evil Flashcards
overview
The novel Jekyll and Hyde is written in the gothic horror genre which is significant for the presentation of evil because it sets the mood for evil to happen. Evil is mainly presented through the character Hyde who is a violent character and uses comparisons with other characters to show how cruel he is. Hyde is the embodiment of pure evil like the devil which is hard for characters to describe therefore they use lots of vague language to describe H. Stevenson uses Darwin’s theory to suggest that Hyde is less evolved because he’s so evil.
ch1
– H ‘trampled calmly’ over the girl. This is significant because it is the first time evil is shown and suggests he is evil because he trampled over an innocent child. The oxymoron suggests the unnaturalness of H’s actions because his cruelty is so casual that the action seems even more evil because he feels no remorse
- H is described as a ‘damned Juggernaut.’ The image of the Juggernaut suggests that H is like an overwhelming evil force that is surging forward. The fact that he is ‘damned’ suggests that he is going to hell which only emphasises how evil he is because you only go to hell if you have done something terrible which cannot be forgiven.
ch2
– U meets H and H is ‘hissing’ at him. This suggests how H is primitive because he’s making animal-like sounds which links to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution which is that he is less evolved because he’s evil.
ch3
– U tries to investigate further into H and mentions him to J. This causes a ‘blackness about his eyes.’ This physical reaction could suggest J’s fear of H because H is so evil but the ‘blackness’ could imply the darkness within J and how J has evil inside of him.
- When U talks to L instead, L says that J is ‘abominable.’ The word is so extreme as it suggests that J has done something revolting and worthy of hatred. This suggests how J is inherently monstrous and evil.
ch4
– C behaved in a ‘pretty manner’ which creates fear by suggesting that because there was no motive for the murder anyone could become a victim of a senseless brutal attack. This helps to emphasise how evil H is because there was no motive as C was innocent.
- C’s death is gruesome as his ‘bones audibly shattered.’ The violent descriptive imagery emphasises the horror and evil nature of H as the reader can picture the terrifying shattering sound of his bones which makes the attack more horrible.
ch8
– P describes seeing H to U and calls him a ‘masked thing.’ The fact that H is a ‘thing’ and cannot even be described as a human suggests how evil he is.
- U reads about J’s ‘startling blasphemies.’ Stevenson presents H as the embodiment of evil because he is linked to ‘blasphemy’ which suggests how he goes against all moral codes that the Victorian gentleman would have set up.
ch9
– When L first meets H it causes a ‘sinking of the pulse.’ This suggests how L is having a physical reaction to H because he is so evil that L cannot help but feel scared of him.
- L describes H as ‘something abnormal and misbegotten.’ The vague language is repeated once more which suggests how H is so evil that he cannot be described. As it has been repeated it shows how his sense of evil and unnaturalness is so strong because everyone he has met has been unable to describe him. The fact that he is described as ‘misbegotten’ suggests that he is so evil that he shouldn’t have been born.
- H tries to tempt L with knowledge by asking him ‘will you be wise.’ This suggests how H is evil as it links him to the devil when he tried to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden by offering L power.
ch10
– J describes how he had been ‘sold a slave to my original evil’ when creating H. The fact that J became a ‘slave’ suggests how J had no choice but to become evil when he was H because H was just so terrible.
- J describes how he ‘no longer fears the gallows’ but ‘fears being Hyde.’ This suggests that J is scared of the idea of being H because H is completely evil. J is more scared of H than dying. The fear is the idea of being evil because it has overcome J’s good side and he no longer has control.
