Summary:
Discusses Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Describes how Stevenson uses the idea of a door to symbolize hiding the truth.
Symbolism, according to the Oxford American Dictionary is "an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbols and indirect suggestion to express ideas, emotions, etc." In his book, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson used this literary tool quite effectively. As an example, consider the use of doors-firstly, the door leading to Dr. Jekyll's laboratory; secondly, the door which, at the end of the story, Mr. Utterson shatters with the ax. Because the door is an important aspect of the story, one should grasp the symbolism in order to understand the story. Clearly, the image of the door was portrayed during the entire story as a symbol, but a symbolism of what?
In chapter one, Stevenson made many references to the door, as depicted by the title of the chapter, "Story of the Door." Since an entire chapter was devoted to the door, one may wonder if the door has more significance to the story. The door, as the reader later learns, was the back entrance to Dr. Jekyll's laboratory. The door acted as a barricade between the outside world and the mystery within the magnificent laboratory. The only passage into the laboratory from the hall outside was that one door. It was a flimsy, weakened door, but despite its shabbiness, that door hid the truth from the mind's eye of the reader. However this door was not the only one that hid the truth; there was another.
Towards the end of the story, Mr. Utterson, in an attempt to help the already lost Dr. Jekyll, hacks down the door behind which Dr. Jekyll locked himself. This door, similar to the one in the first chapter, acts as a barrier between Mr. Utterson and the secret of Dr. Jekyll. If this door did not exist, then Dr. Jekyll's secret would not have been hidden from the inquiring Mr. Utterson. Both of these doors acted as barriers between two rooms, two different worlds. Both could have been opened so that one could enter.
However there was one other door that was quite different than the previous two, one that was, in fact, locked after being stepped through. Every door, every barrier, is a passageway between two different worlds, two different lives. This third door, which was not as tangible as the others, was such that the readers could only perceive it in their minds. This door was that between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the only barrier that Dr. Jekyll so willingly crossed. Dr. Jekyll crossed into Mr. Hyde by opening up and stepping into a new world, a world that he could no longer control. Mr. Hyde slowly took over Dr. Jekyll body as soon as Dr. Jekyll broke down this door. He thought he could return, but the door was slowly closing on him more and more with each passage. Just like the eyes of poor Mr. Lanyon, this door would never open again, leaving Dr. Jekyll with one choice; that choice would be his final one.
A door is not merely a wooden object with a handle made of metal. More so, it is more like an obstacle that one must cross to enter what is beyond. With regard to the two doors leading to Dr. Jekyll's laboratory, this object was simply a barrier between two rooms. However considering the third door, that which exists in the Dr. Jekyll's mind, this object was a barrier between two lives, his and of Hyde's. Both of the doors leading to Dr. Jekyll's laboratory were as plain as Dr. Jekyll's doom, but the door between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was not as bland, it was, rather quite intricate. It provided a blockade as well as a passageway between two unfamiliar worlds that should have never intersected. Yet, all three doors shared one commonality in that all three acted as barriers between the realm of the imaginary and that of reality.
This is the complete article, containing 653 words
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