Comparing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Sign of Four Essay -- compar

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has left such a deeply painful impression on my heart that I do not know how I am ever to turn it over again -- Valdine Clemens That which is willed and that which is wanted can be as different as the question and the heart. The Victorian age in English Literature is known for its impetuous obedience to a virtuousistic and highly structured favorable tag of conduct however, in the last decade of the 19th Century this set out began to be questioned. So dramatic was the change in thought that Stevensons The contrary Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (published in 1883) and Doyles The Sign of Four (published in 1890) can be used to display this breaking away from strict social and moral standards. Stevensons character Mr. Utterson can be used to personify the earnest social morality that the Victorian age is known for, while Doyles protagonist secret agent Holmes personifies the shift to more individualistic pursuits. In their search for answers , Mr. Utterson and private eye Holmes show rattling different motivations for investigating the fulfillment of social and moral obligations, and personalized satisfaction, respectively. This can be shown by comparing and contrasting these two characters reasons for getting involved, their methods of dispensing information during their investigations, and their results at the cases conclusions. The characters actions in the first paragraphs of each of these works is very revealing Sherlock Holmes is injecting himself with cocaine and Mr. Utterson is described as having resisted the theater (that he enjoys) for over twenty years. From these beginnings, it is obvious who the pleasure seeker is and who adheres to a material sense of morals. Although Mr. Utt... ... Valdine. The Return of the Repressed Gothic Horror from The Castle of Otranto to Alien. capital of New York State University of New York, 1999. Print.Doyle, Conan. The Sign of Four in The Complete Sherlock Holmes Barne s & Noble, Dayton, New Jersey, 1988.Stevenson, Robert Louis. The strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales Of Horror. London Penguin, 2003. Print.Works ConsultedCharyn, Jerome. Who Is Hyde? Afterword The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Bantam Books. Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1981. 105-114.Hume, David. Of Moral and Social order. An entre to Philosophy. Ed. G. Lee Bowie, Meredith W. Michaels and Robert C. Solomon. 4th ed. Harcourt College Publishers, 2000. 348-352Mighall, Dr. Robert. A Geography of Victorian Gothic legend Mapping Historys Nightmares. Oxford University Press, 1999. 166-209.