Jekyll+ Hyde analysis for each theme Flashcards
Reputation
OVERALL IDEAS
-Immoral activities and giving into one’s desires could damage a gentleman’s reputation
-The men in J+H value their reputations above all else
- Losing reputation= losing social advantages
Utterson is wary of gossip in case it reflects badly on him or his friends
- Believes in not asking questions if something “Looks like queer street”
- Many gentlemen were publicly snobbish about disreputable places like public houses and brothels but secretly went their at night
- Vulnerable to blackmail in order to keep their secret desires hidden
STEVENSON’S MESSAGE:
- Reputations aren’t to be trusted because they are based on appearances. A person’s reputation is the version of themselves that they want the world to see- “Sir if that was my master, why would he a mask upon his face?”
KEY QUOTES:
“If it came to trial your name might appear”
“Sea of liberty”
“Sir if that was my master, why would he a mask upon his face?”
MOTIFS:
The gentleman’s cane symbolises Utterson’s concern for reputation
- Represents how Hyde breaks the code of conduct of a gentleman and poses a threat to civilisation
GRADE 9 ANALYSIS:
- Hyde is an embodiment of Jekyll’s lower elements, he is formed because of Jekyll’s obsessive conformity to the codes of respectability and public opinion
- Hyde is supposedly ‘pure evil’ and therefore alone in the ranks of mankind. However, he does appear to have elements of Jekyll in him. The initial intention is for him to act as an ‘alibi’ so he can enact what Jekyll is ashamed off and Jekyll can maintain his reputation
- Everyone is seen to be ‘an ordinary secret sinner’ who sins in secret in the night and also to hold, hide or try to reveal secrets. Both Enfield and Utterson say ‘the more it looks like Queer Street the less I ask’.
- Could it be argued that the real monster in the text is ‘opinion’? The fear of public opinion, exposure and reputation causes stunted lives and even character’s deaths. They are all motivated by the system that works on ‘credit’ and reputation (even Hyde in Story of the Door) and Utterson states at the end that they may still save Jekyll’s ‘credit’. Most detectives seek to uncover secrets and expose them, but Utterson seems to work on the opposite principle and his ruling passion is to not want to know- he obstructs the course of justice by not telling the police officer of the connection of the murder weapon or the letter he receives from the murderer (supposedly). He fears his friend’s name will be ‘sucked down in the eddy of a scandal’. Even Lanyon who dies because of Jekyll’s secrets puts restrictions on his disclosures and the letter is only to be read if Jekyll is dead. The novel asks more questions than it answers which is why it lives on in people’s imaginations- at its core are silences, evasions and suppressions. The narrative attempts revelation but the agents and protagonists are trying to conceal.
CONTEXT:
- Victorian gentlemen were very focused on reputation and it was of the utmost importance to uphold this reputation
- Reputation is based on appearance (Explains why Stevenson chose to portray Hyde as short and evil looking)
- Gentlemen were expected to keep their emotions under strict control. Which forced them to hide their desires like sex and alcohohol
Dual Nature of man
OVERALL IDEAS AND OPENING THESIS:
-Ideas of good and evil and ambiguous and not always clearly defined as antithetical concepts.
- Stevenson makes the reader see Hyde as a personification of pure evil, before revealing his relationship with Jekyll and complicating our viewpoint on Jekyll’s Character
- The line dividing the evil Hyde from the good Jekyll becomes blurred and difficult to distinguish, as does our response to Jekyll as we are made to feel both sympathy and condemnation
PARA 1:
What is deemed good and evil in Victorian society and how does Stevenson explore this?
WHAT: Stevenson explores the Victorian ideal of good and evil in exposing the morality of society and
the pressures on a Victorian gentleman.
EXTRACT(HOW): moment of transformation ‘new life’- repetition of ‘wicked, tenfold more wicked’-
‘braced and delighted me like wine’ The simile suggests a sense of liberation and joy at feeling
uninhibited.
WIDER NOVEL(HOW): Juxtapose to the opening description of Utterson who is ‘austere’ and ‘mortifies’
a taste for wine and is characterised by self-denial- mortify suggests pain in the denial. In the extract
Jekyll describes his life as one of ‘effort, virtue and control’ suggesting it is a constant struggle to
maintain virtuous. Hence Hyde is continually characterised by metaphors of freedom and release, he
is ‘younger’ and ‘lighter’ all comparatives that disturbingly suggest being Hyde feels better and being
Hyde means he is free from the ‘bonds of obligation.
WHY: Stevenson is perhaps exploring that to be ‘good’ in Victorian society is in fact to be highly
restrictive of natural pleasures and joys, leading to a repressed class who indulge therefore in secret.
Secrecy and repression therefore can result in these ‘undignified’ pleasures becoming ‘monstrous’ as
symbolised by the creation of Hyde.
PARA 2:
WHAT: Stevenson also explores the liminality of good and evil in the novel suggesting that it is often hard to identify
or separate.
IN THE EXTRACT (HOW): ‘Pure evil’ but there is no ‘pure good’ and we can see the fact that Jekyll and all people are
‘commingled’. Motif mirror- consider the symbolism of the fact that he needs visual confirmation of who he is
and the juxtaposition of his ‘leap of welcome’ vs everyone else who feels ‘repugnance’ (ideas of physiognomy and
ideas of appearance and personality)
WIDER NOVEL (HOW): All characters are introduced with an asyndetic list of their appearance including a paradoxical
element: lean, long, dusty, dreary’ yet ‘somehow loveable’ and Jekyll as having a ‘sly19b cast’ despite ‘every mark of
capacity and kindness’. There is always duality and this is natural, but can also hide people’s true character. The
topography of the houses links to Jekyll wanting to ‘house’ the two halves of his soul in separate identities. Seen in
front/back of house, Soho house furnished with the tastes of Jekyll and the dead Hyde found within the cabinet of
Jekyll. The confusion of Jekyll’s sense of self as he plays with the balance seen in his confusion of pronouns and also
blame and culpability: ‘Hyde and only Hyde’ ‘He, I cannot say, l’
WHY: Stevenson is complicating the idea of good and evil by showing how intertwined they are, creating a sense of
liminality and confusion of moral absolutes. Do we struggle therefore to morally judge Jekyll? Is he the ‘chief of
sufferers, or the chief of sinners’? How does that tap into fear of anxiety and not being able to trust or judge others
PARA 3:
WHAT: Stevenson leaves us with a terrifying prospect that our ‘evil’ instincts could in fact overpower our better
selves- especially if unrestrained.
EXTRACT (HOW): Hyde is ‘smaller’ and ‘less robust’ and ‘less developed’ because ‘less exercised’ the repetition of
the comparative ‘less’ foreshadowing the threat of what will happen if he eventually become more exercised
and the ‘stamping efficacy’ becomes overthrown.
WIDER TEXT (HOW) : Stevenson uses pathetic fallacy throughout the novel to show how this battle for dominance
between Jekyll and Hyde plays out. In the extract he is created in the ‘black’ of night and continually only comes
out at night, aligning him with evil and supernatural associations. After D Carew is killed, there is a ‘reinvasion
of darkness’ as gam becomes black as night and this symbolises how Hyde is growing in strength. Jekyll wakes
as Hyde as Hyde overpowers him while asleep and eventually this culminates in his changing in midday in a
public place, symbolising his complete overthrow of Jekyll.
WHY: Stevenson is exploring the duality of London and Victorian England which is threatened by a rise in
crime, urbanisation and the fin de siécle fears of degeneration. It explores the fears of addiction which can
mean your rational control is lost and the temptations that are continually presented- does it end with a moral
where good wins as Jekyll and Hyde are dead? Or something more unsettling as we consider if Utterson will
reveal all by calling the police… ?
SCIENCE AND RELIGION
OVERALL IDEAS AND OPENING THESIS:
- Science and religion are two very important themes in the novella, and
at this time many felt science and religion were at odds with each other
— to believe in one meant you could not believe in the other. Characters
like Dr Lanyon and Mr Utterson have scientific minds but seem to be
very religious in their beliefs as well. Jekyll, by experimenting on himself,
seems to ‘play God’ and as such loses his life. Was this Stevenson
suggesting only God should have this power?
- There was also a concern amongst religious people that science was
becoming dangerous and was interfering in matters which only God had
control over.
- The novella is packed full with ideas of duality: everyone has two sides
to them (the good and the evil); nature is in conflict with the
supernatural; science is in conflict with religion.
CONTEXT:
- The language of torment that Jekyll uses links to the christian idea of hell- a place in the afterlife of constant suffering
- Tension between science and religion was a source of conflict in Victorian society
“theory of evolution”
KEY QUOTES:
Jekyll’s scientific work leads “wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental”
“But the temptation of a discovery so singular and profound at last overcame the suggestions of an alarm”
- Desire for discovery overcame him
WRITERS TECHNIQUES
- LANGUAGE: Jekyll’s drugs “shook the doors of the prisonhouse of disposition.” This strong language shows that Jekyll feels the sinful side of his personality was trapped by the more respectable side
GRADE 9 ANALYSIS
- Hyde’s transformation into Jekyll has religious connotations. Before the transformation, Hyde promiss that Lanyon’s “sight shall be blasted” as the truth is unveiled to him. Hyd’es language has religious undertones- he describes the transformations as a kind of miracle. This encourages the reader to view the transformation as both a spiritual and scientific event.
