Hyde Flashcards
‘damned Juggernaut’
‘Juggernaut’ was a wagon carrying the image of the Hindu God Krishna, and the worshippers would throw themselves under its wheels and get crushed to death
Juggernaut generally means a huge, powerful and overwhelming force
this theme of sacrifice may reflect the sacrifice Jekyll makes to Hyde in return for indulging in his inappropriate desires and implies Hyde is controlled only by impulse -> links to the Freudian psychoanalytical theory as it links to the idea of Hyde representing the ID
Hyde quotes - beginning
‘damned Juggernaut’
‘murderous mixture of timidity and boldness’
‘something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable’
‘the other snarled into a savage laugh… with extraordinary quickness’
‘hissing intake of breath’
Hyde quotes - end
‘his every act and thought centred on self’
‘masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals’
‘his every act and thought centred on self’
Hyde is presented as selfish
the antithesis (opposite) of the Victorian ideals and contrasts Utterson and Enfield, who are quintessential Victorian gentlemen.
emphasis on the idea that Hyde is representative of the Freudian ID in humans, whilst his self-centred behaviour alludes to a more animalistic nature rather than human
‘murderous mixture of timidity and boldness’
contrast between ‘timidity’ and ‘boldness’ mirrors Jekyll’s internal conflict between maintaining the lifestyle of a quintessential Victorian gentleman and releasing his true desires
alliteration of ‘murderous mixture’ could imply that his actions are intrinsic and of pure instinct, similar to the Freudian idea of the ID in psychoanalysis, which Hyde could be the embodiment of as he could represent a volatile, wholly id-controlled psych
could also refer to the actual murder of Sir Danvers Carew
‘something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable’
plosive alliteration of ‘d’ highlights sense of disgust and repulsion that Hyde evokes as he is a symbol of pure and physical evil in humans -> promotes the gothic conventions of horror in the text
Stevenson forces the readers to see their worst fears in the character of Hyde as the ambiguity (open to more than one interpretation) in his descriptions allows them to use their own imagination and also creates a sense of intangibility (incapable of being touched or described properly)
‘the other snarled into a savage laugh… with extraordinary quickness’
sibilance in ‘snarled’ and ‘savage’ creates an air of unrestrained freedom and complete lack off control - Hyde aligns more with animals than humans and has no morals to hold him back
‘extraordinary’ could signify his supernatural force and capabilities, which make him appear more sinister and dislikable to the reader
Hyde quotations - middle
‘the very essence of the creature’
‘very essence of the creature’
‘creature’ is an example of animalistic imagery, therefore suggesting his lack of restraint
‘very essence’ could be Stevenson referencing the true evil personality of Hyde which could link to the supernatural as it was considered impossible in society to be pure evil -> could also imply Hyde is the true essence of Jekyll
‘masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals’
‘monkey’ alludes to Darwin’s theory of evolution - Hyde is primitive and degenerate in both the colloquial and scientific aspect (‘chemicals’) - and this is used as a reference to the fear in the readers at the time that if humans and apes shared the same ancestors, there was a possibility that humans could devolve -> this was what Hyde could have been seen as a symbol of
Stevenson uses the gothic convention of a fin de siècle as he presents many of the fears and worries emerging at the end of the Victoria era to do with devolution
how is Hyde presented?
- devilish
- evil
- selfish
- a motif for the fears of devolution
‘hissing intake of breath’
Stevenson compares Hyde with a snake
could be referencing the serpent in the garden of Eden that helped bring original evil into the world - Hyde is the pure evil that got brought into the world, he has not been balanced out with good
therefore looking at the character through a Freudian lens, he clearly represents the ID
