jekyll and Hyde

• Utterson


  Serious-minded man with a respectable and serious profession, yet still "lovable"
• Utterson: '"Trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground. It sounds nothing to hear , but it was hellish to see."'
• Oxymoron

  • "calmly" suggests Hyde had no compulsions over harming the child, and contrast between this and the "screaming" emphasises how callous he was. "Hellish" not only tells us how awful of a sight it was, but links Hyde's actions to something evil or 'damned'
• Hyde's actions


  Brutality and violence, foreshadowing the violence and evil that Hyde continues to wreak throughout the novel
• Simile: "it was like some damned Juggernaut"


  Links to Hindu concept of a huge wagon which carried the image of the God Krishna. Worshippers were thought to throw themselves under the wheels of the wagon and were crushed to death. Shows brutality and violence. "It" - Hyde's animalistic or even supernatural nature - something inhuman
• Hyde: '"If you choose to make capital out of this accident,' said he, 'I am naturally helpless. No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene,' says he. 'Name your figure.'"'
• Hyde's statement


  • Strange that he would be concerned about being a gentleman after trampling a girl 2) Suggests he is "naturally helpless" when such a creature being concerned about what is natural is very strange 3) Idea that others would want to benefit from the girl's suffering, and that Hyde would know it, is striking
• Oxymoron: "with a kind of black sneering coolness - frightened too... but carrying it off really like Satan"


  "Black" = darkness/danger, Hyde's true character. "Sneering" = Hyde is happy with his destructive actions. "Coolness" = emotionless and has no care about his actions
• "The very pink of the proprieties"


  Best of gentleman - "pink" means the most excellent example of something; the embodiment or model of a particular quality
• Utterson and Enfield


  Agree not to gossip anymore and let the past rest because they realize that they each have aspects of their past of which they are ashamed. Unveiling these secrets could be detrimental to their own, or others', statuses within society
• Lanyon: '"He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind"'
• "without bowels of mercy"


  Allows the reader to instantly recognise Hyde in a negative way as an evil character, Stevenson portrays him as an image of pure evil. Emotive language creates an image of an evil looking person with a personality to match, lacking compassion, human sympathy and a sense of morality
• Hyde's appearance


  • "Pale and dwarfish" - Physiognomy suggests he is evil. Utterson's description of Hyde echoes Enfield's description. The characters that meet Hyde are all convinced that something is "wrong"with him but cannot pin point what it is. Seems inhuman, undeveloped - idea of Darwin
• Hyde: '"Snarled aloud into a savage laugh"'
• "murderous mixture of timidity and boldness"


  The juxtaposition conveys the strange mixture of personality traits Hyde possessed
• "something troglodytic"


  A troglodyte is a cave-dweller, and the word is often used to mean a cave-man or type of troll - supernatural
• Jekyll's room


  "the pleasantest room in London" - Irony and juxtaposition as Jekyll's room is a facade for the true sinful and ungodly experiments
• Personification: "Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace."


  "Ghost" - connotations of being haunted or troubled by the past. "Sin" expresses the idea of religion and wrongdoing. "Cancer" - implies something growing that is hard to eradicate. "Concealed" suggests secrets or mystery
• Dr. Jekyll's appearance


  • "A large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty" - In the nineteenth century there was a popular belief that one could identify a person's nature from his/her external appearance. Stevenson provides Dr. Jekyll with refined physical attributes to directly contrast them with the troglodytic appearance of Mr. Hyde
• Metaphor: "Great flame of anger": 'Destructive, no care and showing no emotion. Foreshadowing death. Fire spreads just like Hyde's vicious actions. Symbolises evil. Danger to society'
• Description of murder scene


  • "The stick with which the deed had been done...had broken under the stress of this insensate cruelty; and one splintered half had rolled in the neighbouring gutter'" - Depicts the brutality of the murder, makes the reader despise Hyde for his cruelty. Use of "insensate" shows how emotionless Hyde was
• Metaphor: "Ape like fury": 'Implies Hyde is aggressive, brutal and uncontrollable, inhumane and low on hierarchy. Links to Darwin's theory - suggests Stevenson's lack of belief about existence of God'
• Simile: "like a district of some city in a nightmare"


  Utterson now sees London in a different light, as an evil place shrouded in lies and false promises, where a nightmare would take place. Duality has been introduced, reality goes against all of Victorian London's morals
• Metaphor: "A great chocolate coloured pall lowered over heaven"


  Fog and the connotations that come with it, the chocolatey colour could metaphorically come from the idea of Carew's blood being mixed with the dark grey colour of the usual fog that covers London. Links to the industrial revolution. "Pall" links to death, links to evil which covers heaven representing the battle between good (religion) and bad (science - existence of Hyde)
• Utterson: '"Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!"'
• Utterson's view of Jekyll

  Angry that Jekyll is covering a murderer. Lost trust - calls by full name, not Jekyll. Skips to assumptions, reader knows this isn't fully true - ironic
• Jekyll's reputation


  "Whilst he had always been known for charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion" - Religion is part of building reputation fitting in with society. Ironic as Hyde goes against religion who represents natural inner evil and impulses. Jekyll puts on a facade for Victorian society
• Utterson's thoughts


  "deep-seated terror of the mind" - Utterson thinks Lanyon is afraid of dying. Another one of Utterson's wrong assumptions that distracts our attention from what is really happening. Mystery
• Jekyll: '"I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion"'
• Jekyll's statement


  Mystery, can't show himself to society, wants to live by himself, maybe because of lack of control over Hyde, foreshadowing
• Jekyll: '"you must suffer me to go my own dark way"'
• Jekyll's statement


  Suggests an inevitable and ill-fated journey, yet perversely heroic too. Recognises what he's doing is wrong, to the point where he describes himself as the 'chief' of all sinners
• Jekyll's isolation and suffering


  As Hyde continues to take over, Jekyll becomes increasingly isolated and unwell. It may also be considered a sin that Jekyll created Hyde in the first place, because he's playing the role of god
• If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also

  Jekyll recognises that what he's doing is wrong, to the point where he describes himself as the 'chief' of all these (a superlative in a sense, the sinners of all sinners)
• Jekyll recognises that what he's doing is wrong


  The reader can deduce the severity of what hyde does, despite much of what he does not being explicitly mentioned in the novel, instead leaving it to the reader's imagination
• Jekyll greatly enjoys being hyde and indulging in what he does

  It also takes a toll on him- mentally and physically
• Dr Jekyll's behaviour


  • Suddenly changes, becomes more erratic as the novella develops
• Poole, usually calm and collected, is terribly affected by his fear

  Emphasises the effect Hyde has on people - terrifying, completely un civilised
• Simile - Poole compares his master to a woman


  Emphasising on the idea that women were considered to be weak. Woman put on the same level as ultimate evil?
• Jekyll murders himself through Hyde


  Destroying his reputation in society. Hyde's overtaking evil. The supernatural as the idea of committing suicide goes against the bible's teaching, ie the 'natural course' in life