Setting and Symbolism in Jekyll & Hyde

Question 1

How do physical places and spaces reflect Stevenson’s theme of duality (or the double nature) of man?

(19C London)

Answer 1

• 19C London = uneasy mixture of respectable places and poorer slum areas side by side
• Dr Jekyll’s middle-class home has
  “a great air of wealth and comfort”
• by contrast, Mr Hyde’s house in Soho is in a
  “dismal quarter” with “ragged children”

(19C London)

Question 2

How do physical places and spaces reflect Stevenson’s theme of duality (or the double nature) of man?

(Dr Jekyll’s House)

Answer 2

• Dr Jekyll’s house, like his character, has a split personality
• 2 different doors (house and lab) lead into one single building
• Laboratory described as:
  “sinister” and “sordid” and mysterious, shut away
  “nothing but a door”
• place where he experiments = sinful, shameful, hidden from all

(Dr Jekyll’s House)

Question 3

How does Stevenson create the impression that Jekylls laboratory is sinister?

Answer 3

• Describes the door of the lab as
  “blistered and distained”
• this suggests it is unhealthy and ugly
• Lab is a “dingy windowless structure”
• This suggests it is dark and mysterious
• Used by Mr Hyde who has a key
• Sinister person associated with sinister place

Question 4

Why are there recurring descriptions of fog throughout the story

no quotes

Answer 4

• Streets and houses are often cloaked in fog, gloom and murkiness to symbolise the nightmarish, hidden world that exists behind the city’s and the individual’s surface / exterior
• Fog symbolises secrecy, mystery, pollution & confusion (not bring able to see clearly)

Question 5

Why is there recurring descriptions of fog throughout the story?

quotes

Answer 5

• “a great chocolate coloured pall lowered over heaven”
  Pall - cloth draped over a coffin creates sense of dread, foreboding, evil coming
  Heaven - symbolises Jekyll’s good character
  Pall - Hyde is like the pall (evil) descending on Jekyll
• “even in the houses the fog began to lie quickly”
  Fog getting into safe spaces, homes, like evil penetrating people’s lives

Question 6

Why is Jekyll’s laboratory described as “foggy” ?

Answer 6

• Fog implies a sense of hiding and mystery
• “foggy” laboratory because activities there are hidden away and secret

Question 7

Why is it significant that Stevenson sets his story in London?

Answer 7

• Novel is in the gothic genre (elements of horror & mystery)
• gothic stories often set in castles in far away places
• London setting was very familiar to readers, this bought them closer to the story which made it more scary / more real
• “city in a nightmare”

Question 8

How does Stevenson use fog to emphasise his theme of appearance vs reality?

Answer 8

• Repeatedly streets of London are cloaked in fog, image of cloaking suggests hiding or covering something up
• Dr Jekyll hides his sinister side behind a “cloak” of respectability

Question 9

How is moonlight significant in the novel?

context

Answer 9

• Occasional moonlight illuminates certain events - symbolises how the reader only sees parts of truth at once
• cannot see whole picture
  e.g Carew’s murder happens on a “cloudless” night “brilliantly lit by the full moon”
• Sinister acts cannot be concealed

Question 10

How is moonlight significant in the novel?

quotes + quote description

Answer 10

• “a pale moon is lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her”
• Personification of moon as a knocked down woman suggests something is wrong

Question 11

How does Stevenson add tension with the settings he describes?

Answer 11

• In Utterson’s nightmare about Mr Hyde he runs through “wider labyrinths of a lamp lighted city”
• Labyrinths = mazes : confusing to find your way, reflects Utterson’s confusion on Jekyll and Hyde
• Lamplighted city - Utterson is trying to shed light on the mystery of J & H