VİKTORYA DÖNEMİ DİSTOPİK ROMANLARDA DARWIN VE TERSİNE EVRİM: DR JEKYLL VE MR HYDE’IN TUHAF HİKAYESİ VE DÜNYALAR SAVAŞI

Abstract

Viktorya Dönemi İngilteresi’nde birçok insan sadece Darwin’in evrim teorileri yüzünden değil aynı zamanda tersine evrim ihtimalleri sebebiyle endişeye kapılmıştır. Buna bağlı olarak, Stevenson ve Wells distopyalarını Darwin’in evrim teorileri ve Viktoryenlerin tersine evrim korkuları üzerine inşa ettiler. Dr. Jekyll ve Mr. Hyde’da, Stevenson insanın yabanileşmesini içgüdüsel dürtülerin dizginlenmesini isteyen Viktoryen ahlaki değerlerin baskıcılığının bir sonucu olarak hayal etmektedir. Romanında, sadece bastırılmış arzuların vahşete dönüşmesini değil aynı zamanda ağırbaşlılık maskesi ardında ahlaksızlıktan haz almanın bir sonucu olan sapkınlığı da ortaya koymaktadır. Benzer biçimde, Dünyalar Savaşı’nda Wells insanın yozlaşmasını toplumlardaki doğal seleksiyon fikriyle ile ilişkelendirmektedir. Wells, ayrıca, insan bedeninin bazı parçalarının fonksiyonunu üstlenerek ve insani duyguları ortadan kaldırarak teknolojinin insan evrimine dahil olduğu bir geleceği tahmin etmektedir. Her iki distopik romanın da, Darwin’in evrim teorileri ve tersine evrim ihtimali ile ilişkili olarak gelecek ile ilgili Viktoyen kaygıları yansıttığı sonucuna varılmıştır. 

Keywords

• Distopya,Darwin,Evrim,Tersine Evrim,Doğal Seleksiyon,Viktorya Toplumu

DARWIN AND DEVOLUTION IN VICTORIAN DYSTOPIA: STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE AND THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

Abstract

In the Victorian Age, many people were apprehended not only by Darwin’s theories of evolution, but also the possibilities for a reverse evolution. Thus, Stevenson and Wells build their dystopias on Darwin’s evolutionary theories and Victorian fears of devolution. In Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevens imagines man’s degeneration into savagery as the result of the repressiveness of the Victorian morals that demanded restraint of instinctive urges. He illustrates not only the potential of repressed desires to burst out into ferocity, but also perversity that may result from indulgence in vice behind the mask of sobriety. Similarly, in The War of the Worlds, Wells relates human devolution to the idea of natural selection in human societies. Besides, he anticipates a future in which technology is involved in human evolution, overtaking the functions of certain parts of human body and leaving men deprived of feelings for each other. It is concluded that both of the dystopian novels project the Victorian concerns about the future in relation to the Darwinian theories of evolution and the possibility of devolution.        

Keywords

• Dystopia,Darwin,Evolution,Devolution,Natural Selection,Victorian Society

References

1. Arata, S. D. (1996). The Sedulous Ape: Atavism, Professionalism, and Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin De Siecle: Identity and Empire (pp. 33-53). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ambrosini, R. & Dury, R. (Eds.) (2006). Robert Louis Stevenson, Writer of Boundaries. Wisconsin: Wisconsin University Press.
2. Anderson, N. (2011). "The Most Dangerous Man in England," ESSAI: Vol. 9, Article 7. Retrieved from http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol9/iss1/7
3. Batchelor, J. (1985). The Romances of the 1890s: The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau, The War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells (pp. 1-31). New York: Cambridge University Press.
4. Butler, L. (2006). That Damned Old business of the War in the Members: The Discourse of (In) Temperance in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Romanticism on the Net. Retrieved from http://www.erudit.org/revue/ron/2006/v/n44/014000ar.html
5. Danahay, M. A. and Stevenson, R. (2005). Introduction. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. (2nd ed., pp. 11-25) Ontario: Broadview.
6. Geduld, H. M. (Ed.) (1983) The Definitive Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Companion. New York: Garland.
7. Hammond, J. R. (1984) A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion: A Guide to the Novels, Essays and Short Stories. London: MacMillan.
8. Huxley, T. H. (1968). Evolution and Ethics. Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays (46-116). NewYork: Greenwood.

9. James, W. (2000). Review of Degeneration by Max Nordau. The Fin de Siècle: A Reader in Cultural History, c.1880-1900. In S. Ledger & R. Luckhurst (Eds., pp. 19-20). New York: Oxford University Press.
10. Lankester, E. R. (2000) Degeneration: A Chapter in Darwinism. The Fin de Siècle: A Reader in Cultural History, c.1880-1900. In S. Ledger & R. Luckhurst (Eds., pp. 3-12). New York: Oxford University Press.
11. Ledger, S. & Luckhurst R. (Eds.) (2000). Introduction: Reading the Fin de Siècle. The Fin de Siècle: A Reader in Cultural History, c.1880-1900 (pp. xiii-xxiii). New York: Oxford University Press.
12. Linehan, K. (Ed.) (2003). Robert Louise Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Norton.
13. McConnell, F. (1981). Realist of the Fantastic: The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. The Science Fiction of H.G. Wells. In R. Scholes (Ed. pp. 106-143), New York: Oxford University Press.
14. Nordau, M. (2000). Degeneration. The Fin de Siècle: A Reader in Cultural History, c.1880-1900. In S. Ledger & R. Luckhurst (Eds., pp. 13-16). New York: Oxford University Press.
15. Partington, J. S. (2002). H.G. Wells’s Eugenic Thinking 1892-1944. Institute of Historical Research Seminar, University of London.Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1693185/H.G._Wellss_Eugenic_Thinking_1892-1944
16. Philmus, R. M. and Hughes D. Y. (Eds.) (1975). H. G. Wells: Early Writing in Science and Science Fiction. California: California University Press.
17. Reed, J. R. (1982). The Natural History of H.G. Wells. Ohio: Ohio University Press.
18. Luckhurst, R. & Stevenson, R. L. (2006). Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. Strachey, J. L. (1995). The War of the Worlds. The Critical Response to H.G. Wells. In W. J. Scheick (Ed., pp. 31-32). Westport: Greenwood.
20. Parrinder, P. & Wells, H.G. (2005). The War of the Worlds. London: Penguin, 2005.