The Lord of the Rings vs Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde

Essay by noneuHigh School, 10th gradeA+, November 2004

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Evil, Greed, Lust, Destruction...Sound Familiar?

Themes are the basis of concepts and ideas that live within literary pieces. Themes act as the guidelines for the work of art in which characterization, plot, and conclusion makes obvious. Every form of art in general holds a theme in which heads the direction for the piece. Peter Jackson, director, screenplay writer, and producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, creates an adventurous tale in which by using cinematic mechanisms and character development proves similar concepts such as the duality of man, the lust for the ring, and creation and destruction, while simultaneously making definite allusions, to other works of literature, such as author Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

The doppelganger effect known as the duality of man relates closely to schizophrenia, for both pieces of literature illustrates different faces and personalities that exist in the human mind and soul.

Nevertheless schizophrenia is disease while the duality of man lies in everyone, however the dangers of it depend on how one deals with it. Both works of art, the movie The Lord of the Rings, and the book Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde show the duality of man and its effects on not only the actual person whose different sides are poking through but on everyone and everything around that person as well. In The Lord of the Rings, Smeagol is a character whom which's duality shows though form the very beginning of the third movie Return of the King. Smeagol's friend finds the ring and Smeagol's two sides fight with each other to come to a decision about what to do. The evil side wins the argument by persuasiveness and bringing out the greed in the other side of Smeagol, which led to Smeagol killing his friend. In...