Science

• Industrial revolution


  • Led to rapid rate of scientific development in the Victorian era
  • Rapid changes in both technology and science started influencing everyday life
  • Caused social unease, with people scared of what would happen in the future
• Devolution


  Fears sparked by Charles Darwin's work in the Victorian era
• Scientists


  • Stevenson subverts the contemporary reader's expectations of career stereotypes within the text
  • Within Victorian society, scientists were considered trustworthy whereas lawyers were considered deceitful, Stevenson reverses these traits in the text
  • This subversion serves to heighten tension for the reader
• Scientific experimentation


  • Stevenson builds upon a Victorian reader's fears around science by showing how far science can be pushed
  • Jekyll's work into the metaphysical makes the scientific community within the text uncomfortable, this anxiety will be transferred to the reader
  • The violent lexis in "war of attitudes" depicts this conflict within the scientific community
  • Lanyon describes Jekyll's work as "unscientific balderdash" which highlights the conflict between Lanyon and Jekyll
  • This conflict mirrors the tensions between religion and science which was apparent within society
• Scientific experiments


  • The descriptions of Jekyll's scientific experiments treads a fine line between scientific experimentation and the supernatural
  • The scientific language "added one of the powders" could also be seen as akin to spells and witchcraft
  • Stevenson manipulates scientific syntactic structure in the reference "began, in proportion as the crystals melted, to brighten in colour" which emphasises the tension between Jekyll's inner irrationality and the rationality of science
• Narration


  • The narration further adds to the feeling of unease
  • Chapters 1-8 focus on the perspective of Mr Utterson in the third person, creating the impression that he is a reliable narrator
  • Chapter 9 is in the form of a letter written by Dr Lanyon in the first person, indicative of an unreliable narrator and foreshadowing the forthcoming irrational events
  • The text ends with a first person letter written by Jekyll in which he summarises all of the previously described events from his own viewpoint
  • These different narrative viewpoints creates uncertainty in the reader as they have to piece together what happens as the story progresses and choose which parts to believe