Although
the plot of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde never
reaches what would be considered the east side of London, it does portray certain
attributes of London that are more relevant to the east side. Our tour guide of
the East Side Tour reflected on some of the themes present in Robert Louis
Stevenson’s short novel Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde. The discussion of Charles Dickens' ability to facilitate London
in his classic novels was especially interesting as it coordinates well while
thinking about any author depicting Victorian London. Better yet, the areas on
London that we visited during the tour were relevant to moments in various
Dickens' novels that perpetuate the eerie mysteriousness often associated with
the darker side of the city. After reading a decent amount of Dickens' last
summer, in preparation for coming to London, the moments that the guide brought
Dickens' novels up were really interesting to me. It’s hard to completely miss
the way that Dickens' is able to portray the dark underbelly of London so
vividly and lively through detail; However, without a certain back-knowledge
into London’s two-thousand-year history, and more relevant, its Victorian Era
history, it is hard to imagine these scenes with the same amount of depth and
insight. The one specific moment of the tour that really struck me, as it
highlighted the theme of mysterious and monstrous London, was when our tour
guide pointed out the area under the London Bridge where a murder takes place
in Oliver Twist; that murder
represented an important variety of thematic and narrative roles in the novel,
but for the purpose of this blog, it represents the struggle to be good, and
the dark side of London perpetuating the ambiguities in human nature between
“good” and “evil.” Which! Brings us back to Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Another important Victorian novel that orients us in
the world of Victorian London; it is a world where people struggle with “good”
and “bad;” a world where the dark, mysterious, side of London pushes Dr. Jekyll
to separate the duality of his nature completely, and, in contrast to Nancy,
submit himself to the underlying forces that the east side of Victorian London
brings out in people.
Jack,
ReplyDeleteThank you for clearly putting much thought, consideration, and care into this blog post, it made it a pleasure for me to read! I as well found the East Side London tour to be incredibly interesting, especially, as you mention, the pointing out of where the the murder takes place under the bridge in Oliver Twist. Further, I fully agree with your sentiment that "the areas on London that we visited during the tour were relevant to moments in various Dickens' novels that perpetuate the eerie mysteriousness often associated with the darker side of the city." I as well, having read a decent amount of Dickens', felt that much of what was described and shown on the East Side Tour was very indicative of the way he describes the darker side of cities within his novels. Your thoughts in this blog post are incredibly well-articulated, your statements backed up by facts and personal analysis, and your references to Victorian elements are sound in nature! Great work!