Secrecy/Mystery
OVERALL IDEAS AND OPENING THESIS:
- There are a lot of secrets in the novella
- The whole novella revolves around Jekyll’s secret alter ego, but other characters have secrets
For example:
-Utterson has done “many ill things” in his past, but he doesn’t say what these are. This makes his actions appear shameful, even though his past is “fairly blameless”
- Many things are left unsaid- For example Enfield and Utterson choosing not to talk about Hyde again
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde creates tension through
the central mystery of who Mr Hyde is and what
his strange relationship to Dr Jekyll could be.
Stevenson structures the novella to keep the
reader in the dark for the first 8 chapters; using
the limited narrative viewpoint of Mr Utterson,
pathetic fallacy and the use of embedded
narratives and documents to create effective
foreshadowing and suspense. When we finally
discover the secret of their dual identity, the
true horror of this mystery is terrifving to the
reader in suggesting the potential for evil to
lurk within all of us.
MOTIFS:
Closed doors and windows
- The back door to Jekyll’s house has “neither bell nor knocker” and it’s associated with Hyde
- Jekyll slams the window shut on Utterson and Enfield, and later locks himself in the cabinet
-Important items, like letters and Jekyll’s ingredients are kept securely in locked drawers and safes
These closed doors and windows represent people’s desire to hid their secrets, so smashing the cabinet door is a symbolic moment. It represents the breakdown of Jekyll’s walls of secrecy
- Stevenson creates secrecy using gaps in the narrative, the gentlemans language and the settings.
KEY QUOTES:
“It is one of those affairs that cannot be amended by talking”- Refuses to tell Utterson about his links to Hyde
Temptations
OVERALL IDEAS AND OPENING THESIS:
Stevenson does not say exactly what Jekyll’s secret
desires and pleasures are, but his 1 9th-century readers
might have understood this to mean some sort of sexual
%ime. People were expected to resist temptation and
uphold moral and religious standards as an example to
)thers.
At the end, Jekyll regrets letting Hyde out. His last act as
:he doctor is to commit suicide so he does not have to
ive on as Hyde with no hope of changing back into his
“Mortify a taste for vintages”
Animal Instincts
Hyde is often described with animal characteristics. He is said to ‘hiss’
and ‘snarl’. Witnesses describe him as ‘ape-like’, and he is frequently
referred to as a ‘creature’. Hyde represents the ‘lower elements’ of Jekyll’s
character.
These details should be considered in the context of Charles Darwin’s
book, On the Origin of Species, which was published in 1859. this book
introduced the theory of evolution — the idea that all species evolved from
simple life forms by the process of natural selection, in which those best
suited to their environment would survive and pass on their
characteristics. Some people were concerned by the link Darwin made
between humans and animals. If evolution meant progress and
improvement, perhaps the opposite could also happen — there could be a
process of ‘devolution’, where people would revert to animal behaviour.
In Stevenson’s 1886 novella The
Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde the
central character of Hyde is
presented as inhuman because of
his atavistic, degenerate and
amoral qualities. His extreme
violence, disregard for social
etiquette and murderous rage
marks him as a disturbing character
whose relationship with Jekyll
seems inexplicable. The real horror
of Hyde is revealed when we
acknowledge him as a part of
Jekyll’s psyche created by his
scientific experiment.
Violence
Quotes:
- “Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the
thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground.” (Chapter 1)
Mr Hyde is violent towards the innocent child and seems not to care.
Friendship
“At sight of Mr. Utterson, he sprang up from his chair and welcomed him with both hands.” (Chapter 2)
Dr Lanyon and Utterson have a good friendship and they trust each other. This is important in terms of Utterson
mveiling the truth about Jekyll and Hyde.
Setting
OVERALL IDEAS AND OPENING THESIS:
Stevenson’s 1886 novella The Strange
case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde uses
setting to foreshadow the duality of
The character of Dr Jekyll. As such the
use of fog and darkness indicates the
mystery and secrecy shrouding Hyde,
the use of setting creates a sense of
duality and blurred thresholds and
ultimately the location of London
tints at a deeper hypocrisy and dual
nature in society itself.
Stevenson uses fog to work against the characters. When Utterson visits Soho, it “Cut him off” from his surroundings. Stevenson uses the fog to isolate characters and restrict their view of events.
Stevenson uses themoon to highlight parts of settings. Carew’s murder is “brilliantly lit by the full moon,” which makes it more dramatic, as if it’s under a spotlight.
CONTEXT:
Victorian london was known for its smoke. It was so dense that people sometimes fell into the thames
CHARACTER:
Hyde is often associated with darkness, which makes him even more mysterious
QUOTES:
“Degrees and hues of twilight”- In soho the light is always changing, this symbolises the narrative as only parts of the truth can be seen at any one time
