Themes Flashcards
What are the 3 main themes in Jekyll and Hyde?
Scientific development
Nature v supernatural
Duality of humans
Who is Dr.Jekyll?
A respected, intelligent scientist who has a dark and immoral side.
How does he try to activate this side?
Experiments.
What is the main idea Stevenson is trying to create?
That every human has both evil and good inside of them, but it is the decisions you make that determine if a person is good or bad.
What is some context surrounding the duality of human nature?
The pious nature of Victorian society meaning that many suppressed true feelings and desires. Meant many people thought they had an uncovered second side to them that was evil and not the goodness they expressed day to day.
What does Jekyll’s death represent?
The interference with the supernatural and the natural. The supernatural caused his natural end.
Who represents “the natural” in the novel?
Dr. Lanyon - rational views of science, has a horrified response to Jekyll’s experiments which causes him to die.
What is some context surrounding natural v supernatural?
Dr. Jekyll experiments show that science can cause something seen as supernatural to many.
At the time of the industrial revolution and the advances of technology, many people began to see the power of science and how it creates many things seemed to be impossible.
What is some context surrounding scientific development?
Religion was important - many people believed God created the universe.
The reaction to Darwinism showed people were afraid of scientific development and what it would do to mankind.
How did Darwin’s book ‘Origins of the species’ go down with the public?
Condemned by society.
Shook society.
What does Lanyon’s fear of the experiments represent?
Shows societies fear of science and it’s capabilities.
What does the fact that Dr.Jekyll’s experiments go wrong show?
It shows that science can not be trusted, in the view point of Victorian individuals.
How does the duality of nature link to secrecy and repression?
Many people were hiding their “double self”.
