The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Novella by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Novella by Robert Louis Stevenson

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a narrative about the complexities of science and the deceitfulness of human nature. Dr Jekyll is a kind, well-respected and intelligent scientist who meddles with the darker side of science, as he wants to bring out his repressed evil nature. He does this by transforming himself into Mr Hyde, his evil alter ego, who does not repent or accept responsibility for his evil crimes. Jekyll tries to control his alter ego, Hyde, and for a while, Jekyll has power. However, towards the end of the novel, Hyde takes over and this results in their deaths.

The tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is told mostly from the perspective of Mr Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer from London and a friend of Dr Henry Jekyll. He recollects the events with his friend, Mr. Richard Enfield’s story. Mr Enfield describes of returning home in the early hours of the morning when he witnessed a horrible incident. A small girl, running across the street, was trampled by a man named Mr Edward Hyde, who left her screaming on the ground. After being caught, Hyde agreed to pay the child’s family, and he retrieved a cheque from the account of Dr Jekyll.

Utterson has a will in which Jekyll entrusts his property to Hyde. Troubled, the lawyer visits Dr Hastie Lanyon, a longtime friend of both Jekyll and Utterson. Lanyon says that he has not seen Jekyll for more than 10 years, since Jekyll had gotten involved with “unscientific balderdash,” and that he does not know Hyde. Utterson traps Hyde and introduces himself and then goes around to Jekyll’s house. He understands that Jekyll is not at home and that his servants have orders to obey Hyde.

Almost a year later, a maid witnesses Hyde beating to death a prominent gentleman who is also a client of Utterson’s. Utterson leads the police to Hyde’s home. Though he is absent, evidence of his guilt is clear. Utterson goes to see if Jekyll is protecting Hyde, and Jekyll gives Utterson a letter from Hyde, in which Hyde declares that he will be able to escape. However, Utterson’s clerk notices that Jekyll and Hyde appear to have the same handwriting. Jekyll seems healthier and happier over the next few months but later starts refusing visitors. Utterson visits a dying Lanyon, who gives Utterson a document to be opened only after Jekyll’s death or disappearance.

Weeks later, Mr Poole, the servant, requests Utterson to come to Jekyll’s home, as he is scared that Hyde has murdered Jekyll. When Poole and Utterson break into the laboratory office, they find Hyde’s body on the floor and three documents for Utterson from Jekyll. Lanyon’s letter to Utterson and Jekyll’s documents reveal that Jekyll had secretly developed a potion to allow him to separate the good and evil aspects of his personality. He was thereby able at will to change into his increasingly dominant evil counterpart, Mr Hyde. While the respectable doctor initially had no difficulty in returning from his rabid personality, he soon found himself slipping into Mr. Hyde without in taking his drug. He temporarily stopped using the potion, but, when he tried it again, Mr. Hyde committed murder. After that, it took a vast amount of potion to keep him from spontaneously becoming Mr Hyde. Unable to make any more of the drug because of an impurity in the original supply, Jekyll soon ran out of the drug. He took the last of it to write a confession before becoming Hyde permanently. Thus, the book acts as a parable about what it means to be a good person, and presents a deeply critical portrait of medicine, with its power and potential harms. Jekyll's struggle with his good and evil sides demonstrates how there is good and evil in everyone.

A Letter from India (Partition Short Story by Intizar Hussain) Summary

 A Letter from India by Intizar Hussain

            Intizar Hussain was a famous Urdu poet short story writer and novelist he was born in 1925 in Dibai (India). A letter from India as a short story about the partition of India that took place in 1947 and deals with the loss of family heritage associated with it. The short story is written in the form of a letter. The letter is written by Kurban Ali, an orthodox Shia Muslim who had seen better days during the British rule. The letter is addressed to his brother’s son Kamaran, who lives in Karachi.

            The letter begins with general salutations and And Kurban claims to have reached out to Kamaran, but failed because of lack of communication. The narration gradually moves to the violence associated with the partition in 1947. He talks about Imran Miyan who had visited him long time back in a very bad state. He could not speak anything about his wife and children. He managed to visit the grave of Miyan Jani and possibly left for Karachi. 

