A comparative study of the kingdom novel and the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the Gothic School Perspective

In the world of storytelling, Gothic is a kind of story that asserts a line between reality, illusion, and madness. The interplay between reality and illusion, using a mysterious concept, and in particular drawing upon the general illusions and fears about death induce an incomprehensible apprehension in the reader. Such stories usually take place in a painful and morbid atmosphere. One of the most important works written in this style in the nineteenth century was the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This genre also found its way into the field of Iranian novel writing, and one of the works that has the most important characteristics of this style is Malakoot, which in terms of content and characteristics of the Gothic school is comparable to Stevenson’s novel. The helplessness and duality of the characters, the metamorphosis, the conflict of the characters with the inner and outer world, the presence of ghosts, scary places, death, madness, horrible murders, strange, scary and unreasonable events, fear, etc. are some of the Gothic features of both these works.