In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson tells the story of a man with a split personality. Wanting to split the bad part of himself from the good, Jekyll develops a potion. However, when he drinks it, he is horrified to have taken the form of a monster named Edward Hyde. Luckily, he can switch between the two by drinking the potion again. Jekyll becomes almost addicted to using the potion, but one day, he goes to bed as Jekyll and wakes up as Hyde. Terrified, Jekyll stays away from the potion for a good two months, and all seems to be fine. However, Jekyll succumbs once again, and drinks the potion. From then on, Hyde would always pop out eventually, even when Jekyll didn’t drink the potion. Although many people seem to think Jekyll is the tragic victim of this book, Hyde is the true victim of all this mess. Firstly, Hyde has no choice but to commit atrocities, which cause him to be persecuted and eventually leads to the destruction of both him and Jekyll. Hyde is created by Jekyll as a monster, a being with no conscience. Because there is no part of him that holds himself accountable for committing crimes, the nature of humanity naturally tugs him towards said crimes. Although Hyde is the one who committed the crime, it was effectively Jekyll who “forces” Hyde to commit these crimes. As an analogy to Frankenstein, Jekyll plays the role of Frankenstein, and Hyde plays the role of Frankenstein’s monster in this book. It is quite clear in Frankenstein that the monster is the true victim, and thus in this story Hyde is the victim, because he is essentially forced by Jekyll to suffer punishment for committing crimes. In addition to this, Hyde is also not allowed to be free, as Jekyll keeps suppressing the Hyde inside of him. If Hyde is the victim, then quite obviously Jekyll is the corresponding culprit, for many reasons. Mainly, Hyde was born from Jekyll’s own moral faults and even a glint of greed. We have already established that the very existence of Hyde is a crime committed by Jekyll, and moreover, this crime is committed on the basis of moral faults and greed; Jekyll wants to be perfect, and thus wishes to separate his bad self from his good self. It’s easy to feel sympathetic for Jekyll, seeing as moral faults and greed are an integrated part of human nature, but the pain Hyde suffers is far worse. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Longman’s Green & Co., 1886. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
How Stories Work-Writing Workshop #12: Metaphor
An update from our twelfth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday September 11, plus some of the output published below Conner Bassett began our fall session of writing workshops with a question: what does it mean to write fiction or poetry? His answer? To put into language what is inherently nonlinguistic. This definition, he realized, could be simplified into one word—metaphor. From there we defined metaphor (a comparison between two things), using famous phrases such as “Life is a highway” & “All the world is a stage” as examples. Through a reading of Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” we learned how metaphors can help us make abstract concepts into concrete images. To further this point, we looked at two works of art published in the September 2021 Issue of Stone Soup—I Feel Music by Serena Li & The Hidden World by Sabrina Lu. Next, we learned how metaphors can help us understand complex ideas and emotions through a discussion surrounding the line “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!” from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This concept was strengthened by visual metaphors seen in the Egyptian Icon The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Wyeth’s Christina’s World. Finally, we learned how metaphors transform one thing into something completely different so that we can see it in a new way. Examples used to back up this concept were a sentence from John Green’s The Fault in our Stars, a few lines from Sylvia Plath’s poem “Metaphors,” and an advertisement for sunglasses in which lenses were transformed into lemon slices. The Challenge: Two part prompt. First, write a one sentence metaphor about this painting: Norham Castle, Sunrise. Then, write a story or a poem that begins and ends with the same metaphor. The Participants: Emma, Simran, Clara, Sinan, Olivia, Lina, Josh, Ellie, Alice B, Audrey, and Svitra Svitra Rajkumar, 13(Fremont, CA) Free as a Bird Svitra Rajkumar, 13 Feathers flap, determined. Wings glide, graceful. “You can’t be a bird If you don’t fly,” they say. You can’t be a bird if you don’t try. So I watch each baby bird Flap its wings and grow. Soon it flies away But I have no choice But to stay. “Why don’t I go Towards the sky,” they ask. Why can’t I be the bird that Doesn’t Fly.
Weekly Creativity #170: Paint or Draw a Scene from a Dream.
Paint or draw a scene from a dream.