            The problems between the Hindus and Muslims had not subsided yet in 1974, the year in which Kurban Ali writes the letter. The narrator talks about the Harshringar tree and it’s lovely, sweet smelling flowers whose smell filled the house hold all the time. The flowers were used for different purposes like dyeing the clothes and cooking biriyani. The Harshringar tree is a symbol of their family heritage which is lost at the time of writing the letter. Kurban Ali claims that Miyan Jani was so obsessed with the tree that he used to pray to God to let the smell of the flowers fill his grave all the time. At the point of narration, the last Harshringar tree which was near the grave has also fallen, indicating the complete loss of family heritage. 

            It has been 27 years since the partition and several members of the family have been murdered by Hindus and Muslims of other denomination, in different ways. He describes the various social changes that took place in both India and Pakistan after the partition. Kurban has knowledge of Kamaran’s new found luxury and seeks help to repair the ancestral bungalow. Kurban’s letter also hints on his old age. 

            The narrator then talks about a few family members who were very much interested in cinema and  idolised the actors. He tells about his son Akhtar who had changed his name to Premi and had started acting in dramas. Then he talks about the women and his family members who had married non-Muslims and had stopped wearing veil to cover their faces.

            Kurban Ali’s elder brother and younger brother are no more. He feels that the dead family members had good fate because they did not have to see the chaos of partition. He feels proud that the graves of some of their ancestors are still considered as pilgrimage whereas due to the partition, several of their family members bodies have been scattered in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Kurban Ali feels proud of his ancestors and states that they are actually from the city of Isphahan, a city in Iran. Hence he feels that Kamaran should take the responsibility of passing on their family heritage to the young generation. Kurban tells about his family members who are respected positions in the government and concludes the letter by enquiring about Kamaran’s family members and invites them to visit him in future. Thus, the epistolary short story records the changes and destruction of Kurban Ali’s family heritage due to partition. It also depicts the narrow minded nature of Kurban regarding the empowerment of women and the quality of living of the other family members. 

The Little Match Girl Summary

                                             The Little Match Girl

                                                                    Hans Christian Anderson

The Little Match Girl is a fairy tale about a dying little girl’s wishes and her visions. The

harsh reality of poverty, hunger and lack of parental care is presented in this story.

The story begins on a freezing New Year’s Eve. A small, poor girl is shivering and

bareheaded. She had lost her mother’s big slippers, hence barefooted too. She tries to sell

match sticks in the street, but she is unable to get even a cent.

Despite the harsh weather, she is afraid to go home because her father usually beats her for

the unsold matches. As it is New Year’s Eve, all the houses are bright with lights she is

tempted by the smell of roast goose. She huddles between two houses and lights a match to

warm herself.

The freezing weather and hunger cause hallucinations. In the flame of the first match, she

sees a large warm stove and so she stretches her legs to get some warmth. The

stove disappears, as the match goes off. Then she strikes another match stick on the wall and

sees a big roast goose. That too disappears and with the striking of the third match, she sees a

large and beautiful Christmas tree with bright candles.

In the sky, she sees a shooting star and says that a soul is on its way to Heaven, just like her

beloved grandmother had taught her. Her grandmother was the only person who was kind and

loving to the little girl, but even she was no more. In the flame of the next match she sees her

grandmother and in order to prolong the vision, the little girl lights the entire bundle of

matches. She pleads her grandmother to take her along and so she carries the little girl’s soul

to Heaven. The Heaven is a place where there is no starvation and hunger.

The next morning, people find the little match girl with a smiling face sitting frozen and

express pity. They did not know anything about the amazing visions that the little match girl

had seen before she died.

Evil Allures, but Good Endures (Short Story by Leo Tolstoy) Summary

                                        Evil Allures, but Good Endures

                                                    Leo Tolstoy

        Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). This short story "Evil Allures, but Good Endures", is about the evil ways in which the devil tempts us to commit sins against the kindness of God, and how God’s love sustains forever.

        The narrator introduces us to a few slaves who love their master for being very kind and gentle to them. The slaves speak about his greatness and the way he takes care of all their needs. The master is a gentleman who does not punish the slaves with difficult tasks. The Devil keeps listening to the praises about the master and feels jealous. So, he catches hold of one of the slaves named Aleb to fulfil his wish. He tempts Aleb to anger his master, so that his real face comes out.

