Ill health - He suffered numerous health problems
in childhood, chiefly due to an infection of the lungs, a condition which was
to plague him throughout his life. His father was often absent on business and
his mother herself suffered from an illness of the lungs, rendering her unable
to care for her son. This task was given to his nurse, Alison Cunningham, a
fundamentalist Christian, with whom he developed his closest relationship.
Early influence -
Robert Louis spent most of his early years in his bedroom where his nurse would
labour to teach him the difference between the pursuit of a life of good or
evil, the latter course leading, inevitably, to the everlasting torments of
Hell. She made sure that Robert Louis was not spared the details of these
torments, causing him to suffer terrifying nightmares, which he often recalled
in his memoirs and which afflicted him throughout his life. He also recalled
that she would try to convince him that 'there
are but two camps in the world - one of the perfectly pious and respectable,
one of the perfectly profane, mundane and vicious; one mostly on its knees and
singing hymns, the other on the high road to the gallows and the bottomless
pit.' It was from one of his adult nightmares that The Strange Case ofDr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde grew, a story which was to refute this simplistic doctrine,
and argue that there is light and dark in all mankind. In the words of Jekyll,
'…man is not truly one, but truly two'.
The two faces of
Edinburgh - Stevenson grew up in an Edinburgh which itself had two faces:
the prosperous, middle-class New Town, where he himself lived, and the 'old
black city" with its poverty, disease and overcrowding. This was also a
city with a macabre past, which fed the young man's developing imagination and
taste for horror and the supernatural. Stories of William 'Deacon' Brodie, well
respected craftsman by day, criminal by night and hanged in 1788, and also of Burke
and Hare, the 'body snatchers', were well remembered in the city and, indeed,
in his childhood bedroom Stevenson possessed a cabinet made by Brodie.
Stevenson's double
life - When he was seventeen and studying engineering at own double
Edinburgh University, Robert Louis would spend a great deal of time at night in
the Old Town. It has been argued that he himself, like Jekyll, was leading a
double life, respectable by day, debauched by night but, although he enjoyed a
bohemian lifestyle with his fellow students, his witnessing of these double
standards amongst the middle classes made him determined to avoid hypocrisy and
to react against the strict Scottish Presbyterian background which he felt
helped to create it.
Adulthood - Stevenson
left Edinburgh in 1873. On one of his many journeys abroad, he met and married
his American wife Fanny Osbourne. They settled in Bournemouth in 1884. By this
time, Stevenson had achieved fame with the publication of Treasure Island in
1883, but his serious health problems persisted and he hoped that the milder
climate would help his congested lungs. Although the period between 1884 and
1887 saw a sharp decline in his health, when there were frequent bouts of
haemorrhaging (his 'Bluidy Jack' as he called it), he was to publish A Child’s Garden
of Verses, More Arabian Nights and Prince Otto (1885); The Strange Case ofDr
fekyll and Mr Hyde and Kidnapped (1886); and The Merry Men and Underwoods
(1887).
The South Seas - In
1887 he left England for the South Seas and made his home on Samoa for the rest
of his life. Other significant works include The Black Arrow (1888) and the
unfinished masterpiece Weir of Hermiston (1896). Works which are, perhaps, more
directly connected with the subject matter explored in Jekyll and Hyde include The
Master ofBallantrae (1889); the ‘Tale of Tod Lapraik' in Catriona (1893); the
play Deacon Brodie, or, The Double Life (1878) and the short stories The Body
Snatcher' (1884), 'Markheim' and 'Olalla'.
Wider influences - Other
contemporary writers explored the
theme of man's double nature. Perhaps the most notable of these are Edgar Allan
Poe in his short stories 'William Wilson' and 'The Tell Tale Heart', Mary
Shelley in Frankenstein, Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and
Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment and the short story The Double' (1846). In
Scotland, James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) may well have
had a profound impact on Stevenson.
WRITING TIP - Don't write long
passages about the life of the author in your essay response. Always relate
your knowledge of the author's life to how it may have affected his writing
choices.
CHRONOLOGY
1818 - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is published. 1837- Queen Victoria
succeeds William IV.
1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson is born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1859 - The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin is published.
1861 - Stevenson attends Edinburgh Academy.
1867 - Stevenson studies engineering at Edinburgh University.
1871 - Stevenson decides to study law.
1873 - Stevenson and his father argue when he announces he does not
believe in Christianity. He travels to the French Riviera because the warmer
climate helps his tuberculosis.
1875- Stevenson passes his final law exams but does not practise. He
travels to France.
1876- He meets Fanny Osbourne, an American who is married with children. - - -- "
1878- He publishes Edinburgh Picturesque and An inland Voyage.
1879- He travels to America.
1880- Stevenson marries Fanny in California. He returns to Scotland and
writes Deacon Brodie, a play, with a central figure who has a double
personality. He leaves for Switzerland.
1882- Stevenson moves to France.
1883- Treasure Island is published.
1884- He returns to England seriously ill and publishes The Body Snatcher
and Markheim, two short stories.
1885- He writes The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
1886- He publishes The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and
Kidnapped.
1887- Stevenson goes to America following the death of his father.
1888- He leaves America and then takes a cruise to the South Pacific.
1889- He starts life in Samoa and publishes The Master of Ballantrae.
1890- He cruises to Australia and New Zealand before returning to Samoa.
1894 - Stevenson dies in Samoa, aged 44.
1900- Freud publishes Interpretation of Dreams.
1901- Queen Victoria dies.
