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Strange Case
of Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde
Revision Guide

AQA English
Literature
Text guide and
practice exam questions

For grade 9-1

GCSE English Literature
 Contents
How to Use This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About the Exam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What’s It About?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Form and Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Who’s Who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Themes: Duality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Themes: Duality - Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Themes: Duality - Key Quotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Themes: Duality - Mini Exams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Themes: Duality - Exam Question. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Themes: Duality - Sample Answer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Themes: Religion and Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Themes: Religion and Morality - Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Themes: Religion and Morality - Key Quotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Themes: Religion and Morality - Mini Exams . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Themes: Religion and Morality - Exam Question. . . . . . . . . . 37
Themes: Religion and Morality - Sample Answer . . . . . . . . . 39

Themes: Reputations and Secrets. . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Key Quotes . . . . . . . . . . 48
Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Mini Exams . . . . . . . . . . 49
Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Exam Question. . . . . . . 50
Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Sample Answer . . . . . . 51

Themes: Science and the Supernatural . . . . . . . 56

Themes: Science and the Supernatural - Context. . . . . . . . . 58
Themes: Science and the Supernatural - Key Quotes . . . . . 60
Themes: Science and the Supernatural - Mini Exams . . . . . 61
Themes: Science and the Supernatural - Exam Question . . 62
Themes: Science and the Supernatural - Sample Answer . 64

Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Contents
2
 How to Use This Guide
When revising, knowing where to start can be daunting. Here, you can find out
more about what’s included in this revision guide and how best to use it.

Who’s Who
Here, you’ll find information on each of the key characters and their role in the
novella, as well as key words you could use when describing them. If you hover
over each character’s picture, you’ll find a question to prompt you to think
about the character in greater depth.
Summary
This section gives a chapter-by-chapter summary of the novella. It is important
to have a solid understanding of the plot; this summary contains all key details
but you can test your own knowledge by writing your own summary or by
creating a pictorial mind map.

Themes
These sections cover the main themes of Jekyll and Hyde. Literature exams
demand that you think thematically; in other words, to write primarily about
the writer’s bigger ideas rather than just what happens in the plot. Each theme
is divided into sub-sections to help you develop a thorough understanding.

Context
Within each theme is relevant contextual information. Context refers to the
circumstances (what was happening in the author’s life; what was happening
in the wider world; prevailing ideas and influences) that shaped the text. This
information will give you a fuller understanding of the novella and its themes.
For each theme, create a context poster that will help you to remember
critical information.

Key Quotes
The more quotations you are able to remember, the easier you will find it to
answer whatever question comes up in the exam. These key quotes come with
language analysis, demonstrating what can be done with a few well-chosen
words. Wherever possible, they are also taken from a range of characters
and chapters – it is useful to do the same in your own exam answer to show
understanding of the whole text.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

How to Use This Guide
1
 Try covering the quotes and writing them from memory as accurately as you
can; it doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re not word perfect, as long as the
meaning is precisely conveyed and key words that invite deeper analysis are
included. Also, consider how you would analyse any other quotes you already
know – if you don’t have much to say about them, particularly if you can’t
pick out powerful words or literary devices, then look for alternatives.

Mini Exams
These questions test your understanding of the theme and encourage
deeper thought. You could discuss in a small group of friends to compare
and contrast ideas, then either plan a response or write a full answer. It’s
important to get used to working under timed conditions so give yourself a
set time to write, say 15 minutes. Then have a partner read your response
and identify where Assessment Objectives (explained in About the Exam)
have been met.

Exam Question
The exam questions are written in the same style and format as the one
you’ll answer in the real exam. Practise by setting yourself a timer of 45
minutes to plan and write a response.

Sample Answers
For each exam question, there are two sample answers provided. The first is
a ‘good’ response and the second is a ‘great’ one. Each is colour coded and
annotated to explain where different Assessment Objectives have been met.
Remember, the examiner wants to see your personal interpretation of the
text so these are not ‘right’ answers, merely ones to learn from. Try applying
annotations to your own practice responses, reinforcing what you’ve done
well and giving tips for improvement. This can be difficult to do so don’t be
shy in asking friends and teachers for help.

