Jekyll and Hyde: Scientific ambitions Flashcards
Stevenson presents the effects of Jekyll’s scientific ambitions in the extract as unnatural and as an affront to God, in order to play on the Victorian fears of an irresponsible fin de siècle science
OR
Stevenson presents Jekyll’s scientific ambitions as having a corrupting effect on Lanyon, as the desire for forbidden knowledge entices him to stay and witness Hyde’s transformation
In the text more generally, Jekyll’s scientific ambitions lead to the death of Lanyon and Danvers Carew, as well as Jekyll’s own suicide, as the novella can be read as a cautionary tale about the dangers of ‘transcendental medicine’
Stevenson presents Jekyll’s scientific ambition as an allegory for the ‘fall’ of mankind in the bible as the forbidden ‘knowledge’ has a corrupting effect on Lanyon who can not walk away from it.
