Stevenson sets the scene in typically mysterious fashion in the first chapter by describing Hyde and his house in a way which that is fitting to his nefarious, mysterious personality. This is shown by the line “the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence” where Hyde’s door is“equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained”. The quotation implies how the door on one side of the house has been symbolised as a “sordid”, in other words, “dirty” and unpleasant. Hyde’s door is without bell or knocker. This tells us that this person has never wanted to welcome a guest to his house: secrecy abounds. By contrast, the theme of duality is immediately presented; the other door, which is used by Jekyll, looks completely the opposite. …show more content…
The quotation “well-polished brasses and general cleanliness”, represents how the good person, outward appearances, at least, a theme synonymous with Victorian values, behaves towards his house. The reader who, like so many already knows the famous story, know this to belong to Jekyll. Jekyll’s side of the house seems to juxtapose with Hyde’s, just as the split, antagonistic personalities do throughout the novel. Besides, the use of simile “like a fire in a forest” emphasises to the reader how unsavoury and miserable Hyde’s door looks. Overall, for the first time reading, we feel a foreshadowing that develops into the duality of man, at this point symbolised through the appearance of the door, one side leading to the kindheartedness of human; however, the other seems to be the gateway to the dark part of the human soul. We are hence invited into the plot. Meanwhile, Hyde’s neglected door is illustrated as “equipped with neither bell nor knocker”. From this, we are encouraged to continue reading as we want to know what’s going to happen next and what is behind those doors. More specifically, we want to know more about who lives there and want an explanation as to their significance. Later in chapter 1, the first impression of Hyde has been thrust on the reader making us baffled about what is wrong with him.
An example of this would be how Utterson outline Hyde as “He’s an extraordinary looking man”. In contrast, Utterson said, “I really can name nothing out of the way”. These quotations add the theme of secrecy upon the reader as we are confused by the double characteristics of Hyde between how he looks physically and how his inner soul played out. In consequence, for some reason, nobody seems to remember his appearances at all like none of them would ever want to. In addition, the theme of religion, God and the Devil is employed to show the ultimate antithesis in Jekyll and Hyde. The simile “like Satan’ and the metaphor, ‘the Day of Judgement” construct the feeling of evil upon the face and body of Hyde which will soon be punished by god in this day, thus, we feel that his deformity must have a cause and also an …show more content…
end. In chapter 2, Utterson has been dreaming about Hyde’s action in night time where he “trampled” the poor girl on the street.
The dream is written in a descriptive way by using phrases such as “human Juggernaut” and a “figure of a man”. The hyperbole “human Juggernaut” exaggerate how Hyde may behave like a heartless machine. To put it another way, this hyperbole is also an oxymoron between human with the “juggernaut”, a vehicle of evil, inhuman, and deformity. The “figure of a man” implies that Hyde only appears human, bodily, but his behaviour is anything but: an emotionless figure. After that, from Utterson’s perception of Hyde, we’ve learned how he appears to be small and act weirdly through emotive vocabulary choices such as “speaking with a husky voice” yet has “a murderous mixture of timidity and boldness”. Here, there is a contrast between the two opposite emotions, where it replicates a conflicting, dichotomy - two-sided emotions in human mind. The aspects, which Dr Jekyll is trying, through his experiments to separate, are personified and brought to life vividly in this horrendous scene. Meanwhile, his strangeness can also be interpreted from what Lanyon whom is Jekyll’s old friend said as “Henry Jekyll has become too fanciful”. From the use of emotive language “too fanciful”, we can probably guess that this is the main reason why Dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll are acquaintances and no longer friends to each other. On the other hand, when we reread the story again, we
observe this as a technique used to foreshadow that Jekyll’s experiments have gone out of control. The irony, of course, is that Lanyon will discover, to his peril, that Jekyll’s experiments are not “fanciful” and that they result in an all too disturbing reality, that is the manifestation of Hyde. The plot unfolds slowly. However, the mystery and suspense accelerate. Many Victorians were afraid of violent crimes and this was why this genre became so popular. They were also God-fearing people and Stevenson employs religious symbolism regularly, presenting Hyde as a devilish embodiment. The other quotations that draw attention to the battle between good and evil are found in symbolic dialogue - “the man seems hardly human!” and “I read Satan’s signature upon a face”. This obviously signifies the face of Edward Hyde as belonging to the devil and disclosed by Hyde’s malevolent actions as he is portrayed by the word “troglodytic” which means cave dwelling and again inhuman. Through second reading, we will also realise how Utterson’s true interpretation has real ironies as