Lanyon Flashcards
Stevenson presents Lanyon to be a FOIL to jekyll as one represents material science and the other metaphysical.
Context:
FOIL
-Darwinism: evolution is the idea that organisms can gradually change thier appearence over time- 1859
Stevenson was very religous and perhaps found Darwinism to go against his ideologies
Therefore he uses the Jekyll to symbolise Darwin (untraditional)
Therefore ridicules him and makes his ideas seem more improbable
Lanyon is presented to symoblism traditoinal and rational science, upholds his ethical values by rejecting Jekyll’s transcendental science.
Science, gothic, mystery
-“He became to fanciful for me”
-“Unscientific balderdash” - Chpt 2/ Lanyon
-“ My soul sicked at it”- Chpt 9/ Lanyon
Stevenson’s inner turmoil towards god, not athiest until 1871
Presents Jekyll to be a FOIL to lanyon as he symoblises irrational, unconvetional and experimental science, one that is morally draining.
He kinda plays god
-“He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind” Chpt 2/ Lanyon
-“I am very low, Utterson, very low”- Chpt 7/ Jekyll
“I was never more dissapointed in any man than Lanyon” Jekyll/ chapt 3
Lanyon’s deterioration in his person through his sharp shift in appearence and personality are used to emphasise the utmost horror and atrocity that is Jekylls transformation
It goes against nature, against God.
Lanyon is initially presented as a warm hearted man who is full of life.
- “Hearty, healthy, daper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white”
- “Boisterous and decided in manner”
- “Sprang up from his chair and welcomed him with both hands” … “ genuine feeling”
Dr Lanyon’s initial character is completly shifted after he views the cataclysmic experience of Jekyll’s transformation.
-“The rosy man had grown pale”
-“Deep-seated terror of the mind”
-“In God’s name, go, for i cannot bear it”
thouh shalt not take the lords name in vain