        The next day, Aleb tries to persuade the other slaves to join him. The slaves start praising the master and refuse to join him. At last they agree to bet with him. If Aleb manages to make their master angry, the other slaves were to give him their holiday garments and also to defend him against the master, and to set him free if he should be imprisoned. If he fails, he was to lose his holiday garment. Having arranged this bet, Aleb gets ready to make his master angry the next morning.

        Aleb was a shepherd and the master brings a few visitors to see his ewes and lambs, and wishes to show them his finest ram. The ram had closely twisted horns and he treasured it so much. The master asks Aleb to catch the ram carefully, and hold him still for a moment. Aleb rushes in among the sheep and seized the left hind leg with one hand, so that it broke. The visitors and the slaves are shocked, and the Devil rejoices that Aleb had cleverly done his task. The master appears upset and angry but does not utter a word. After remaining silent for a while, the master lifts his eyes towards heaven, then smiles at Aleb. His anger has vanished and he says that Aleb had obeyed his master: the devil; and the master assures that he will obey his master: God. The master further angers the Devil by granting Aleb freedom without punishing him and offers him a holiday garment.

        The kind master returns with his guests to the house, but the disappointed Devil, grinds his teeth and falls down from the tree. Thus, the master overcomes the Devil’s temptation and upholds his serene Godly virtues.

Trifles (One-Act Play by Susan Gaspell) Summary

 

“Trifles”

Susan Gaspell

Susan Gaspell’s one-act play “Trifles” was written in 1916. This psychological play is loosely based on true events. The play begins with the murder of a farmer named Mr John Wright, for which his wife Minnie Foster Wright is suspected. The theme of the play deals with the psychological state of men and women along with their social roles. The word “trifles” typically refers to objects of little to no value. The interpretation may also be that men do not understand the value of women, and consider them trifles.

 

The sheriff, his wife Mrs Peters, the county attorney, and the neighbours (Mr. and Mrs. Hale) enter the kitchen of the Wright household. Mr. Hale explains how he paid a visit to the house on the previous day. Once there, Mrs. Wright greeted him but behaved strangely. She eventually stated in a dull voice that her husband was upstairs, dead. Mrs. Wright claimed that she was sound asleep while someone strangled her husband. It seems obvious to the male characters that she killed her husband, and she is taken into custody as the prime suspect.

 

Unlike the men, who are looking for forensic evidence to solve the crime, Mrs Peters and Mrs Hale observe clues that reveal the bleakness of Mrs. Wright’s emotional life. They theorise that Mr. Wright’s cold, oppressive nature must have been dreary to live with. The couple, Mr and Mrs Wright, has been married for thirty years and do not have children. Mr Wright is very strict and restricts his wife from indulging in social activities. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters’ conversation unveil the psychological profile of a desperate housewife.

 

When gathering up the quilting material, the two women discover a fancy little box. Inside, wrapped in silk, is a dead bird. Its neck has been wrung. The implication is that Minnie’s husband did not like the bird’s beautiful song (a symbol of his wife’s desire for freedom and happiness). So, Mr. Wright busted the cage door and strangled the bird. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters do not tell the men about their discovery. Instead, Mrs. Hale puts the box with the deceased bird into her coat pocket, resolving not to tell the men about this little “trifle” they have uncovered.

 

The play ends with the characters exiting the kitchen and the women announcing that they have determined Mrs. Wright’s quilt making style. She “knots it” instead of “quilts it”—a play on words denoting the way in which she killed her husband, Mr Wright.

“More Sinned against than Sinning” (Short Story by Umm-e-Ummara) Summary

“More Sinned against than Sinning”

                                                             by Umm-e-Ummara

“More Sinned against than Sinning” is an Urdu short story translated into English by Vishwamitter Adhil and Alok Bhalla. The story is written in first person and narrated by Munni Bitiya (Bibi). The title is taken from William Shakespeare famous tragic play King Lear where the titular character makes this utterance. The phrase means that though someone may be guilty of wrongdoing, they think themselves as the victim of a more serious wrong.