he is speaking for Jekyll himself that he has become Satan: a devil that will ultimately visit Lanyon in “person”. Lanyon is Hyde’s foil. He does not believe in Jekyll’s Science until it is too late. Further in chapter 9, this fact has come back to intensify us when Lanyon has been called for help on delivering drugs to Hyde and when Hyde drinks the potion, he “reeled, staggered, clutched” and turned into Jekyll. We as a reader feel staggered at this truth and realise on the irony that Lanyon said: “Jekyll has become too fanciful”. In chapter 3, Jekyll responds with an absurd, tormenting look while Utterson is interrogating Jekyll about Hyde. It is clear from the quotation “the large handsome face of Dr Jekyll grew pale to the very lips”. We suspect or know that Jekyll is involved with Hyde is some way for sure as he is unpleasant and disturbed by Utterson’s question. The tension is created as the narrator struggles to understand why Jekyll is bound to the villain - Hyde. There is a promise made by Utterson to Jekyll -“you promise me that you will bear with him and get rights for him”. Here, the irony between the impression of Hyde by Jekyll, innocent and guiltless, and the lack of sentiments provide a catastrophic enigma on the reader .Through rereading, this irony may divulge how Jekyll is attempting to erase his own evil done by the other form of him, Hyde, so that he can get rid of that condemnation and become ‘innocent’; thus, this creates a shameful feeling upon his excuse. The start of chapter 4 creates immediate atmosphere and tension with a shocking and stunning description of an initially romantic looking London. The title, “The Carew Murder Case”, is interesting because the word “murder” tells us that there is madness behind this “case” and it still remains unsolved. These vocabulary choices append a tragic and mournful humour upon the reader to this chapter. As shown in the pathetic fallacy of London, there is a juxtaposition between “lit by the full moon” and “night is cloudiness”. These descriptions contrast the pure light from the moon to the darkness of a murder. The use of opposite colours, between “white hair” and the “dark night” time colour provides a sense of wicked temper to the reader. A dark crime is painted on a pale, clear canvas. In addition, various striking, blunt, and punchy images can also be recognised as they imprint an immediate effect on us. It can be illustrated from the metaphor “the great flame of anger”; the simile “like a madman”, and the simile ”ape-like fury”. The raging image from these extracts have all been intentionally directed to us to show an animalistic brutality within mankind by comparing to the ape and madman, their anger is with a “great flame”, using the language to show violence such as “brandishing the cane” and “clubbed him”, or even by the slightly onomatopoeic sound “shattered” . In spite of the fact he is seen doing the crime, he is not caught - this creates tension. The fact that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person is yet one true fact that Stevenson withholds until the end. When Mr Utterson visited Jekyll in chapter 5, he suddenly finds out that Jekyll is in sickness as his laboratory hasn’t been used for a long time and his look seems to be different. The passage “sat Dr Jekyll, looking deathly sick”. The narration makes us ponder what has happened to the poor Jekyll and whether this is relevance to Carew’s murder case in the past chapter which is done by Hyde. The already informed reader cringes as Utterson struggles to piece together the seemingly impossible situation - that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. The dramatic irony continues to build. We watch Jekyll lose control over his project. We may realise that this is because he is able to remember all that Hyde does. After the first reading, despite the fact that he became deathly sick, there is a clear blame in Dr Lanyon’s narrative which in the end he reveals how he was shocked at the truth of Jekyll being one form of Hyde and was “my life is shaken to its roots”. Hence, he becomes too much Hyde and is not being able to rest as Jekyll enough. Likewise, you can observe how Jekyll changes by the quote “welcome in a changed voice” or “held out a cold hand”. As we may have heard before, this use of “cold hand” has given a contrast back to the first few chapters where he has a “warm hand”. Another quotation whereby it gives a sense of ambiguity to the rhetorical question “I swear to God I will never set eyes on him again. I bind my honour to you that I am done with him in this world. It is all at an end”. Jekyll here is trying to rid himself of Hyde - we suspect at this point that he will fail but remain morbidly eager to watch Dr Jekyll’s demise. Although, in chapter 6, Jekyll has turned into a generous and upstanding citizen for more than two months in an attempt to atone for Hyde’s sins, there’s a sudden mood swing as “on the 14th, the door was shut against the lawyer”. The symbolic image of the door heralds Jekyll’s secrets that lie beyond the door. As Utterson visited Dr Lanyon, gothic nouns have been used in the word “death-warrant” meaning that Dr Lanyon is going to die soon. This stream of consciousness shows this sign of death which might be related to Jekyll’s change in personality. We as a reader feel discerned to know what motive could have make Jekyll do this to Dr Lanyon this much. Moreover, this theory is emphasised by the response Dr Lanyon has to Jekyll, “I am quite done with that person”.