Glossary
Being academic sometimes means saying relatively simple things in more
impressive terms! Throughout this guide you will find gold highlighted words
that might impress your examiner. The glossary tells you what these words
mean, just in case you didn’t already know. A hover function also reveals the
definitions so that you don’t have to go back and forth to the glossary while
reading.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

How to Use This Guide
2
 About the Exam
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde appears in Section B of AQA’s English Literature Paper
1: Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel. You have to answer one essay-style question on
your chosen text. Despite the either/or format of the paper, there is no choice – chosen text
refers to the one question on the text that your teacher chose and which you have spent much
time studying, not the one you fancy having a go at because you once saw a good film or TV
adaptation! The question will give you a short extract from the novella and ask you to write
about how Stevenson presents a particular theme or idea, both in the extract and the story as
a whole.

Jekyll and Hyde is also an Edexcel, EDUQAS and OCR exam text. There are variations in
approach but all of the exam questions revolve around the themes of the novella so much of
the information in this revision guide could be applied to all four exam boards.

Whichever one you sit, you won’t be allowed to have a copy of the novella with you so it’s really
important that you revise thoroughly.

The Assessment Objectives also remain the same across all exam boards, although they are
weighted differently.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

About the Exam
3
 The Assessment Objectives
You get marks in the exam for meeting the Assessment Objectives (AOs). The AOs are:

AO1: Read, understand and respond

to texts. Students should be able to: AO1 means that you can show you have read and
• maintain a critical style and develop understood the text. You should give thoughts and
opinions about the novella and use quotes from
an informed personal response
the text as evidence to support points. The more
• use textual references, including detailed and developed your ideas are, the more
quotations, to support and marks you pick up.
illustrate interpretations.

AO2: Analyse the language, form

AO2 means that you can write about the writer’s
and structure used by a writer to
craft. You can analyse the language used, the way
create meanings and effects, using
the novella is structured and the effects of authorial
relevant subject terminology where
choices and the impact they have on readers.
appropriate.

AO3 means that you can describe how the social

and historical context in which the novella was
AO3: Show understanding of the written affects its meaning and how an audience
relationships between texts and the might respond to it. This could include what life
contexts in which they were written. was like at the time it was written and set, what
influenced Stevenson to write it, and major
historical events that impact on understanding.

AO4: Use a range of vocabulary

AO4 means that you can write impressively
and sentence structures for clarity,
yourself. Marks are available for accuracy of
purpose and effect, with accurate
spelling, punctuation and grammar.
spelling and punctuation.

In this revision guide, there are sample answers to GCSE-style questions. These have been
highlighted with the colour code above to show where they have met the AOs.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

About the Exam
4
 Strange Case of
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by

Robert Louis Stevenson

What’s It About?

Gothic horror-cum-supernatural mystery-cum-science fiction thriller, Robert Louis

Stevenson’s nineteenth century novella is plagued by schizophrenic tendencies.
What exactly is the relationship between the upstanding Dr Jekyll and the
malignant Mr Hyde?

The story is so well-known that most modern-day readers come to the text with
at least a vague idea of what’s going on, especially since the titular characters
have become a synonym for split personalities. Nevertheless, the narrative
puzzle of this strange case is secondary to what it teaches us about repressive
Victorian codes of behaviour and the duality of human nature.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

What’s It About?
5
 About the Author
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850. He was a
sickly and solitary child and was afflicted by respiratory problems
throughout his adult life, to the extent that he described himself
on his wedding day as ‘a mere complication of cough
and bones, much fitter for an emblem of mortality
than a bridegroom.’

Lighthouse engineer was the family trade – it

had been the livelihood of Stevenson’s father
and both his grandfathers – but young Robert,
while maintaining an interest in science, had
designs on a literary career. His family were
supportive although they made him study law as
a reputable fallback option.

As well as turning away from the family trade, the adult Stevenson
also rejected his devout Presbyterian upbringing. The strict
religious teachings of his childhood nanny were, in fact, an early
source of nightmares, though the sickly child and his nurse also
cherished each other and his collection of poetry for children, A
Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), is dedicated to her. Stevenson’s
parents were devastated by their son’s profession of atheism but
he was relieved to tell them rather than continue living a lie; ‘O
Lord, what a pleasant thing it is,’ he wrote to a friend, ‘to have
just damned the happiness of probably the only two people who
care a damn about you in the world.’

Despite his ill health and the strong connection he felt to his native
Scotland, Stevenson led a largely itinerant life, globetrotting
between London, France and the United States, where he led a
slightly more debased existence than the one he was used to
in the upper class circles of Edinburgh. It was in France that he
met his future wife, Fanny, a liberated American who had left her
adulterous husband to immerse herself and her children in a life
of European art. She and Stevenson married in 1880.

Through the mid-1880s, Stevenson was largely bedridden yet hit

a creative purple patch that produced Treasure Island (1883), The

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

About the Author
6
 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
and Kidnapped (1886). Jekyll and Hyde,
especially, was written in a kind of fever; his
wife reportedly woke him from a screaming
fit and was admonished for interrupting the
dreaming of ‘a fine bogey tale’. His stepson
recalls, ‘Louis came downstairs in a fever;
read nearly half the book aloud; and then,
while we were still gasping, he was away
again, and busy writing. I doubt if the first
draft took so long as three days.’ Legend
has it that, in response to his wife’s note
that the supernatural horror was really an
Chapter VII - Kidnapped (1886) allegory, Stevenson burnt the first draft
and rewrote it from scratch to draw out the allegorical features.
Biographers have also suggested that drugs played a part in the
frantic writing!

Jekyll and Hyde was published to great acclaim and sold 40,000
copies in six months, cementing Stevenson’s fame as a writer. It
slotted into the popular Gothic tradition of the nineteenth century
that also included Frankenstein (1818), Wuthering Heights (1847),
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and Dracula (1897). Gothic
literature is defined by sinister settings, psychological turmoil
and supernatural or inexplicable events.

From 1890 onwards, Stevenson called Samoa home. The warmer

climate alleviated his ailments but he also admired the innocence
of Samoan life and railed against the British and American
colonisation of ‘uncivilised’ islanders whose rugged culture he
likened to Scotland. His changing outlook on life was echoed by a
late shift in literary style from romance to realism.

Stevenson died in 1894 of a cerebral haemorrhage. He was

talking to his wife and straining to open a bottle of wine when he
suddenly exclaimed, ‘What’s that? Does
my face look strange?’ and collapsed. What links can you make between
Stevenson’s life and the themes of
Jekyll and Hyde?

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

About the Author
7
 Form and Structure
The form of Jekyll and Hyde is best described as a novella, which
is loosely defined as a short-form novel that could feasibly be
read in a single sitting. The novel itself is defined as a long-form
fictional narrative that represents characters with a degree of
psychological realism. Already, the form is drawing attention to
the theme of duality thanks to the ambiguities between long and
short, fictional and real.

Similarly, its genre is not distinct. The pushing of scientific

possibilities could see it classified as science fiction. Yet we often
stereotype science fiction narratives as shiny and futuristic,
whereas Stevenson’s text dwells in the murky streets of Victorian
London. It is frequently categorised as Gothic horror, a retrograde
genre built on the tension between supernatural fantasy and
psychological realism. This seems an uneasy fit with science
fiction, again suggesting that the text itself suffers from multi-
personality disorder! Perhaps we should place it in the mystery
category, for much of the narrative is concerned with Utterson
attempting to solve the mystery of Jekyll’s connection to Hyde
and the motives behind their strange behaviour.

Indeed, the structure of the text accentuates the elements of

mystery. Each chapter tells its own little story, summarised by
the chapter titles and fitting together like the pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle. The first eight chapters, culminating with The Last Night,
have a third-person form overall but with first-person inserts
where Utterson, Enfield, Lanyon and others directly convey their
experiences to one another and to the reader. This blending of
narrative perspectives obscures the reality of the situation until
the last two chapters, when the first-person narratives of Lanyon
and Jekyll explain what’s gone before, though their explanations
of reality still require a suspension of disbelief for this is indeed a
‘strange case’! The text rewards repeat readings because, once
the puzzle is complete and we can see the whole, we will have
different takes on its constituent parts.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Form and Structure
8
 Who’s Who
Dr Henry Jekyll
“All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good
and evil.”

