I am going to take a minute and just speak a bit about how nice it was to read these books in order, or at least in the order I thought they should be in. We first stated out with Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde and that was the first dealing with the doppelganger theory. We then moved on to what I felt was a little more complicated issue dealing with the doppelganger theory in Frankenstein.
In my eyes we have now moved into the much more complicated story of the Doppelganger in this Oscar Wild book. I believe it is much more complicated because you do not actually know who the doppelganger is. I mean you have the basic version and idea of who it is, but there are a number of other people that are involved that can certainly make it into a much more complex idea and theme.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde poster...
Portsmouth Square, San Francisco, California. Earl...
Doppelgänger (The Grid album)You are dealing with multiple characters that are all interrelated in some fashion and all directly effect the doppelganger theory and idea.
This is also an extremely fascinating book because it deals with the obsession theme. A couple of these characters seem to be extremely obsessed with each other and it is one of the first times we have dealt with that issue in this class. Especially putting the whole issue of the possibility of the homosexual obsession or love in the novel. Not that I personally am fascinated with the issue, it is just the fact that I don't think the issue has been brought up in any of our other books. So this is book is also a boundary breaker relating to the other books that we have read.
Finally, one of the most interesting themes in this book deals with the issue of morality and art. This is a subject that one can just rant on about, but I will try to keep my lines rather short. It is just fascinating for me because it has been such an argued issue over the years and it is still being argued to this day. It is just such a hard issue to deal with because people's standards change from state to state. Let us take this country for example. The idea of what is moral art is going to vary from state to state. I mean it is quite possible that Nebraska and Iowa may have some very similar standards into what is moral and immoral art. I do have a hard time believing however that Nebraska would have a very difficult time sharing the same standards as New York or San Francisco.
Overall, I just thought this was a brilliant masterpiece and very different from anything we have read yet. I enjoyed it greatly.
English: Text from "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
Richard Mansfield was best known for the dual role...
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde