The sign in Robert Louis Stevensons Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Essay Example

? The sign in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of The sign in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The sign, as elaborated by Ferdinand de Saussure in Course in General Linguistics opens up the field of linguistics to that of literary analysis as well. The main contribution of Saussure’s with this work lies in the fact that it made it possible for theorists o look at language as not merely something that existed but also something that shaped existence. Language then came to assume a creative role in the ways in which one perceives reality. Language and the weight of tradition and history that it carries becomes an important aspect of it when it comes to analyzing the meaning that it confers upon other phenomena. This linguistic approach was then appropriated by many theorists who saw in it the potential to take literary theory and criticism in an entirely new and promising direction. This then created the possibility of looking for the differences in the very signs that were created by language. The theory of the sign could then be used to understand various texts that had till then been looked at through traditional frameworks of criticism. Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be analyzed using this model of criticism and this is what this paper shall seek to do. To look at the different signs in a novel or any other work of art and to map out its relation with what it signifies is what shall constitute the main portion of this paper. The idea of locating the different aspects of man in different personalities can be looked at through Saussure’s ideas. For instance, the novel talks of Dr Jekyll as a person who is considered to be the evolutionary pinnacle. He is the perfect Victorian man who abides by certain codes of ethics and morality and is seen as the figure to be emulated. What is interesting is the fact that the language that has been used to describe him within the novel too is something that abides by certain codes. Jekyll speaks like a Victorian gentleman and it is through his speech that one understands the different characteristics that are attributed to him. The signs of language that he uses thus are used to signify much more than merely a person’s personality or one part of it. They are also used as markers of several aspects of a person’s identity. The language and the linguistic signs that a person uses are indicative of the different forms of belonging for the person. The gender belonging of Jekyll is made clear through the way in which his speech manifests itself. This can be seen even in the written word through which he communicates to the reader- It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date . . . I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements. (Stevenson 2010, p. 95). The language of ambiguity that is used here is then an attempt to make clear what the signified of the language of signs is. The duality of man is what is signified through the language of ambiguity in this passage. Apart from this, it is also about the impossibility of attaining a unified personality. The signified here extends outside the text and points to the debates around evolution and the status of the white man as the pinnacle of all evolutionary processes till date. The signified also makes clear the inability of the two aspects of man to be reconciled. Even when man is seen as the pinnacle of evolution, there is an inability to free him from his image of primitiveness. This feature of being primitive and modern at the same time is something that troubled the Victorians a great deal. The inability to deal with this then leads to a split. The problem then can be seen to arise out of the inability to create a unified idea of the signified as far as the figure of man is concerned. The transcendental notion of the unified man is no longer available to the Victorian population at the time that Stevenson was writing. This can then be seen to be the reason for this split. The split is effected also in the notion of the signified whereby the idea of the man is also split along its centre where the primitive and the civilizational are in a tussle. Conventional notions of the signifier have thus, been unsettled in this novel and this can be a pointer to a larger notion of the change in the way man was perceive and looked upon in the Victorian era. One must also look at the change in the ways in which masculinity was defined during the Victorian age so as to get a sense of the change in what was signified by the sign of the man. The difference between Jekyll and Hyde is expressed in very physical terms, also signifying a change in the way masculinity was envisaged in earlier times and how it was during the Victorian age. There is a change in the range of meanings that are signified by the sign of man and this makes the mapping of the idea of the man very difficult in the Victorian age. This, as said earlier, can be seen in the way in which Hyde is described- There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point. He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. (Stevenson 2010, p. 12) The very physical manner in which Hyde is differentiated can then be seen as an indication to the effect that there is a change in the Victorian era as far as the different definitions and conceptions of masculinity are concerned. This can also be seen in the way the transformation is described- He put the glass to his lips, and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter—and at the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror. (Stevenson 2010, p. 91) The approach that Saussure advocates in the work “Course in General Linguistics” is one that looks at the different ways in which language influences the lives of people and the intricate connections between ‘reality’ and the ways in which language shapes this reality and is in turn shaped by it. This approach and the benefits of it can be seen in the manner in which different aspects of the language of the text has been described in this essay. Also, the different manners in which the idea of the sign works are important in the work that Saussure did on language and linguistics. This relationship is carefully developed with the relationship between the signifier and the signified being one that is hardly stable and undergoes changes along with changes in society. These changes in the society are also, in turn, subtly changed by the ways in which language operates in this very society. Thus, the changes that one sees in the signified in the language of this novel also points to the changes that took place in this society when this novel was being written. The intense changes and doubts that the Victorian era was plagued with are visible in the kind of ambiguity that characterizes the language of the novel. The language and its ambiguity are also tied up with the fact that the protagonist is unable to understand his own identity. This is complicated by the fact that there are several changes in the codes of masculinity and race that have been happening in the world. The introduction of the Darwinian model of evolution too, had set the world aflutter as the manner in which the world was perceived till then had been changed irrevocably. These changes in the way the way the Victorians perceived themselves and their relation to the world around them can be seen in the language of this novel. Saussure’s contribution of linguistic theories can then be well put to understand the importance of the ambiguities within this novel and its language. References STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS. (2010). The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (London: Bibliolis). SAUSSURE, FERDINAND DE. (2002). Course in General Linguistics. (London: McGraw Hill). Read More