Eponymous character number one, Henry Jekyll is a respectable

and well-regarded gentleman whose perfectly reasonable
belief that within each person there exists both good and
evil leads to him conducting some less well-reasoned
scientific experiments that are responsible for creating…
Key Words: conflicted, reckless, admired

Mr Edward Hyde
“I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow.”
Eponymous character number two, Hyde is the physical
manifestation of Jekyll’s dark side: a small, deformed,
malevolent creature described as ‘pure evil’ by his
creator, who was at least successful in his attempt
to separate the duality of man.
Key Words: abnormal, diabolic, primitive

Mr Gabriel John Utterson

“These are all very strange circumstances, but I think I begin
to see daylight.”
A sober middle-aged lawyer and old friend of
Jekyll, many of the events follow his rational
and balanced perspective.
Key Words: logical, judicious, conscientious

Mr Richard Enfield
“No sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street,
the less I ask.”
Utterson’s cousin who witnesses Hyde’s initial crime and
accompanies Utterson in walking past Hyde’s mysterious door.
Key Words: mannerly, discreet, gallant

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Who’s Who
9
 Who’s Who
Dr Hastie Lanyon
“I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must die; and yet I
shall die incredulous.”

An erstwhile colleague of Jekyll, he has strong morals and

renounces his former friend’s scientific heresy. Despite
thinking Jekyll insane, he is loyal enough to
perform the errand that results in the fright of his
Key words: faithful, conventional, disbelieving

Mr Poole
“He’s shut up again in the cabinet; and I don’t like it, sir – I wish I
may die if I like it.”
Jekyll’s faithful butler, he provides an insight into the
peculiar habits of his master’s domestic life.
Key words: apprehensive, dedicated, confidant

Mr Guest
“There’s a rather singular resemblance; the two hands are in
many points identical; only differently sloped.”
Utterson’s clerk revels in unravelling the secrets of Dr
Jekyll by comparing his handwriting to Mr Hyde’s.

Sir Danvers Carew

A distinguished MP brutally murdered by Hyde.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Who’s Who
10
 Summary
Story of the Door
We are introduced to Mr Utterson, an austere, reserved and
really rather dreary-sounding gentleman whose thoughtfulness
and respectability nevertheless make the dependable lawyer
‘somehow loveable’ to the circle of friends and clients who orbit
around him.

Mr Enfield is a distant relative of Utterson’s and, even though

little unites the two gentlemen besides blood, they enjoy long
weekly walks in which barely a word is exchanged. On one such
excursion, they find themselves on
a prosperous London street that
is tarnished by one incongruously
derelict door which prompts the
recount of an unnerving incident
witnessed by Enfield: walking in
the neighbourhood one night, he
collared a deformed brute whom he
had seen trample over a young girl.
An angry crowd gathered around
the wounded child and threatened to ruin the transgressor’s
name unless he compensate the girl and her family. Trapped
like an animal, the fiend tendered a cheque that he obtained via
the same rundown door. Enfield was surprised to note that the
cheque bore the name of a reputable gentleman and, suspecting
foul play, was even more surprised when it was validated by the
bank. He hypothesises that blackmail was involved but, spurning
gossip, refuses to reveal the name on the cheque.

Utterson questions some of the details and Enfield insists on the

exactness of his story, though he can’t accurately
describe the look of or revulsion inspired by
What makes Utterson an
the man’s monstrous form. He can, however,
effective conduit for the strange
give a name: Hyde. At this point, Utterson
case of Jekyll and Hyde?
declares that he knows the culprit and can

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Summary
11
 guess the name on the cheque. But, ashamed of their tongue-
wagging, they agree to let the matter rest and never refer to it
again.

