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GCSE English Literature - ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ > Context for 'Jekyll and Hyde': > Flashcards

Context for 'Jekyll and Hyde': Flashcards

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1
Q

What would the majority of the population have been religion-wise?

A
  • majority of the population would have been religious
  • so by referencing (arguably) the most influential book the Bible, Stevenson is using a universally recognised system of symbolism
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2
Q

What does religion invoke and how does this make the text feel?

A
  • religion invokes an intense feeling of tradition and history
  • on the whole, this makes the text feel much more serious and adds power to the text
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3
Q

Examples of biblical and religious allusions in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’:

A
  • “really like Satan”
  • “that human Juggernaut”
  • “If ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.”
  • “I incline to Cain’s heresy”
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4
Q

“that human Juggernaut”

A

likens Hyde to powerful Hindu God

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5
Q

“I incline to Cain’s heresy”

A
  • refers to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel (the first 2 sons of Adam and Eve)
  • in the story Cain murders his brother Abel as he is jealous that God prefers the sacrifices Abel makes to please God
  • some people believe that Cain is therefore the origin of greed and evil
  • the comparison to the 2 brothers, one good and one evil, is symbolic of the duality found within Jekyll and Hyde
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6
Q

What do religious allusions also work to do in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’?

A
  • also work to solidify the theme of religion vs science within the text and ensures that the reader is always aware of this juxtaposition within their own society
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7
Q

How is transformation and changing state central to ‘Jekyll and Hyde’?

A
  • central to the text as it deals with the connection between Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll
  • in the Victorian era as many people were religious - people would have focused on a biblical reading of transmorrphism to assess its morality
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8
Q

What do the biblical readings of transmorphism imply?

A
  • imply that only Christ has the power to perform change in society and that transformation should always have a positive impact
  • in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ this sentiment is clearly disregarded when Jekyll first changes himself without Christ’s input, and secondly when he utilises the ability to trans morph for destructive and detrimental reasons
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9
Q

What religion was Stevenson exposed to?

A

-Stevenson was exposed to both scientific and religion influences through his family and socialisation

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10
Q

What were Stevenson’s religious beliefs and how did this impact his family relationships?

A
  • Stevenson’s father was a Calvinist
  • so when Stevenson announced that he no longer chose to believe in God it seemed to significantly damage his family relationships
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11
Q

What is largely based on Calvinist principles?

A

the Church of Scotland

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12
Q

What is calvinism?

A

a type of protestantism based on John Calvin’s teachings

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13
Q

What was read to Stevenson when he was an infant?

A

as an infant, Stevenson was read Old Testament scripture

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14
Q

Why did calvinism frustrate Stevenson?

A
  • frustrated Stevenson because morality requires a perfection which was impossible for people as it contradicted human nature
  • in this respect, he felt it was very hypocritical
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15
Q

What was Stevenson’s fathers reaction to him saying he chose to no longer believe in God?

A
  • upon Stevenson telling his father of his reject of religion he was angry
  • this caused Stevenson great anguish
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16
Q

What impact does religion have on Utterson in the text?

A
  • Utterson’s schedule is set according to the ring of the church bells, which implies the significant religious influence on his life and on his routines
  • “It was his custom of a Sunday, when the meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity on his reading desk, until the clock of the neighbouring church range out the hour of twelve, when he would go soberly and gratefully to bed.”
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17
Q

What impact does religion have on Jekyll in the text?

A
  • “He was now no less distinguished for religion” - suggests Jekyll previously completed religious work and study
  • Jekyll goes to God for redemption when he realises his profound mistakes - “had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to God.”
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18
Q

How did religious believes change over the cours of the 1800s?

A
  • over the course of the 1800s, many started to become skeptical of both spirituality and religion
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19
Q

How was the waning of religious belief in the 1800s caused by Thomas Huxley and agnosticism?

A
  • Huxley was a scientist in the 1800s and an advocate for Darwin’s teachings and research
  • he coined the term ‘agnostic’ to describe someone who thinks it isn’t possible to know if there is a/are God(s), or not
  • he relied upon the empirical evidence to support knowledge about the world, and thought that faith and science were mutually exclusive
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20
Q

How was the waning of religious belief in the 1800s caused by the industrial revolution?

