RECEPTION: The book received an immediate success and it is one of Stevenson's best-selling works, adapted for the theatre and many other works, too. Some critics see this work as an example of psychopathia4 because of “[…] Hyde’s propensity to ill a girl of maybe eight or ten[…]”, but the majority of critics put in evidence the dualism linked to this novel and an anticipation of “[…] Freud’s theory of instincts in relation to the concept of libido and the consequent foundation of the psychosexual phases of development.[…]”, such as Cohen or Kreitzer. CONCLUSION : In the end., trying to give an answer to the initial questions, I can say that yes, the human soul can split in two (or more), and not just in novels, but also in reality (see the cases of multiple identities). However, it is difficult to answer with certainty about how many identities can exist within an individual, although the identities in this novel are two. The final suicide is important as it provides the moral of the novel : Dr. Jekyll prefers to die rather than live in the shoes of the cruel Hyde. Thus, it is represented the victory of the good over the evil (happy ending), but this victory is only possible with the death of Jekyll/Hyde and this is the negative thing of the novel (in this case there is not an happy ending). The novel is a shocking testimony not only of the impact of Darwin's theories on Victorian morality, but also of the lack of confidence in the science and in the man . I find that the novel is very important, and the work done has helped me to understand it in all its nuances. I should note that, in some way , the message touch everyone because it concerns the human soul. In conclusion I invite all to the read this text.

THE ALIENATION AND THE IDENTITY A vertical alienation from society is reflected in the protagonist, who puts into play his own identity, and Ego so that Stevenson depicts a character with the purpose to escape from the typical prototype of the Victorian/Byronian gentleman who turns out to be a beast. THE THEME OF THE DOUBLE: ANTICIPATION OF THE FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS (1): The most important theme of the novel is that of the double. Martin Danahay, in fact, affirms: “[...] when he becomes Mr.Hyde he switches from a ‘decent’ and respectable body into the ‘indecent’ body [...]”. In this work we can identify two divisions: one between good and evil and the other between body and soul. Both of them presuppose the illness, that is preannonced in the title (‘case vs. chaos’). This fact led us to speak of: ‘Hide and Seek’; ‘Jack-ill’; pron. ‘Jee-kill’.; repression of instincts and natural impulses. THE THEME OF THE DOUBLE: ANTICIPATION OF THE FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS (2): This novel precedes Freud, who theorized the existence of an area of the psyche beyond the control of consciousness : the unconscious. According to the Freudian theory, the personality of each individual can be tripartite in: 1 – ‘ES’: that is the instinct, which tends to the desire’s satisfaction; 2 – “SUPER I’: that is the moral instance, i. e. the conscious part (it includes also a part of the unconscious); 3 – ‘I’: that is a mediation between ‘Es’ and ‘Super I’, and it is the most tied to reality. At this point it is easy to see that the three parts of the human psyche are represented with as many characters in the Stevenson’s novel: Hyde coincides with the '"ES", the “SUPER I" is associated with Utterson and the 'I' is embodied in Jekyll.

GENRE: It is a short novel, part of the horror and fantastic literature based on psychoanalysis. The genre of this novel is quite complex to qualify: the narration is mysterious like a yellow, with elements typical of the horror, of the detective and of the gothic novel. Besides, the death and the dramatic split of Jekyll suggest the intensity of the tragedy. TIME: The author makes no reference to the years in which the story takes place, but in the letter that Jekyll writes he mentions the Nineteenth century. The story time is longer than reality and the main events take place mostly at night. SPACE: It prevails a Gothic atmosphere with cold, night, fog, wind and the streets of London. The houses of the characters reflect their characteristics: 1) Jekyll has a big and fine house, overlooking to a busy main street, reflecting the personality of the doctor immersed in the life of the Victorian middle class; 2) Hyde is relegated in the laboratory overlooking to a poor district that is in the back of the Jekyll’s house, expressing the demonic side. LINGUISTIC STYLE: The novel use s the direct speech and t he prevailing style is the hypotactic discourse but is present the paratactic, too. The text has an abudant punctuation and the level is high-formal. In the descriptions we have also lots of adjectives that give us a clear picture of reality. SETTING: Urban ambientation: London STRUCTURE : Linear with flashback. The reader follows the course of events “through the eyes” of Utterson. Chapter 1-2> Hyde’s introduction; Detection; Ch 9-10> Solution of the case. FORM: Omniscient narrator (heterodiegetic) ; objectivity & subjectivity ; memorial, letters (homodiegesis), reported speech; multiple points of view.

