#classics analysis

[ID: a venn diagram that consists of three circles. one is light blue and it has "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley in the centre, one is light pink and it has "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson in the centre, and the third is a light yellow and it has "The Picture of Dorian Gray". between all three circles is a section that has "fuck around and find out" and "morality". between the pink and the blue circles, there's "science fiction" and "transformation/formation of a creation". between the pink and yellow circles, there's "main character slowly changes, morally, for the worse" and "published within 5 years of one another". between the yellow and blue circles, there's "gothic fiction" and "main character is a (relatively) rich young man. /end ID]

I think that the similarities and differences between these three books are very much worthy of discussion. I’m mainly going to be talking about the section that’s common between all three of the books, as it’s the part that I find most fascinating.

“Fuck around and find out”

All three of these books feature an experiment, of sorts, as its main plot, and this experiment usually ends up causing issues for one of, if not several, the characters. In ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, the experiment was quite literally the meaning of the word; it was a scientific procedure done to discover, test or prove something.

In ‘Frankenstein’, it was the creation of the monster, the creature to help humans in the chores that were too strenuous or demanding, and in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, it was the creation of a “potion”, of sorts, that allowed Dr Jekyll to create the body of his “evil” spirit, Mr Hyde, and to switch between the two bodies as he liked. 

However, in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, the experiment wasn’t scientific in any way, and it was more of a moral experiment, where Lord Henry convinced Dorian Gray to give his soul up to the painting done by Basil Hallward, and to lead a life of pleasures and hedonism.

I would say, though, that the experiment in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ could also be viewed as a moral experiment in addition to it being a scientific one, since, despite having separate bodies, Hyde’s traits, his personality and cruelty, was still a part of Jekyll; it stemmed from Jekyll and, through the drug, took a physical manifestation.

All of the three experiments resulted in a formation of a monster, of sorts, where in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ and ‘Dorian Gray’, the “monster” wasn’t one in the literal meaning of the word, it was just a terrible, immoral and cruel man, while in ‘Frankenstein’, the “monster” was an actual creature, living and feeling just like humans. 

In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ and ‘Frankenstein’, it was the main character who was carrying out the experiment, whether that be on himself, which was the case in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, or by creating a new creature, which was the “perfect man” created by Victor Frankenstein. In ‘Dorian Gray’, the creator wasn’t Dorian, the main character, it was Lord Henry, his friend, who wanted to see the outcome of a hedonistic lifestyle, but couldn’t risk it on himself. Dorian, young and beautiful Dorian, however, could withstand it. What’s the worst that can happen to him anyway? If it was Lord Henry instead, he would’ve lost everything he’s ever had.

In all of the experiments, the result causes massive guilt on behalf of the creator. The guiltiest of all, in my opinion, would be Frankenstein, because his intention was to help people. It was to benefit humanity, to relieve them from the difficult work that could, instead, be done by this “perfect man”, he never wanted to hurt anyone. Especially not his beloved. Jekyll is also quite guilty because he never meant to scare Lanyon, or any of his friends, away, and he didn’t want to lose his position in society, the love he received from people, but his guilt wasn’t enough for him to want to change and get rid of Hyde. He liked the pleasure of torturing people, of being cruel and unapologetic about it. The least guilty would be Lord Henry, who, I think, was more scared of and for Dorian than ashamed of what he had done to Dorian. Dorian himself, on the other hand, was guilty, he definitely felt bad for what he did to Sybil Vane and that other girl towards the end of the book, and his guilt was enough to lead to his death, although it never felt real to me.

Morality

All of the books deal with a lot of themes to do with morality and their plotlines are heavily dependent on the morality changes that the characters go through.

In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ and ‘Dorian Gray’, the main character slowly “loses” their morality and gradually becomes worse. 

In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, this was because of Jekyll’s discovery of his “darker” side, how he likes to see people wither in pain, how he likes to hurt people and how he likes to be mean and cruel, but because he couldn’t be seen as the one doing all of these atrocious actions, (after all what would the people say?!) he sort of separated those morally different parts of himself into two bodies. 

In ‘Dorian Gray’, this was due to Dorian’s lifestyle shift to a more pleasure-seeking and self-indulgent one, where he did whatever he liked and indulged in all of his interests and fascinations, and, because of his painting, ugly and hidden away from the world, showing all of his sins to nobody, none of the effects of his actions showed on his body, keeping him forever young and beautiful.

In ‘Frankenstein’, the change in morality is for the “better” and it’s a lot more gradual than in either of the two books. The change occurs because of the indescribable amount of guilt that Victor Frankenstein must’ve felt due to what his creation has done. He never meant to create a monster, as I’ve mentioned before, it was the last thing that he wanted to do, he just wanted to help people, and his plan had backfired. I would say that he was initially morally gray, indifferent towards morals and “good and bad”. He never cared about the ethics of science, which is evident because of how he used random people’s corpses to create his “perfect man”, and it was this very creation that helped him shift to a morally “better” side. It made him realize that what he had done, how badly he’s messed up,  and he regretted it so deeply, which made him want to change for the better and, essentially, undo what he had done, to any extent.

A character who might’ve felt similarly would be Lord Henry. He probably had come to the realization that his creation, Dorian living a new and unrestricted lifestyle, is going to lead to horrible outcomes early on in the story, but, and this is what separates and sets him apart from Victor Frankenstein, he was too amused to care. This was what he had always wanted to see and to explore, and now he was getting a front row seat with no damage to his reputation or anything. I would say, though, that he started getting concerned towards the very end, when he realized that there might be another Sybil Vane.