J & H 1

In Jekyll and Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, the setting is not one of a bright a sunny day, but it seems to appear as a dark and down-trodden town, without any form or joy or happiness. There is also a bit of an eerie and spooky feel consistently amongst the people, more-so between Jekyll, Hyde, and Mr. Utterson. But there is also a creepy and scary feel that comes with the peculiar building, which just happens to catch everyone’s eyes.

All the characters speak of the house as a strange and haunting place, where supposed odd occurrences happen, but no one truly knows what is inside the building or who owns and takes care of it. But everyone is quick to make judgments on the place and make assumptions before they actually know anything, much like in the real world.

Dark words are used by characters to describe the house, such as: haunt, dead, mysterious, startling, mercy, and spirit, just to name a few. All the characters have bad feelings about the place, but there are very few individuals that know anything about the place. Although, some people have seen a man going in and out of the house at somewhat strange hours, leading them to believe that something suspicious is taking place there.

This can easily be translated into what we do in our lives. We make quick assumptions about things and “judge a book by its cover” without really knowing what is on the inside. Doing this blurs our vision and causes us to not be able to see the good things in life. We rarely focus on the good things and we dwell on the bad things, disallowing ourselves to be happy with what we have. We need to see past that blur and see the things that truly matter, like what’s on the inside, just like the people in the story need to focus what’s on the inside of the house, not on the appearance of the house itself.