PLOT’S SUMMARY: (2) In the meanwhile, Jekyll is in great health; he entertains his friends (among them there is the Dr. Lanyon), gives dinner parties, and attends to his religious duties. Two months later, both Lanyon and Jekyll fall terribly ill, and Lanyon dies, leaving mysterious documents to Utterson, to be opened only if Jekyll dies or disappears. Finally, one evening, Jekyll’s butler visits Utterson at home., because he is worried about his master and persuades Utterson to return to Jekyll’s house, so they break into Jekyll’s laboratory. They find Mr. Hyde dead on the floor, with Jekyll nowhere to be found. Utterson finds several documents left to him, and goes back home to read both Lanyon’s narrative and Jekyll’s narrative, which, it turns out, are two parts of the same story. With a flashback, we discover (through the documents left by Jekyll) the fact of the potion: Jekyll was able to transforms himself to Mr. Hyde. In his narrative, Jekyll writes that Mr. Hyde became ever more powerful and harder to control . NARRATOR: In the first part we know the facts through the lawyer Utterson, but the second part, however, is focalised on the written left by Jekyll: the narrator, so, is internal, and the point of view, though limited to the Jekyll’s vision, is omniscent, because the doctor knows all the aspects of the story. This last part has, in fact, an explanatory function and it fills gaps in the chronological order of events.

CHARACTERS: • Henry Jekyll: a chemistry doctor and a religious researcher; a respectable man and benefactor. • Edward Hyde: Jekyll's evil alter ego, all instinct and irrationality, a "primitive" man. • Gabriel John Utterson : lawyer, cousin and friend of Jekyll. He is a person of horrid appearance: thin, tall, and with scruffy clothes. He loves the wine. • Richard Enfield: cousin of Utterson. • Dr. Hastie Lanyon: doctor and friend of Henry Jekyll and Utterson. He does not approve Jekyll's experiments, though he is positivist and rationalist. • Mr. Poole.: the servant of Jekyll. • Inspector Newcomen: he helps Utterson after the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. • Sir Danvers Carew: a kind old man, who is an important Member of the Parliament and customer of Utterson . • Maid: she is the only person who claims to have seen the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. PLOT SUMMARY (1): The novel begins with Mr. Utterson going for a walk with his friend and cousin Mr. Enfield. They walk in front of a door, which prompts Mr. Enfield to tell a sad story: a brute man knocked down a little girl, everyone cryies against him, but he man offered to pay lots of money and disappeared through the door ,only to return with a large check drawn from Dr. Jekyll’s bank account. The nasty man? None other than Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson, it turns out, is Dr. Jekyll’s lawyer, and we find out that in the event of Dr. Jekyll’s death or disappearance, his entire estate must be turned to Mr. Hyde. Utterson then asked to Dr. Jekyll about this arrangement, but he refuses to comment it, and the matter rests there until a year later. A year later, a prominent politician is brutally beaten to death. The murder is witnessed by a maid, who accuses Mr. Hyde. Everyone tries to hunt down this evil man, but with no success.

LIFE’S TIMELINE: • Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1850 - Vailima, 1894) was a Scottish writer, son of Thomas (a civil engineer) and Margaret (a French), by whom he inherits problems such as the tuberculosis. • Needing fresh air, first he moves to France and then he attended engineering at the Edinburgh’s University, which he left to devote himself to literature. • In the 1880 he marries Fanny Osbourne, and he writes lots of stories and novels. The best are: Treasure island (1883), Kidnapped (1885) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). • He dies in the 1894, maybe because of a cerebral hemorrhage and he is buried in the Samoan Islands. Today his house welcomes a museum in his honor. THOUGHT & CULTURAL FORMATION: He was influenced by his nurse “Cummy” (a calvinist who educated him because his mother was ill), and at the head of his cultural formation there are: - the Bible; - the Pilgrim's Progress of Bunyan; - Robinson Crusoe of Daniel Defoe; - the evolution’s theory of Charles Darwin (scientific progress vs. religion: in fact, at the age of 17, he becames an atheist); - the Positivism of Auguste Comte; - the Naturalism of Émile Zola; - the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham.

I must present a PowerPoint presentation about Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde to my teacher. I wanted to know if there are errors. The words in it are too many (more than 2000) and they are not supported by the system...now I will try to subdivide the work, hoping well.