A
  • the industrial revolution meant that new products were increasingly available, in particular to the wealthier classes
  • for many, material comforts came to replace spirituality and religion
  • urbanisation causes a massive shift in routines and general living, so attitudes towards religion shifted massively as well
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21
Q

How was the waning of religious belief in the 1800s caused by Strauss?

A
  • Strauss wrote Das Leben Jesu, which criticised Christian teachings about Jesus’ miracles causing many Victorians to lose their faith
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22
Q

How was the waning of religious belief in the 1800s caused by the loss of influence of the Church on society?

A
  • overall the Church lost a lot of its influence within society
  • 1829 - a law instructing anyone wanting to hold public office to pledge an oath dismissing Catholic beliefs was lifted
    1851 - 40% of the population went to Church according to the public census
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23
Q

What would the changing role of religion led to?

A
  • the changing role of religion in many people’s lives would have led to great anxiety
  • something Stevenson manipulates in his writing to create fear in the reader
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24
Q

What reception did ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ have by religious communities?

A
  • novella was interpreted by many contemporary critics and readers as much more powerful than a ‘shilling shocker;
  • a sermon preached in St Paul’s Cathedral even used test from the novel around the time it was published as it was seen as concerning the essential tale of good vs evil
  • one paper likened it to the writings of the Apostle Paul as it concerned the “two-fold nature of man”
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25
Q

What effects did science and technology have on society?

A

the advancement of technology and other scientific discoveries led to a great improvement in the everyday lives of the population

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26
Q

What did the industrial revolution bring for Victorian society?

A

brought a new era of prosperity - the actual benefits were really limited to the upper and middle classes

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27
Q

How did the population change during this era and why?

A
  • skyrocketed from 8mn to 30mn between 1800 and 1900
  • due to improvements in medical understanding and better infrastructure in societies
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28
Q

What did Charles Darwin claim and what did he publish to provide evidence for this?

A
  • claimed that evolution occurs by natural selection
  • 1859 - ‘Origin of Species’
  • 1871 - Darwin published his book’“The Descent of Man’ in which he applied his theories of evolution by natural selection to human evolution
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29
Q

Why was there fear of Darwin’s scientific development?

A
  • sense of fear for this scientific development going against religion as creationism (the concept that God created everything and everyone in the world) was pitted against evolution - led to a rise in atheism
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30
Q

How does Stevenson play on fears of degeneration or devolution?

A
  • gives Hyde-ape like and caveman sequences features
  • “troglodyte” - common on the theories of evolution? - he has regressed to primitive and violent stage of human development
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31
Q

How is often considered Stevenson’s inspiration for the character of Jekyll and why?

A
  • John Hunter - doctor of high status who was well-regarder within his circle of friends in London
  • Hunter’s wife often threw large parties in their large house in the fashionable Leicester Square
  • however, other side of the house contained Hunter’s specimens and student accommodation
  • these quarters backed into a dingy alley from which grave-robbers provided Hunter with bodies to experiment on
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32
Q

How is Jekyll similar to John Hunter?

A
  • house is much the same as Hunters
  • by having this duality within houses, Stevenson is showing how the upper class in London are unable to completely isolate themselves from the lower class
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33
Q

How many bodies did Hunter dissect and what did this allow him to have?

A
  • Hunter dissected over 2,000 human bodies - so had an incredible knowledge of anatomy
  • the bodies were stole from cemeteries by grave robbers - which was a wealthy business
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34
Q

Who were Hare and Burke?

A
  • renowned body snatchers - they would target graves because hanged criminals’ bodies would be directly donated to medical schools or the anatomist Dr Rober Knoc
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35
Q

What did Hare and Burke also do?

A

as body stealing trade was lucrative they also began to murder individuals in Edinburgh to make more money

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36
Q

Were Hare and Burke discovered?

A
  • eventually they were discovered
  • only Burke was prosecuted and he was sentenced to death
37
Q

What are some scientific/medical references in the novella?

