Chapter 4 Flashcards
“aged beautiful gentleman” “innocent disposition”
-aged symbolises his vulnerability as the elderly tend to be more fragile and gentle
-the parallelism between the ‘beautiful’ Carew and the ‘small’ Hyde who seemed unworthy of consideration (‘she paid less attention’) further develops Hyde as a heinous character
-consequently Sir Carew is enveloped in the psychological phenomenon of the halo effect through his beauty and innocence in comparison to Hyde which further emphasises his role as the victim
-this perpetuates Carew’s presentation as a victim in the plot -this belief is heightened by his ‘innocent disposition’
-the adjectival phrase innocent disposition’ highlights how inherently vulnerable and wholly good Sir Danvers Carew is (similar to the young girl in chapter 1)
-Hyde’s repeated attack on the pure and vulnerable increases the magnitude of Hyde’s violence
“ape-like fury”
-the use of simile ape-like symbolises that Hyde’s anger was inhumane, indestructible force of nature which emphasises his volatile personality
-alternatively the animalistic simile “ape-like” could show how Hyde has regressed into primitive form where man indulges in the instinctive desire
-through the increasing popularity of Charles Darwins theory of evolution, the victorian society feared their innate animalistic desire(as mankind had evolved from animals)
-in addition ,the victorian era feared devolution due to the rapid advancement of scientific development so through Hyde’s troglodytic,primitive description, his character embodied the most extreme fears of Victorian society
-his amorality is a poignant characteristic throughout the novella as his insensate cruelty emphasises his lack of empathy for others and his complete detachment from proper behaviour
“first fog of the season…lowered over heaven”
-Stevensons use of pathetic fallacy reinforces the unsettling and eery atmosphere created as a result of Hyde’s malevolent act
-the heaviness of Hyde’s crime is emphasised with the darkness of the ‘chocolate-coloured pall’
-the severity of Hyde’s sin is so great he even impacts Heaven(a place of eternal peace and benevolence) highlighting how evil nature and damnation
-in addition ,fog is used in the bible to precede great revelations ,could foreshadowing the end of the novella where we learn of the connection between Jekyll and Hyde
-the fog could also be a motif of Utterson’s growing perplexity
-as evidence against both Jekyll and Hyde increases, the fog becomes more prevalent perhaps symboling how bewildering and complex the road to the truth was
what is the halo effect?
The halo effect is a cognitive bias where a positive impression in one area(usually physical attributes) influences our overall perception of a person
lodger has an “evil face,smoothed by hypocrisy”
-everyone-even minor characters ranging genders and classes-are plagued by hypocrisy-a significant undertone throughout the entirety of the novella
-Hypocrisy was so prevalent in Victorian London due to the unrealistic expectations allocated on man
-Stevenson critiques the evident immorality of Victorian England by highlighting how the one aspect that transcends past both gender and class is hypocrisy
