R L Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Up and down, wide and narrow, love and hatred, are a few examples of the dualities we observe in physical nature as well as in human nature. From Heraclitus to Hegel to Derrida, philosophers have used these categories—dichotomies, contraries, antitheses; and from Structuralism onward, binary oppositions—as a way of knowing. Although thinkers like Hegel and Karl Marx attempted to shatter this established way of knowing with their thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, they did not get very far. Robert Louis Stevenson in his novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explores the duality of good and evil in us—human mortals The writing is nervous and quirky, much apropos its theme; yet, exquisite. But what drew my attention, in this re-read, was Stevenson’s use of the “d” sound—throughout the book—to stir repulsion and revulsion. Something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet, I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhat. And later he continues to pepper his prose with: dwarfish, disgust, troglodytic, decay, idol, diabolical, and divine. The author must have discovered that humans develop a visceral reaction to specific “d” sounds, but more than anything else to the odor of: danger, demise, demons, and death. Masters of phonology channel the readers' emotions by the timely and precise use of specific sounds. Related sounds of disgust are "ch" words: Butch, bitch, scratch, croch, roach, and so on. The writing techniques I employ in this article are all explained in Mary Duffy's indispensable writing manual: www.writerivetingprose.com Augustine, City of God Austen J, Pride and Prejudice Austen J, "Marriage Proposals and Me" Austen J, Emma Borges, The Aleph C. Bronte, Jane Eyre Burroughs E,Tarzan Cervantes, Don Quijote Chaucer, Wife of Bath Coelho P,The Alchemist Coyle H, They Are Soldiers Dante, New Life Dickens C, David Copperfield Dostoevsky, Crime&Punishment ConanDoyle,Hound of Baskervilles Dubner S, Superfreakonomics DuMaurier D, Rebecca Ellis B. E. American Psycho Fitzgerald S, Great Gatsby Flaubert G, Madame Bovary Fleming I,Doctor No Freud S, Leonardo Da Vinci Friedan B, Feminine Mystique GarciaMarquez, Of Love & OtherDemons GarciaMarquez,OneHundredYrs Guerrero M,ThePoison Pill Grass G, The Tin Drum Harris T, Hannibal Rising Heidegger M,House of Being Ishiguro K, Remains of The Day Johnson S,Rasselas Kafka,Metamorphosis Kosinski J, The Painted Bird Lee H,To Kill a Mockingbird McBain Ed,Gutter and Grave Murakami H,Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Nabokov V, Lolita Meyer, S, Twilight Ortega,Dehumanization of Art Poe E A, Gordon Pym Prose F, Reading Like a Writer Rushdie S,Midnight Children Sabatini R, Scaramouche Spark M, Prime of Miss Brodie Stendhal, Red and Black Sterne L,Tristram Shandy Stevenson R, Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde Stoker B, Dracula Thackeray W,History of Pendennis Tolstoy L, Anna Karenina Trollope A, Autobiography Unamuno M, Tragic Sense of Life Voltaire, Candide Webb J, Fields of Fire Wharton E, The House of Mirth Woolf V, To The Lighhouse The secrets of 'no-doze' prose: Mary Duffy's Sentence Openers Image via Wikipedia Lindsey Vonn Back to main page

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde&blog=bs"!>

---