Jekyll and Hyde: Gothic horror and Mystery Flashcards
convention of dreams
Stevenson creates a sense of mystery and suspense through the use of the Gothic horror convention of dreams, in order to explore the theme of the troubled psyche.
quotes
Utterson’s dreams were: ‘a scroll of lighted pictures’
He dreamt of Jekyll asleep and there ‘would stand by his side a figure to whom power was given’
Hs ‘no face’
Dream is doubly troubling because Utterson is presented as a legal man of logic and rationality; that he should be having such a dream reflects the dark and foreboding nature of the text.
detective fiction
Dr Jekyll’s full Statement of the Case is an example of delayed exposition. It reinforces the fact that this an example of Detective Fiction, as the language of the chapter title suggests. It also builds suspense, as it is only on the character’s death that the reader can learn about Jekyll’s motivations; they are as shrouded in mystery to the reader as the other characters.
quotes
It is only at the end of Dr Lanyon’s narrative that Hyde changes in front of Lanyon and the reader. The demand ‘has the greed of curiosity too much command of you’ ironically relates not only to Lanyon but also to the reader, who has been forced to wait in suspense for the whole novella to find the truth.
‘If he shall be Mr Hyde, I shall be Mr Seek’
Gothic setting
Stevenson creates a sense of mystery and suspense through the presentation of the Gothic setting, and the city covered in fog.
quotes
‘A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven’
‘The dismal quarter of Soho seen under these changing glimpses, with its muddy ways, and slatternly passengers, and its lamps, which had never been extinguished or had been kindled afresh to combat this mournful re-invasion of darkness, seemed, in the lawyer’s eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare’
Indeed, the theme of secrecy and mystery is established very early on the novella through the description of the ‘door’