A
  • when Mr Hyde comes to Lanyon’s house to collect the materials he needs for his transformation back into Jekyll he is received in the consulting room like a patient - writing is very characteristic of medical writing at the time
  • Dr Lanyon turns Mr Hyde into a case, and treats comments about him as if he were an infant patient
  • Upon Hyde’s transformation the roles switch as patient is reverted back into physician - turns into a ‘Strange Case’
38
Q

What is lot of the language like in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’?

A
  • 2 doctors in the novella - reflective of Stevenson’s background in medicine
  • much of the language and premises used are relevant to scientific procedure
39
Q

What were Victorians obsessed with?

A

the supernatural

40
Q

Who was Sigmund Freud?

A
  • neurologist
  • centred his work on human behaviour and mental illness
41
Q

What was Freud’s ‘Structural Theory of the Mind’

A

Person’s personality made up of 3 elements:
- ‘The id’ - primitive + instinctual part pf psyche which contains hidden sexual and agressive desires
- ‘The superego’ - an individual’s moral conscience
- ‘The ego’ - represents the outward version of a person and is often a balance between ‘the id’ and ‘the superego’ - it is a sort of neutral ground which balances north the desires

42
Q

How could Freud’s ‘Structural Theory of the Mind’ be interpreted in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’

A
  • Hyde could be argued to be representative of an individual wholly controlled by the id
  • whereas Jekyll could be viewed as character symbolising ‘the ego’
  • by setting up conflict between ‘the id’ and ‘the ego’ Stevenson will be including information relevant to readers at the time of the novel’s publication, as Freud’s work had become very popular
43
Q

What was ‘fin de siècle’?

A
  • end of 19th C
  • people thought new C would bring imminent change - caused greater social anxiety due to the dear if the unknown - reflected in late 19th C art
  • large technological + scientific advances leading to greater sense of fear surrounding a rapidly changing society
44
Q

How did Darwinism lead to change in perception of religion?

A
  • people felt Darwin’s theory of evolution was at odds with creation
  • felt bound to choose between them - led to people beginning to reject religion or hold it at lower significance
45
Q

What would the changing role of religion in society have led to?

A

fears of the unknown - relegated in the contemporary gothic literature

46
Q

What was art significantly influences by in the early 1800s and how is the linked to gothic literature?

A
  • influenced by Romantic movement
  • Gothic literature relegated the principles of this by including themes which championed human emotionality over reason
  • end of 19th C people became more interested in darker side of human mind - reflected in Stevenson’s work
47
Q

Key characteristics of gothic literature:

A
  • supernatural (ghosts, vampires etc.) - reflection of theme of “the unknown” reflected feeling of uncertainty about the future
  • intense emotions heightened by foreboding atmosphere - intense fear in reader by indication a breakdown of rationality
  • dealing with concept of madness and insanity - people with mental illness have been demonised - madness tool to evoke fear in reader
  • inherently ‘evil’ character with link to supernatural - character not bound by morals of society - unpredictability creates terror in the reader + links to the theme of the “unknown”
48
Q

Gothic influences on ‘Jekyll and Hyde’:

A
  • secrets gold lot of power in gothic literature
  • mysterious settings - Hyde’s apartments + Jekyll’s laboratory fulfils gothic conventions
  • pathetic fallacy in 4th chapter following Sir Danvers Carew murder creating tense + suspicious atmosphere - visual symbolism of fog serves to highlight the mysterious nature of the text as the truth is being obscured “the first fog of the season”
49
Q

What is there a blend of?

A
  • blend of relish and fantasy makes the characters realistic
  • producing terror and suspense throughout events of the plot
50
Q

Women in gothic literature:

A
  • little inclusion of women in this novella, women often play significant roles in Gothic novels
  • normally the victimes of the evil male characters
  • characters if the maid in chapter 4 who informs the police as to who killed Sir Carew plays this role
51
Q

Gothic text that ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is linked to:

A
  • ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (1890, Oscar Wilde)
  • novel also focuses on the moral degeneration of a promising young man who becomes hedonistic and corrupt
  • similarly to Jekyll, he indulges all of his impulses
  • novel also contains the idea of the double - in this case it being the painting of Dorian
  • it is the double which allows the main character to indulge their dark desires like in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’
52
Q

What is atavism?

