Context Flashcards
Robert Louis Stevenson was often ill as a child and was tended
to by his nurse. She and his parents instilled in him a strong sense of good and evil, and the consequences of sin
Good and evil are key ideas in the novel. Jekyll describes
himself as a ‘sinner’ and ‘sufferer’ at the same time
Stevenson was apparently addicted to cocaine
Jekyll was addicted to taking the drug which turned him into Hyde
The Industrial Revolution led to an increase in the population in
cities. This led to increased crime and violence. Living in cities
meant that people could be more anonymous than in small
villages
Nobody expected Jekyll to be Hyde and because there are so many people in London, nobody would expect them to be the same person
Respectability and a good reputation were very important
concepts in the Victorian era.Gentlemen were expected to keep their emotions and desires under strict control
Jekyll has many desires and needed to carry them out, hence why he created Hyde, so he could live his respectable life as Jekyll and become Hyde to carry out his desires
The Victorians had a strong belief in religion – sinful behaviour
would result in damnation
Another reason Jekyll created Hyde, didn’t wanna be hung or go to hell
The two sides of the city – upper-class and working-class – did
overlap. Some gentlemen would deliberately travel to the
‘dismal’ areas of London to satisfy the desires they hid in public.
Edinburgh was similar to this, and Stevenson would go from the
wealthy ‘new town’ to visit brothels and drinking dens
Stevenson had two sides to him, just as Jekyll.
John Hunter was in charge of getting various types of
cadavers (dead bodies) for medical students, and himself, to
operate on
Jekyll’s lab and house were based off Hunters house
Darwin’s ‘The Origin of the Species’ introduced the theory of
evolution to the public - idea that we originated from apes. This
went against the ideas in Genesis which, as a strongly religious
society, most people would have believed
Hyde is described as an ape through the novel. Hinting he is undeveloped
The tradition in literature that beauty = goodness. Deformity is
often seen as a mark of evil
Everyone hated Hyde. He was deformed which meant people associated evil with him
Physiognomy was a pseudo-science in the Victorian era which
suggested that you could learn about someone’s character
from their looks
Just from seeing Hyde you would know he was evil. Stevenson did this on purpose
Before Stevenson’s novel, Gothic stories tended to be set
abroad, in distant places or in the past. This meant that the
reader could distance themselves from the story
Stevenson set it in London. Closer to home so it was more real for the readers