The criticism by Vladimir Nabokov, supports the claim that Stevenson uses symbolisms to express ideas and to create suspense. Finally Stevenson’s certain tone when he describes Hyde or the evil things the Hyde commit allowed him to express Hyde’s evil and created an unusual atmosphere. When Hyde was described he was described as small and the facial expression of his was very odd and hard to explain “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with some sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering somewhat broken voice” (Stevenson 16). After Utterson’s first encounter with Hyde, he is just amazed and shocked because of Hyde’s physical appearance. Also in their first encounter, the setting was very dark and gloomy which adds to the claim. Also the description of Hyde symbolizes Hyde’s evil. Hyde’s ugliness and his deformed face symbolizes his evil, his small size symbolize Jekyll’s evil side inside him that was repressed for so long along with the dark setting. Another symbolism used in the book is between Jekyll’s laboratory and his house. Jekyll’s house is described as a place of wealth and comfort but his laboratory is described as “a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the streets” (Stevenson 6). The wealthy house represents the respectable man Jekyll and the laboratory represents the corrupt Hyde. Normal people will not see the two structures as one just like how they won’t be able to see the relationship between Hyde and
In both The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the 1941 movie adaptation, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a strong representation of evil is present. Both the film and the novel are surrounded with sense of immorality and sin. The text and the film have economical and historical characteristics that help define evil. While the film alone has a strong representation of evil surrounding gender and relationships.
As specified, descriptions cannot be called descriptions. Moreover, in a extremely important moment, the transformation, when Mr. Hyde should appear in all his glory, words simply avoid his figure. Trying to find a reason for this strange way to proceed Sami Schalk wrote an interesting article: “What Makes Mr. Hyde So Scary?: Disability as a Result of Evil and Cause of Fear”. One of the main ideas of the text is that Stevenson takes advantage of Victorians’ mentality and uses this untraceable disability of Mr. Hyde in order to produce fear:
This passage is significant in the novel for the sudden changes which are revealed in the characters of Lanyon and Jekyll, which are as yet inexplicable for the reader. In the preceding chapter the reader has learned of the connection between the handwriting of Jekyll and Hyde, with Guest noticing that they are identical, yet 'differently sloped '. This chapter, therefore, comes as a shock to the reader, as there has been nothing to suggest why Lanyon should so suddenly fall ill, nor why Jekyll should decide to 'lead a life of extreme seclusion '. Later in the novel the reader will discover that it was Jekyll 's relapse into the form of Hyde while comparing his 'active goodwill ' to the 'lazy cruelty ' of those
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll’s struggle between two personalities is the cause of tragedy and violence. Dr. Jekyll takes his friends loyalty and unknowingly abuses it. In this novella, Stevenson shows attributes of loyalty, how friendship contributes to loyalty, and how his own life affected his writing on loyalty.
To conclude the way that Stevenson has described Hyde and what Jekyll has done in most parts he has related it to the devil which in Victorian times was considered very dangerous, even though today he’s not considered that powerful it would still make a big impact. Stevenson has been successful in using many elements of a shocker/thriller to write a novella with a much deeper moral significance because every aspect of the story relates back to the Victorian morals of 1837 till 1901 and for a 21st century reader some parts of the novella will make them think what is really happening around them now and whether it is right or not!
Within the text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson portrays a complex power struggle between Dr. Jekyll, a respected individual within Victorian London society, and Mr. Hyde a villainous man tempted with criminal urges, fighting to take total control of their shared body. While Dr. Jekyll is shown to be well-liked by his colleagues, Mr. Hyde is openly disliked by the grand majority of those who encounter him, terrified of his frightful nature and cruel actions. Throughout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson portrays the wealthy side of London, including Mr. Utterson and Dr. Jekyll, as respected and well-liked, while showing the impoverish side as either non-existent or cruel.
