Free English Literature Dissertations - As A Result, Reality In The Italian Is Inseparably Linked With Fantasies; As
As a result, reality in The Italian is inseparably linked with fantasies; as the characters invent some idea or assumption, they further find ways to prove that it is really so, confusing dreams with reality until they find necessary proof for their fantasies. Thus, supernatural powers appear as a result of this confusion and aggravate the plot and relations among characters even more. The traditional interpretation of dreams and reality is presented as two opposites; however, in The Italian the writer rejects this limitation and moves readers towards the world of uncertainty. Vivaldi’s collision with a strange person clearly reflects this uncertainty; Vivaldi is not able to find out the true nature of this portentous visitant16. Creating darkness, Ann Radcliffe intensifies uncertainty, providing readers with the possibility to produce their own interpretation of horror. Such an approach allows the writer to implicitly analyse imaginative processes that occur within a person’s mind. As Radcliffe puts it, Vivaldi thus elevated by wonder and painful curiosity, was prepared for something above the reach of common conjecture, and beyond the accomplishment of human agency17.
On the other hand, demonstrating the characters’ obsession with dreams and fantasies, the writer implicitly reveals the necessity to come back to reality. Although Ellena is brought up in the environment of destroying social stereotypes and fear that make her create her own world of fantasies, she finally realises the necessity to destroy her inner prison and superstition. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson intensifies the analysis of human psyche and the evil that exists in a person. In this novella an attorney John Utterson makes an attempt to explain the reasons that bring Dr. Henry Jekyll, a splendid scholar, to the rape of a young girl. As Utterson discusses strange actions of Dr. Jekyll, he reveals more and more terrifying aspects of Jekyll’s identity. The fact is that Dr. Jekyll appears to possess two identities the first good identity is Mr. Jekyll, while the second bad identity is Mr. Hyde. As a scientist, Jekyll manages to create a specific drug that allows him to disunite his good nature and evil nature, but finally the principal character destroys both identities of his self. On the example of Dr. Jekyll, the writer demonstrates that every person possesses good and bad sides, but it is crucial that these sides should co-exist together, or otherwise the identity of a person is split that gradually brings him/her to destruction.
Although The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written before the publication of Freud’s psychoanalytic works, Stevenson brings up the issue of human consciousness and subconsciousness in his work.
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