Quote Analysis Flashcards
“The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground”
Chapter 1. Story of the door
Said by enfield. Hes referring to mr hyde.
- Oxymoron “trampled clamly” shows hyde is naturally comfortable with violence.
- Referencing the “childs body” dehumanises the victim, and he image of her screaming is a powerful sensual description of hydes cruelty.
Themes: secrecy, repression, utterson, society
“Like some damned juggernaut”
Chapter 1. Story of the door
- “Damned” refers to hydes sinful nature, with the image of “juggernaut” suggesting a violent, powerful force surging forwards in an unstoppable manner.
Themes: violence, society
“The large handsome face of dr jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes.”
Chapter 3. Dr jekyll was quite at ease
Jekyll’s cheerful and pleasant demeanour rapidly disappears when he is questioned about his will. The change from good to evil is disturbingly quick.
- Juxtaposition of jekylls “handsome” face with his pale lips and black eyes shows that mans duel nature is not just a mental conflict, but also a physical one.
- Since jekylls lips “grew” pale and blackness “came… about” his eyes, the reader gets a sense of evil spreading over him uncontrollably.
Themes: duality of man, good and evil, jekyll
“And the next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway.”
Chapter 4. The carew murder case
This is a brutal, animalistic description of hydes violent nature . Inhuman destruction of another human life highlights power of evil.
- The simile “ape-like” gives hyde strong animal characteristics but also suggests that he has not yet fully evolved from an animal. And he inflicts a metaphorical “storm of blows” he is also seen as a brutal force of nature.
- Carew is completely dehumanised and becomes nothing more than “his victim”, “bones” and a “body”.
- The swiftness of these actions is frightening - it all occurs in a “moment”.
Themes: violence, good and evil, innocence
“A yard which had once been a garden, to the building which was indifferently known as the laboratory or the dissecting-rooms… and his own tastes being rather chemical than anatomical…”
Chapter 5. Incident of the letter
Jekyll inhabits a highly scientific environment, rejecting the simple pleasures of the old garden.
- this was once a “garden”, a natural, wholesome place of relaxation, but has been replaced by the scientific esperimentation of “the laboratory”
- science was a great threat to religion in the 19th century as it often contradicted religious teachings
- adverb “indifferently” reinforces ideas of privacy and secrecy - jekyll commits horrific acts as people are “indifferent” to his actions
themes: science, religion, secrecy
“He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away”
Chapter 6. Remarkable incident of Dr lanyon
The reader is graphically shown the transformation of lanyon and the physical deterioration of his person when he descovers jekylls secret.
- “rosy man” has associations with vibrant colour and a natural, healthy lifestyle, which juxtaposes “pale” and its deathly connotations.
- alliteration of the fluid “f” sound underlines the fact that lanyons flesh is literally slipping from his bones, much like when jekyll turns into hyde.
- a “death-warrant” is an official document ordering an execution. Whilst “death-warrant” forwshadows the deaths of lanyon and jekyll, it also reminds us of the sins committed and the justice that must come.
Themes: duality of man, good and evil, lanyon