A
  • Lombroso’s theory of atavism presents idea that some people are ‘brown criminal’
  • studies appearance of 1,000s of criminals and found they shared common characteristics - sloping brow, pronounced haw, large ears etc.
  • he concluded that they were more primitive in an evolutionary sense than other people
53
Q

How is atavism linked to ‘Jekyll and Hyde’?

A

Hyde has some atavistic traits - “pale and dawrfish”

54
Q

What was London viewed as?

A

the forefront of modern urban life - explaining why many novels from the time period were set in London

55
Q

What was London like?

A
  • smoggy + industrial
  • very unhygienic
  • massive overcrowding issues from being unable to cope with sudden increase in population - led to large class disparity
56
Q

What was London like crime-wise?

A
  • crime-ridden - especially in colossally overcrowded poorer locations e.g. Soho
  • these places were largely slums, particularly concentrated in the East End - which was poor quality + normally were without running water or appropriate sanitation
57
Q

What were people expected to do?

A
  • people were expected to maintain string moral + be charitable in order to maintain good reputation
  • as a man, walking through public places would help keep up your appearances - reflected by Utterson and Enfield’s frequent Sunday walks - contrasts with Jekyll’s increasing solitudes as he decreases in reputation
58
Q

What do many critics think that Dr Jekyll’s transition into the working class Mr Hyde emphasises?

A

emphasises both the geographical divide and class-based divide between East and West in London

59
Q

What were the Whitechapel murders?

A
  • occurred in 1888 (Jack the Ripper) after the publication of the novel
  • some people believed that the novel inspired the killings
  • they also linked to the concept of duality as many people speculated that the murderer was potentially of royal birth, or at least highly educated
60
Q

What restricted opportunities for social mobility?

A
  • an intense and strictly-structured hierarchal system which restricted opportunities for social mobility - therefore, individuals tended to be judged on their social class, job, wage etc.
61
Q

What homosexual connotations are there in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’?

A

suspicion of erotic attachment. between the 2 characters like well to the subtle theme of blackmail in the text

62
Q

What was. the law against homosexual intercourse prior to 1967?

A

prior to 1967, law in England against homosexual intercourse was known as the ‘Blackmailers Charter’ as many black attempts were revolved around an accusation of homosexuality towards the individual concerned

63
Q

Why would it have been unwise for ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ to refer directly to homosexuality?

A
  • as the novella was destined for mainstream readership
  • however, the latent content nudged readers towards this potential interpretation of Dr Jekyll’s interest in Mr Hyde
64
Q

What did friendship determine in Victorian society?

A

friends that gentlemen associated themselves with determined their reputation in Victorian society

65
Q

What are gothic tropes?

A
  • violence, fear of the unknown, the unexplainable and secrecy
  • all run through the novel
66
Q

Natural vs Supernatural

A
  • traditional science explained the real world through theories and observations
  • however, Jekyll’s experiments are mystical and transcendental and scientists were dismissive of the supernatural
67
Q

How is religion linked to the theme of good and evil?

A
  • Christian readers believe in the divine battle between good and evil
  • however, Stevenson uses the duality of human nature to argue that we are all made of good and evil and have the power to be good and the power to be evil
68
Q

When did the idea of the duality of human nature first emerge?

A
  • first emerged in the Victorian era - that we all have a good and evil side to our personality
69
Q

What did Victorian London consist of?

A
  • consisted of upper-class and lower-class areas, which consisted of slums and poorly constructed houses e.g. SoHo
  • streets often poorly lit + full of smoke from the factories
70
Q

What did upper class men do?

A

upper class men often travelled to lower-class areas where they were less recognised, to indulge in the pleasures they hid in public

71
Q

How was homosexuality treated in Victorian society?

