“Evil” Quotation Reflection
• “If the devil doesn’t exist, but man has created him, he has
created him in his own image and likeness” - Karamazov
• “Evil works by dehumanizing the ‘Other’”
• “Evil is charismatic . . . . Satan in Paradise Lost is so much
more attractive, so much more interesting than God . . . the
human mind romances the idea of evil”
• “Good has a way of boring people”
TURN & TALK: Which one of these quotations
from the text resonates with you and why?
The Doppelgänger
• Def: A double, an identical replica of a person;
alter ego
doppel = “double” + ganger = “goer” in German
• The idea behind this is that everyone has a
Doppelganger, an identical copy of themselves
somewhere in the world. If the person is good,
then the Doppelganger will be evil and vice versa.
• It is even said that if the two should meet, then
they will both perish
– The idea comes from ancient folklore.
The Doppelgänger
The entire nineteenth century was often concerned with the
concept of a ‘double self’ or ‘twin’, often referred to as a
Doppelgänger.
This 19th century genre began with a story about a type of
double, when Dr. Frankenstein created his monster in 1818.
The Doppelgänger was a good excuse to explore a darker side of
human nature.
It has been argued that Hyde is Jekyll’s doppelgänger, which allows
Jekyll to murder and steal without feeling guilty.
Gothic Literature
• Def: Genre in which the author emphasizes the
grotesque, the mysterious, the horrible, and the
fearful.
• Example: setting of most horror stories - old
decaying mansions in a desolate countryside with
cobwebs, bats, strange noises, smelly, dark (all
sensory emotions are emphasized).
• All of this is done to give the reader a sense of
the ghostly supernatural world.
Common Elements of
Gothic Literature:
• Remote, unknown yet familiar location (setting)
• Emphasis of physical things to promote an eerie
and ghostly atmosphere
• Characters are emotionally sensitive BUT
maladjusted (usually in appearance)
• Creatures possess some sort of psychic
communication
• Possibility of returning to life after one is dead
Important British Gothic Writers:
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Mary Shelley
William Wordsworth
Lord Byron
Percy Byshe Shelley
Robert Louis Stevenson