Search for Mr Hyde

Troubled by Enfield’s peculiar narrative, Utterson retrieves the will
of his close friend Dr Henry Jekyll, which states that a Mr Edward
Hyde is the sole beneficiary in the event of death
or disappearance. Having learned something of
Mr Hyde, Utterson has even more misgivings How does Stevenson inject

about a will that he had always regarded Gothic qualities into the

with a sense of unease. Seeking to unravel the narrative?

mystery, he visits mutual friend Dr Lanyon, but

Lanyon knows nothing of Hyde and has lost touch
with Jekyll owing to a scientific clash of opinions. That night,
Utterson is disturbed by dreams of a faceless man trampling a
child and the same fearsome figure standing over Jekyll.

Hoping to see Hyde for himself, Utterson begins to hang

around the mysterious door and eventually spies a stooped
figure fitting Hyde’s shocking description approach.
Intercepting the shady creature, Utterson introduces himself
as a friend of Jekyll; on seeing the face more clearly, Utterson
feels the same uncanny loathing that others have.
Hyde offers his address, which the lawyer
interprets as an eager anticipation of the
will’s execution, and then disappears
through the door.

Utterson calls on Jekyll and it

transpires that the door used
by Hyde provides access to an
unused laboratory attached to
Jekyll’s handsome townhouse.
Jekyll’s butler, Poole, informs Utterson
that his master is not home, that Hyde
has been furnished with a key, and that
the servants are under instruction to obey
him. Utterson heads home, full of concern for
his friend and reasoning that Hyde must be ‘the
ghost of some old sin’.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Summary
12
 Dr Jekyll was Quite at Ease
A fortnight later, Utterson attends a dinner party at Jekyll’s
and resolves to stay behind so that they can speak privately. At
the mention of Hyde and the will, Jekyll appears unmoved and
insists that ‘the moment I choose, I can be rid of
Mr Hyde’. He does, however, hint at a strange
What is the effect of the
relationship between them and makes Utterson
chapter titles?
promise that he will honour the contents of the
will if necessary.

The Carew Murder Case

Nearly a year on, a maid inadvertently witnesses Hyde – whom
she recognises from one of his visits to her master’s property
– launch a fatal, unprovoked attack on an elderly gentleman
passing him in the street. On the dead man’s person is found a
letter addressed to Utterson, who identifies him as Sir Danvers
Carew, an esteemed MP and one of
his clients. Utterson also recognises
the murder weapon – a wooden
cane that has broken in two, such
was the force with which Hyde beat
Carew – as a gift from himself to
Henry Jekyll many years before.

Utterson leads the police to Hyde’s

address, a room in a sordid part of
town that shows signs of having
recently been ransacked. Here is found the other half of the
cane and a burnt cheque book. Tracing his account,
the inspector assumes they need only wait on
What might be going
Hyde to withdraw money to capture him. In the
through Utterson’s mind at
months that follow, however, there is no sign of
this moment?
the murderer and little other evidence that he ever
existed.

Incident of the Letter

Jekyll reacts feverishly to the news of Sir Danvers’ death and
assures Utterson that it is the last that will ever be seen of Mr
Hyde. He shows the lawyer a letter from Hyde, detailing the
felon’s escape and terminating relations between them. Jekyll

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Summary
13
 also “confesses” that the terms of his will were forced on him
by Hyde and Utterson considers his friend to have had a lucky
escape. On his departure, Utterson asks Poole to describe the
person who delivered the letter but the manservant claims to
have no knowledge of its receipt.

That evening, Utterson shares the letter with his trusted clerk,
Mr Guest, who just so happens to be an expert on handwriting.
Comparing the letter with one of Jekyll’s own, Guest asserts
that ‘the two hands are in many points identical; only differently
sloped’. Utterson is alarmed by the idea that Jekyll would forge a
letter for a murderer!

Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon

With Hyde’s disappearance, Jekyll’s vitality returns. He even hosts
a dinner party at which he, Utterson and Lanyon talk as amiably
as they did back in the days when the trio were inseparable
friends. A few days later, however, Utterson is refused entry
when Poole informs him that Jekyll is not receiving visitors.

Frustrated by his friend’s retreat into seclusion, Utterson

visits Lanyon and finds that he too has taken a turn for the
worse. At the mention of Jekyll, Lanyon violently demands
that Utterson change the subject. The stricken doctor
promises that all will be revealed after his death,
but not before.

A written enquiry receives a

response from Jekyll expressing
sympathy for Lanyon and pledging continued
affection – at a distance – for Utterson. His self-
isolation, Jekyll asserts, is punishment for a sin
that cannot be disclosed.

After Lanyon’s passing a short time later, Utterson

takes from the safe an envelope for his eyes alone from
his deceased friend. Inside is a second marked ‘not to
be opened till the death or disappearance of Dr Henry
Jekyll’. Utterson’s professionalism
Do you think that Utterson conquers his morbid curiosity and
should have opened Lanyon’s the correspondence is confined
letter sooner? Why/why not? to the safe just as Jekyll remains
confined to his room.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Summary
14
 Incident at the Window
Jekyll is sighted at his window by Utterson and Enfield on one
of their strolls. They encourage him out for some fresh air but
the physician politely declines
before his face suddenly forms an
expression of ‘abject terror and
despair’ that freezes the blood of
the gentlemen below.

The Last Night

Poole reports to Utterson that
there is something seriously amiss
with his master. Speaking through
the laboratory door, Utterson concedes that the voice on the
other side sounds nothing like Henry Jekyll but tries to rationalise
the change. Poole tells of how he has been dispatched to every
chemist in London in search of a crucial element and produces
a note written in Jekyll’s hand but then insists he has seen the
person within and it wasn’t Jekyll, it was Hyde.

Persuaded that Hyde has killed Jekyll, it is resolved to break

down the door. Ignoring the plea for mercy from within, the men
force entry and find Hyde’s twitching body, a crushed vial in his
hand. There is no sign of Jekyll, bar his oversized clothes now
adorning the corpse of the dwarfish
Hyde. Noting a large mirror that
seems out of place in a laboratory,
they find an envelope containing a
will (now naming Utterson as the
beneficiary rather than Hyde), a
recently-written note instructing
Utterson to read Lanyon’s letter
and, if he cares to hear more, the
confession of ‘Your unworthy and
unhappy friend, Henry Jekyll’.

Dr Lanyon’s Narrative
Lanyon’s letter recounts the strange directive from Jekyll to
forcibly procure a drawer of chemicals from his upper chamber
and await its collection at midnight. Despite obvious misgivings,

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Summary
15
 Lanyon duly did as instructed and,
on the stroke of midnight, Hyde
comes knocking, though Lanyon
is unable to identify his agitated,
shocking visitor, having had no
prior dealings with Hyde and his
misdeeds. Before Lanyon’s eyes,
Hyde mixes the chemicals and
warns the good doctor that his
scepticism of ‘transcendental
medicine’ is about to be disproved… he then
drinks the concoction and mutates from Hyde How do the testimonies of
into Jekyll. Lanyon is so sickened that he is Lanyon and Jekyll shed new
unable to report the discussion that followed. light on what’s gone before?

Henry Jekyll’s Full

Statement of the Case
In which the man himself explains everything in his own words…
Jekyll’s confession to Utterson describes a lively youth in which
more coarse characteristics jostled with the outer appearance
of respectability. Convinced that ‘man is not truly one, but truly
two’, the rising scientist sought to separate the dual natures of
good and evil.

After numerous failed experiments, he produces a chemical

solution that he eagerly imbibes even in the knowledge that he
is risking his life… physical agony and nausea gives way to vigour
and wild sensuality… Hyde is born. Looking in the mirror, Jekyll/
Hyde does not experience the repulsion that affects all others
on beholding his visage. He surmises that the shrunken stature
owes to his darker persona being the lesser, repressed
side of his personality. Transforming into Hyde
becomes a welcome outlet for the aging
Why is Jekyll not Jekyll’s ill-mannered impulses, though
repulsed by Hyde? he still seeks to relieve the guilt after
turning back into his old self.