“More Sinned against than Sinning” talks about the violence and the destruction of Munni Bitiya’s family, because of her father’s decision of taking the family to Dhaka much against the wishes of the other family members. Though the action of the story takes place a few years after the Partition, the enmity between the two communities still existed, and both tried to destroy the other.

Munni Bitiya and and her family live in Patna, where their mother takes care of every household necessities efficiently. Their father visits them occasionally. Munni’s elder sister is married; she has an elder brother (Bade Bhaiya), younger brother and two younger sisters: Rani and Baby.

Munni’s life is very peaceful, under the efficient hands of her mother. She loves her father and feels happy to see him. The children are well-educated and live a comfortable life. During one visit, Baba tells them that they have to move to Bangladesh because of the political condition. Meanwhile, Bade Bhaiya marries a woman named Pakhi. She is a lovely woman and adopts the language, ritual and traditions of her husband’s family.

Bade Bhaiya is a man who is ready to forget his past and hopes for a bright future in the new land. Then the family leaves for Dhaka and Munni goes to the university. Bade Bhaiya leaves for Phoolbari with his family. Munni’s younger brother takes active part in the politics of the country and frequently gets arrested, much to the dismay of Amma and Baba. When Amma was on her deathbed, she had neither of her sons near her. After Amma’s death, Munni gets an opportunity to visit her brother and his family in Phoolbari.

Phoolbari was a very beautiful village, rich in greenery. Munni was able to rekindle her childhood love for flowers. Pakhi was cheerful always and her brother too looked like a Bengali. They adopted the lifestyle of the land, but still the scar of the partition was so deep. One day, Phoolbari was set to fire and the entire family, except Munni were burnt to death; even Amma’s grave was destroyed and her body floated on water.

The story gives a subtle description of the impact of Partition in the separated regions. The title is justified by the burning of Phoolbari, where Munni silently feels that she is responsible for the death of her brother’s family and also she considers herself a victim. This is because she has to live with the burden of witnessing the entire family’s death. Life itself is a punishment for Munni henceforth. 

"Homework" (Poem by Allen Ginsberg) Summary

"Homework" by Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg was a famous American writer, born in 1926. He was the founder of the Beat Generation. His poet usually discusses the problems in the society. The poem "Homework" begins with a homage to Kenneth Koch, another contemporary famous writer. This poem is about the cleansing of the world and to make the entire planet pollution- free. The poet uses 'washing' metaphor and puts forth his opinions about the cleansing of the world.

The poet begins by washing the dirty Iran and the United States as there is always war between the two countries. He wants to soap and scrub Africa and restore the animals and bats back into the jungle. He wants to wash the Amazon river in South America and clean the oil spills from Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. These two places have several oil rigs; hence the pollution of water due to oil spills.

He moves to the North Pole to rub the smog out of it. The poet focuses on the pollution of air water and land resources next. He talks about cleaning the oil circulating pipelines in Alaska. Rocky Flats was the place where the spare parts for nuclear bombs were made; Atom bomb was created in Los Alamos. The poet wants to cleanse these places from nuclear pollution and atomic wastes; Caesium is a sparkly gold colour liquid-metal which was disposed in large quantity by a chemical factory in love canal Niagara Falls.

The Greek Goddess Athena's temple is in Parthenon, Greece. Due to the acid rain, the heritage site is losing its beauty just like the Sphinx in Egypt. Sewage wastes have been directed into different Oceans and Ponds all over the world polluting the water bodies. The poet wants to cleanse the Mediterranean basin and colour the sky blue over river Rhine. He talks about cleansing river Hudson, Thames and Neckar and Lake Erie all of which were dangerously polluted due to human activities.

            Then he wants to throw the whole of Asia into the washing machine and clean the Agent Orange sprayed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War by the US soldiers. The poet moves on to throw Russia and China in the wringer. He also talks about the atrocities of US Central American police state. He lays stress on the cleansing of the planet and so, he says that it he wishes to put the whole planet inside the dryer for 20 minutes or for a thousand years until it comes out clean. Thus, the poet discusses about the cleansing of the world, by strongly putting forth the political problems and pollution associated with the places.