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

Yıl 2019, Sayı: 37, 33 - 42, 24.10.2019

Ayda Önder

https://doi.org/10.30794/pausbed.526884

Öz

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. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

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

Öz

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.        

Anahtar Kelimeler

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

Kaynakça

• 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.
• Anderson, N. (2011). "The Most Dangerous Man in England," ESSAI: Vol. 9, Article 7. Retrieved from http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol9/iss1/7
• 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.
• 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
• Danahay, M. A. and Stevenson, R. (2005). Introduction. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. (2nd ed., pp. 11-25) Ontario: Broadview.
• Geduld, H. M. (Ed.) (1983) The Definitive Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Companion. New York: Garland.
• Hammond, J. R. (1984) A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion: A Guide to the Novels, Essays and Short Stories. London: MacMillan.
• Huxley, T. H. (1968). Evolution and Ethics. Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays (46-116). NewYork: Greenwood.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Linehan, K. (Ed.) (2003). Robert Louise Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Norton.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Philmus, R. M. and Hughes D. Y. (Eds.) (1975). H. G. Wells: Early Writing in Science and Science Fiction. California: California University Press.
• Reed, J. R. (1982). The Natural History of H.G. Wells. Ohio: Ohio University Press.
• 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.
• 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.
• Parrinder, P. & Wells, H.G. (2005). The War of the Worlds. London: Penguin, 2005.