Context Infomation Flashcards
Robert Louis Stevenson was often ill as a child and was tended
to by his nurse who was a fundamentalist Christian. She and his
parents instilled in him a strong sense of good and evil, and the
consequences of sin (hell).
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.
This links to jekyll becoming slowly addicted to the potion making him transform into Hyde
Some scenes from the novel came to Stevenson in his
dreams/nightmares (Jekyll taking the drug and the murder of
Carew)
This links into the time and place and realism of the play, as they were both horrible things happening at that time that would cause suspense in the novel.
Stevenson grew up in Edinburgh, meaning that he was familiar
with three sets of famous criminals:
William ‘Deacon’ Brodie, well respected cabinet maker
by day, criminal by night, using his respectability to
protect him from suspicion (hanged in 1788)
Burke and Hare, who murdered people and sold the
bodies to the respected surgeon, Dr Robert Knox.
Major Weir –outwardly very religious, but eventually
admitted to sexual offences and witchcraft. He was
hanged and burnt, and remained a figure of fear in
Edinburgh as his house was said to be haunted
These criminals inspired many portions of the novel this makes the audience of the book feel nervous as these were actual people in the same place as them
The Jack the Ripper murders occurred after J&H was published,
but the huge interest that surrounded them serves to show
how fascinated people were in crime at the time. Newspapers
were full of scandalous stories of violence.
Some people could say that Jack the Ripper led a double life linking to duality, inspired by the novel
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 where everyone knew everyone else’s business
There was no secrecy in that time and jekyll and Hyde doing mysterious things made the surrounding people in the novel nervous and worried for the people involved
Respectability and a good reputation were very important
concepts in the Victorian era. The ‘gentleman’ was an
important figure in Victorian society from the upper classes.
Gentlemen were expected to keep their emotions and desires
under strict control. People would keep things hidden such as
homosexuality or gambling problems in order to preserve a
good reputation.
Jekyll’s dark secret of transforming in Hyde would of surely made him been prosecuted if found out therefore he had to keep at a secret and a mystery to people
The Victorians had a strong belief in religion – sinful behaviour
would result in damnation. This was another reason that
people would keep their desires hidden.
Jekyll had theoretically created a new person therefore could be seen as playing God this would of angered the local people so he has to keep a secret
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.
The two sides of the city – upper-class and working-class – did
overlap. Some gentlemen would deliberately travel to the
‘dismal’ areas of London (where there was less chance of being
recognised) 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.
These two areas in London could of inspired of Stevenson to make two completely different characters but with both terrible intentions. This links to the duality of the two characters who would both do bad things
Dr John Hunter was in charge of getting various types of
cadavers (dead bodies) for medical students, and himself, to
operate on. People think that the surgeon Dr Jekyll bought his
house from would be a representation of Dr John Hunter.
Grave robbing was a serious problem in those times. And jekyll being a scientists could of added to the publics suspicion
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.
This shows that a lot of people could easily be persuaded to believe the general consensus, without actually knowing the information behind it
There was also a concern amongst religious people that science
was becoming dangerous and was interfering in matters which
only God had control over.
Many people believed that science was taking over the world and becoming god. This links into jekyll transforming into Hyde and playing god
Britain had an extensive empire at this time – they were taking
over countries around the world. A lot of these places were not
civilised, i.e. they didn’t have all the rules that Victorian society
would have had. Britain enforced rules in these places,
however, many colonisers were actually secretly attracted to
the exotic, more primitive style of life.
Jekyll had dark intentions and was indulged in negative ideas that I became part of his life and his desires.
There was a great deal of interest in scientific experiments at
the time. Luigi Galvani used electricity to animate frogs’ legs
and Giovanni Aldini copied him by experimenting on the corpse
of a murderer. All of these experiments were performed
publically.
This showed the public the advances in science this means that the public were aware of science experiments going on making them on the edge of something bad happening
The tradition in literature that beauty = goodness. Deformity is
often seen as a mark of evil (e.g Richard III as another example
The fact that Hyde was deformed adds to his hideousness
