Summary of Chapter 10 - Full statement of the case Flashcards
1
Jekyll gives some basic personal background: he was born wealthy, handsome (‘endowed with excellent parts), hard-working and keen to be respected - an ideal Victorian gentleman.
2
However, he speaks of a ‘gaiety of disposition’ (a liking for pleasure in his life) which he disapproves of and which he tries to hide, creating a
‘profound duplicity of me’, meaning his life is like an untruth or lie.
3
He then ‘scientifically’ discusses how a person, or self, is made of more
than one part.
4
He questions whether greater happiness for each self could be achieved if they were separated.
5
His ‘theory’ is then helped by some insights ‘from the laboratory table’ as to how the parts could be separated. The ‘temptation’ of his discoveries causes him to put ideas into practice and so he experiments with chemicals.
6
However, he withholds his methods for two reasons: because of the burden this knowledge places on the person who knows it; because his work was ‘incomplete’ and so should not be shared.
7
Jekyll’s transformation is described. It is painful and vivid. He views himself in a mirror to find that his new, immoral character’s form is
‘shrunken’; he believes that this is because he is nine-tenths a good person and only one-tenth bad, so this is shown physically. He drinks the potion again to return to being Jekyll. However, he falls into the
‘slavery of his new power and changes at will. He enjoys committing immoral ‘crimes’ without his usual conscience stopping him.
8
He refers to the strong reactions of revulsion in others when they meet
Hyde (as has been described throughout the story). He explains that Hyde is ‘pure evil’ and people have not experienced this before as the separate ‘selfs’ within a person have not been divided in this way before.
9
Jekyll gives a retrospective account of the incident with the child and the murder of Sir Danvers Carew.
10
The details are the same as in the previous accounts, but information about feelings of enjoyment is added.
