dr jekyll quotes

• "I am the chief of sinners. I am the chief of sufferers."


  Jekyll in his letter to Utterson: he is troubled and tortured. The repetition of "I am" highlights his guilt. He refers to himself as 2 people which could be in relation to his dual nature. He calls himself a "sinner" and a "sufferer" portraying Hyde as a parasitic character who is consuming him with evil.
• "and from these agonies of death and birth I had come forth an angel instead of a fiend."


  This was Jekyll's initial thought when he became Hyde, he thought it was a good thing that he can now indulge in his pleasures but the juxtaposition of "angel" and "fiend" and "death" and "birth" emphasises the idea of good vs evil. The reader knows that Hyde is not a good thing, but Jekyll isn't aware of this yet and this creates suspense.
• "every mark of capacity and kindness." 


  the noun "mark" gives connotations of longevity and permanence and this was ironic as Jekyll's capacity and kindness did not last for very long when he transformed into Hyde, showing that Jekyll's morals were weak to begin with. This links to repressed Victorian London.
• "my devil had long been caged, he came out roaring"


  referencing his inner "devil" which is a manifestation of Jekyll's deepest desires in the form of Hyde. The notion of "devil" through religious allusion denotes a stark contrast with Christian ideas of morality. The verb "roaring" has connotations of an animalistic and deadly expression of his repressed elements in Hyde.