1 / 9

Robert Louis Stevenson

Born 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland Died Dec. 3, 1894 (age 44)in Samoa. Robert Louis Stevenson. Background of the Author. Father was a lighthouse designer and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps as an engineer Stevenson wrote the following famous books: Treasure Island

tarak
Télécharger la présentation

Robert Louis Stevenson

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Born 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland Died Dec. 3, 1894 (age 44)in Samoa Robert Louis Stevenson

  2. Background of the Author • Father was a lighthouse designer and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps as an engineer • Stevenson wrote the following famous books: • Treasure Island • A Child’s Garden of Verses • Kidnapped • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  3. Sickly Child • Tuberculosis, lung problems • Hired a Calvinist nanny to take care of him at 18 months • Moved to Samoa later in life, which improved his health

  4. Travels to France led to marriage to Fanny Van de GriftOsbourne (a married American, mother of 3) 1879 voyage to California during Fanny’s divorce almost killed him. The doctor told him he would only live a few more months

  5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde • Idea came from his nightmare • book kept him from financial ruin • Wrote as a scary story, but wife challenged him to make it more substantial • Wrote 2nd draft in 3 days- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (exploration of the darker side of human nature)

  6. Disturbing Changes in Society during 1880’s • Switch from optimism to pessimism due to foreign wars • Poverty becoming a big problem • Workers were demanding more power • Women were entering the workforce in greater numbers

  7. Threats to British Society • Feeling that the society was hypocritical • Karl Marx’s -rise of struggling social classes Hyde=working class • Rise of Darwinism (Survival of the Fittest) freeing self of religious and societal influences/control • New ideas about how the mind worked- Freud (subconscious). Jekyll’s affinity with Hyde comes from his need to be free from society’s restrictions.

  8. Stevenson has been described as follows: • “He became an expert in simultaneously telling, and not telling the truth” (Angus 91). • “passion for the truth- but as we all know there are times when the truth will not help us…and the telling of the truth may be most hurtful and must be concealed at all costs”(Angus 91). Your Thoughts?

  9. Sources • Angus, David (1993) "Robert Louis Stevenson - The Secret Sources," Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 28: Iss. 1. Available at: http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol28/iss1/8 • "Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894." University of South Carolina Libraries. University of South Carolina, 1994. Web. 06 Feb. 2013. • "Study Guide for the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Glencoe Literature Library. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2013 • Images from public domain

More Related