Key Contextual Factors

Question 1

Duality

Answer 1

Lots of contrasts in terms of setting, character and themes including reality vs appearance, Jekyll and Hyde, light and dark.

Question 2

Victorian values

Answer 2

From the 1850s to the turn of the century, British society outwardly displayed values of sexual restraint, low tolerance of crime, religious morality and a strict social code of conduct. Utterson is our stereotypical Victorian male.

Question 3

Darwinism and evolution

Answer 3

The idea that humans evolved from apes and amphibians led to worries about our lineage and about humanity’s reversion to these primitive states. These implications haunted Victorian society

Question 4

Gothic genre

Answer 4

The key features of the gothic genre are shown through the: setting e.g. the alleyway, character e.g. the antagonist of Hyde and the plot e.g. the vicious murder of Carew.

Question 5

Victorian London

Answer 5

The population of 1 million in 1800 to 6.7 million in 1900, with huge numbers migrating from Europe. It became the biggest city in the world and a global capital for politics, finance and trade. The city grew wealthy.

Question 6

Urban terror

Answer 6

As London grew wealthy, poverty in the city also grew. The overcrowded city became rife with crime. Gothic and detective literature became more relevant.

Question 7

Robert Luis Stevenson

Answer 7

Born and raised in Edinburgh, giving him the dual identity of being both Scottish and British. Edinburgh was a city of two sides. He was raised in the wealthy New Town area but spent his youth exploring the darker, more sinister side of town

Question 8

Religion vs. Science

Answer 8

Religious people believed you should not go against God and what he created but then scientists such as Dr Jekyll manipulated DNA.