Comparitive Themes Of Valerie Martin's Mary Reilly, And Robert Louise Stevenson's "The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde".
It is common for a writer to take artistic license and apply it to the work of another author. In this situation, the writer will base various elements on the original work, but will then innovate and create a work that is a combination of the ideas of both authors. For some, this is a successful venture, while for others it is not. Valerie Martin is an example of one who has been successful in this quest. .
In her novel, Mary Reilly, Martin takes the story of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and gives it a feeling of familiarity. By adding the perspective of a young servant girl, Mary Reilly, Valerie Martin provides into the raw emotion of the fictional story of Jekyll and Hyde. It is the duty of Mary's character to serve as a bridge over the gap between the reader and Dr. Henry Jekyll. Through the parallels and emotions of Mary and Jekyll, the reader is able to experience a sense of connection to the themes of the story. .
One theme shared by Mary and Dr. Jekyll is that of restriction by way of social class. In the novel, Mary and Jekyll both feel the limitation of their social positions, though they feel them quite differently. Mary has affections for Dr. Jekyll that she can never express, due to her standing as a servant and his standing as a gentleman. Mary feels that as his servant, she can never be good enough to approach him in a romantic way, examples of which can be found throughout the book. On page nine, for example, "Yet I could not, I knew, do as he requested for shame of my dirt, and of myself, to be looked at by a gentleman- Mary expresses on many such occasions her restriction from the affection of the doctor, as she could never be his equal. It is her social class that denies her acquisition of that which her heart truly desires.