A
  • homosexuality was repressed by Victorian society and deemed as too shocking + unnatural to mention
  • Jekyll’s “pleasures” may have included homosexual acts but are not directly mentioned in the novella
72
Q

What were the characteristics of a Victorian gentleman?

A
  • didn’t show their emotions
  • repressed their pleasures to maintain their reputation in comity
  • often hid secrets from public view + were prepared to pay large sums of money to keep their activities private if they were blackmailed
73
Q

What clothes did the poor wear in the Victorian era?

A

relied on huge 2nd hand clothes trade at the time - altered sizes, similar clothes to upper class

74
Q

What was men’s fashion in the Victorian era?

A
  • consisted of tight-fitting, calf-length frock coasts with a waistcoat or vest
  • wore top hats
  • bowler hats were worn by the working class
75
Q

Main scientific developments in the 19th C:

A
  • development of pharmacology
  • psychology - Sigmund Fred
  • Darwinism - ‘Origin of Species’ (1859)
  • Case of Burke and Hare - science behind hiding criminal behaviour
76
Q

When was ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ first published?

A

1886

77
Q

What is the ‘gentleman’?

A
  • gentlemen from upper classes of society
78
Q

What were gentlemen expected to have?

A
  • strong morals and be kind particularly towards the poorer people
  • expected to keep their emotions under strict control
  • This forced them to hide their desires for things like alcohol, gambling and sex
  • Perhaps this is what is hinted at by the description of Enfield as a “man about town”
79
Q

What were gentleman determined and prepared to do?

A
  • Gentlemen were determined to maintain their reputations – without a good reputation, a man couldn’t be considered a gentleman at all
  • They were prepared to pay large sums of money to keep such activities private, which made them vulnerable to blackmail, something that both Enfield and Utterson think explains Hyde’s ability to draw cheques in Jekyll’s name
80
Q

What did the Industrial Revolution mean?

A
  • many working-class people migrated to large cities to live and work
  • Housing had to be built rapidly, resulting in poor quality housing and slums in an area known as Soho, an area near the centre of London (although as we will see, Soho also housed a large middle-class population)
81
Q

What were the Victorian London slums like?

A
  • The streets in the slums were narrow and poorly lit
  • Victorian London was known for its smoke, caused by burning coal on an industrial scale
82
Q

Where would respectable men not want to be seen?

A
  • There were some parts of London where most respectable men wouldn’t want to be seen, such as the working-class slums
  • They also wouldn’t want to be seen visiting brothels or public houses
83
Q

What was the emerging idea in the Victorian Era?

A
  • emerging idea that humanity itself is in constant conflict
  • On the one hand, people lead calm, rational, everyday lives, but on the other hand, a darker side of humanity exists where sexual fantasies, nightmares, violence and murder dwell
  • It was the rational versus the irrational; nature versus the supernatural; good against evil
84
Q

What was Stevenson fascinated with?

A

Stevenson was fascinated with the dual sides of man; ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is not the only story he wrote about this idea

85
Q

What was highly popular genre in the 19th C?

A

· The detective novel was a new and highly popular genre in the 19th Century
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes first appeared in ‘A Study in Scarlet’ published in 1887 (the year after ‘Jekyll and Hyde’)
· Often detective novels have a twist at the end when – perhaps the criminal is not who we expected or the crime was committed in an unusual and unexpected way.

86
Q

What were operating theatres like in the Victorian era?

A

· Surgeries in Victorian London were a brutal affair with patients often dying on the operating table
- Anaesthesia was limited and tools were unlike modern apparatus; saws were a regular feature

87
Q

What would operations be attended by in the Victorian Era?

A

Operations would sometimes be attended by dozens of people and could even be open to the public

88
Q

What would doctors perform in operating theatres and why?

A

· In addition to operations on living patients, doctors would perform dissections on corpses as part of the scientific discovery that was rapidly progressing in the Victorian era
- These dissections would be attended by other doctors, medical students and even members of the public
- To this day, the ‘viewing’ area of an operating theatre is called ‘the Gallery’
- To a Victorian reader, the description of the old dissecting room in Chapter 5 would be horrifyingly real.

GCSE English Literature - ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ (8 decks)

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