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde becomes Jekyll's demonic, monstrous alter ego. Certainly Stevenson presents him immediately as this from the outset. Hissing as he speaks, Hyde has "a kind of black sneering coolness . . . like Satan". He also strikes those who witness him as being "pale and dwarfish" and simian like. The Strange Case unfolds with the search by the men to uncover the secret of Hyde. As the narrator, Utterson, says, "If he be Mr. Hyde . . . I shall be Mr. Seek". Utterson begins his quest with a cursory search for his own demons. Fearing for Jekyll because the good doctor has so strangely altered his will in favor of Hyde, Utterson examines his own conscience, "and the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded a while in his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there" (SC, 42). Like so many eminent Victorians, Utterson lives a mildly double life and feels mildly apprehensive about it. An ugly dwarf like Hyde may jump out from his own boxed self, but for him such art unlikely creature is still envisioned as a toy. Although, from the beginning Hyde fills him with a distaste for life (SC, 40, not until the final, fatal night, after he storms the cabinet, can Utterson conceive of the enormity of Jekyll's second self. Only then does he realize that "he was looking on the body of a self-dcstroyer" (SC, 70); Jekyll and Hyde are one in death as they must have been in life.
Stevenson’s most prominent character in the story is the mysterious Mr Hyde. Edward Hyde is introduced from the very first chapter when he tramples a young girl in the street, which brings the reader’s attention straight to his character. The reader will instantly know that this person is a very important part of this book and that he plays a key role in the story. This role is the one of a respectable old man named Dr Jekyll’s evil side or a ‘doppelganger’. This links in with the idea of duality. Dr Jekyll is described as being ‘handsome’, ‘well-made’ and ‘smooth-faced’. On the other hand, Mr Hyde is described as being ‘hardly human’, ‘pale and dwarfish’, giving of an impression of deformity and ‘so ugly that it brought out the sweat on (Mr Enfield) like running’! These words all go together to conjure up an image in the mind of an animal, beast or monster. During the novel...
...ve duality of man;… if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both” Thus, Stevenson creates in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, two coexistent, and eternally opposed components that make up a “normal” individual. However, here, good and evil are not related but are two independent entities, individuals even, different in mental and physical attributes and constantly at war with each other. Evil now does not require the existence of good to justify itself but it exists simply as itself, and is depicted as being the more powerful, the more enjoyable of the two, and in the end ultimately it is the one that leads to Dr. Jekyll's downfall and death. Stevenson creates the perfect metaphor for the never-ending battle between good and evil by using Jekyll and Hyde. However, this novella is perhaps one of the few that truly show the power of Evil.
The reader is drawn to the plot of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through the literary devices Stevenson employs. Foreshadowing displays the sense of mystery throughout the novel, the foreshadowing of the actions of Mr. Hyde leaves the reader wondering what will happen next. The ironic nature of Dr. Jekyll relates to the reader as a person, no person is completely perfect and Dr. Jekyll exhibits the natural wants and desires of humans. The irony behind Mr. Hyde adds an enigmatic side to the plot. These two devices expose the readers to the complexity of the novel and reveal the inner meaning of the hidden details.
As an example Utterson expresses his concern for Jekyll to the audience by thinking “Poor Harry Jekyll . . . my mind misgives me he is in deep waters!” He’s obviously not literally drowning but we understand that he means it figuratively and metaphorically. In fact our main characters Jekyll and Hyde are metaphors for good and evil.
Everything in this story has a Dual side, including the setting in London, London had streets that were respectable and others that were made of squalor and crime. In the story of Dr.Jekyll and Hyde characters hid their side and showed only one certain side, as a matter of fact a quote from the book that says “an ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy: but her manners were excellent..” (Stevenson Chapter 4 P 54). This quote is trying to convey a message of Mr.Hyde's keeper being oh so well mannered, but don't let her fool you she was an evil person. That quote was also trying to demonstrate good versus evil and how it is conveyed through the book. Hyde was taking control completely over Dr.Jekyll , Dr.Jekyll was sure that there was no way for him to regain his identity, and his only option was to flee. “I lingered but a moment at the mirror; the second and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen if I lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house.” (Stevenson Chapter 10 P 112) Dr.Jekyll’s
When Jekyll first turns into Hyde, he feels delighted at his newfound freedom. He states: "... And yet when I looked upon /that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, /rather of a leap of welcome..."(131). Now he could be respected as a scientist and explore his darker passions. Stevenson shows duality of human nature through society.
This guilt drives him to have “clasped hands to God…tears and prayers to smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds that his memory swarmed against him” (Stevenson 57). As a whole, the text demonstrates that Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego, Mr. Hyde, is the mastermind of pure malevolence who participates in activities that Dr. Jekyll cannot Jekyll experiences. For instance, Dr. Jekyll’s physical appearance begins to decline as he stops taking the draught. The text describes Dr. Jekyll’s physical characteristics as “looking deadly sick” when his is usually a “large well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness” (Stevenson 19-25). Not only does Dr. Jekyll’s health begin to decline, but also his behavior changes as well.