Jekyll and Hyde Motifs

Question 1

Gentleman’s Cane

Answer 1

• The gentleman was an important figure in Victorian society. Men were expected
  to behave in a certain way, repress their desires and avoid egotistical behaviours.
• Utterson can be seen as a model example of many aspects of a gentleman-he is
  ‘austere’ with himself regarding his pleasures and religious-reading ‘dry divinity’.
• After seeing Hyde dead and receiving the letters, his last words of the novel are: “I would say
  nothing of this paper. If your master has fled or is dead, we may at least save his credit.”
• The cane is the murder weapon used to kill Carew and notably snaps in half. Perhaps
  representing how Hyde breaks the code of conduct of a gentleman and poses therefore a
  threat to civilisation and democracy (Carew is an MP) if he has no heed for the codes of
  behaviour.
• The break of the cane could
  also symbolise how this is a key turning point in the duality between Jekyll and Hyde-they
  can no longer co-exist and the balance between them is forever broken.

Question 2

Cheval Glass

Answer 2

Symbolic of the key theme of identity and the exploration of the psychology of self. Why does Jekyll need