A NATUREZA DO MAL EM “MARKHEIM”, DE ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Abstract

The article provides a detailed reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's short story “Markheim”, with the aim of discussing one of the central issues addressed by the author in this narrative: the problem of the nature of evil. Two distinct visions oppose each other in “Markheim”: the evil as something congenital, inherent to human beings and rooted in their personality, and the evil as the fruit of human actions, determined by external circumstances. In order to support our analysis and establish the tradition to which the story is affiliated, we resort to theoretical texts on horror, gothic and grotesque. In this way, we hope to emphasize the importance of a story which, while not being among Stevenson's best known stories, certainly deserves attention for its density and its innovative way of dealing with traditional themes in the history of literature, such as the themes of the mirror, the double and, above all, the evil.