in this study. The novel
was written at Bournemouth in 1885 and first published in January of 1886. It had originally belonged to a genre known as the shilling shocker. The manuscript was initially sold as a paperback for one shilling in the UK and one dollar in the USA. Within the next six months close to forty-thousand copies were sold. By 1901 it was estimated had sold over 250,000 copies. It met tremendous success and ensured Stevenson’s fame as a writer.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has become an icon of popular culture and adapted among
others into screen over 20 times. The story of double personality and metamorphosis W.E. Henley's play Deacon Brodia (1880), where an Edinburgh councilor was publicly respectable person but privately a thief and rakehell. The basic theme of true identity have attracted such writers as 'Metamorphosis', 1915).
In this novel, Stevenson employs multiple perspectives in narrating the story. Initially it is Hastie Lanyon’s, the Lawyer, perspective to narrate almost three quarter of the story. In this part, readers are brought into the mystery of Mr. Hyde. The character of the other characters’ thoughts and opinions about him. Only after continuing to the next part narrated through Henry Jekyll’s perspective readers are exposed to the character of Hyde and the story of his existence.
B. Approach of the Study