One night he awakes to find himself

transformed into Hyde without the aid of
the potion. Alarmed that the id is taking over the

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Summary
16
 ego, he determines to cease his experimentation. Such resolve
lasts only two months before Hyde makes a reappearance and,
delighting in his savagery, beats Sir Danvers Carew to death.
However, even before the transformation back is complete, the
horror of his actions has Jekyll/
Hyde praying for forgiveness. He
tries again to abstain from sin but
the burden of being ever-virtuous
triggers a giving in to depravity
in the character of Jekyll. This
intermingling of good and evil
leads to another spontaneous
transformation. It is at this point
– away from home, in the figure of
Hyde, wanted by police – that Jekyll enlists the help of Lanyon
in retrieving his drug. Henceforth, regular double dosages are
required to keep Hyde at bay. When he runs out of an essential
ingredient and is unable to replace it, Jekyll realises that it is only
a matter of time before he becomes permanently stuck in the
hateful form of Hyde and composes his confession.
He does not know what will become of it or his
Do you sympathise with
doppelgänger, but he knows that the laying
Jekyll? Which part of the novel
down of the pen ‘bring[s] the life of that
elicits the most sympathy?
unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end’.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Summary
17
 Themes
Duality
Duality means the combination of two different things and this theme
is one of the main strands running through the novella. In this case,
duality refers to the two aspects of human nature - good and evil,
moral and immoral, light and dark. Stevenson explores this idea by
making it come to life with his tale of Dr Jekyll literally splitting himself
into two distinct personalities.

Jekyll is aware of the darker side of his personality; he knows it is

there and acknowledges it. So he starts to experiment to see if he
can separate the two natures of his own soul. What are his reasons
for doing this? Does Jekyll want to rid himself of his darker urges? Or
does he wish to set them free, so that he can indulge them in secret?
Is Dr Jekyll presented as the ‘good’ side of human nature, the side
that wishes no harm to anyone and is seen to do good? Yet it is Jekyll
who starts to experiment to set his darker personality free. Is that the
influence of Hyde, even before he is made flesh?

For the reader, it is not until the end of the book that the duality theme
is fully made clear, when we finally hear about Jekyll’s experiments.
This then may cause us to ponder on the events of the narrative and
re-evaluate them with the knowledge that Jekyll and Hyde are actually
the same person. It could increase our shock at Hyde’s actions.
Was this man, who seems to delight in immoral acts, really
a part of the friendly and respectable Dr Jekyll?

Stevenson’s take on duality appears to be that once

we indulge our darker side, it grows stronger until
it takes over completely. Jekyll had little trouble
behaving in an acceptable way before he set Hyde
free. Even in the early stages, Hyde is at Jekyll’s beck
and call. However, Hyde seems to develop a mind

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality
18
 of his own and begins to manifest himself against Jekyll’s will. The
inference is that keeping our darker urges at bay is a way to control
them; giving rein to them is a slippery slope to disgrace.

Interestingly, Jekyll’s purpose with his experiment was to separate the

two aspects of human nature, in which case we should have ended
up with one thoroughly evil character and one totally virtuous one.
But we did not. Jekyll remains himself and does not transform into
an angelic creature - he merely lets loose Hyde, who is absolutely
demonic. Does this suggest that Stevenson thinks the animalistic
side of human nature is actually at the core of our being? And that
‘goodness’ or morality is merely a façade imposed on us by society?

Throughout the novel, Stevenson uses imagery of dark and light to

exemplify the difference between Jekyll and Hyde. Similarly, doors act
as a symbol of duality in the sense that Jekyll enters his house by
the front door, which is well maintained and respectable, whereas
Hyde uses the back door which is in poor condition, and not tended
to because it is hidden away and unseen. Not only does this reflect
human nature, it also links to Victorian society with its veneer of
respectability hiding a shocking world of poverty, exploitation
and vice.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality
19
 Context
The theme of the duality of man not a thing in itself, rather it is
(for man read humankind) has a symbol of humanity’s fallibility
been around for a long time. and tendency to do wrong. Only
For centuries, Christians have God is perfect, no human being
believed in original sin; the ever can be. Christianity preaches
tendency to sin that we are born that humans must fight against
with as a result of Eve disobeying this tendency to evil by being
God and eating the apple in the conscious of it and not indulging
Garden of Eden. Original sin is their basest desires.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Context
20
 The Victorian Britain Stevenson knew was certainly keen to maintain
this belief. Respectability and appearance were very important. Being
mixed up with a scandal or morally wrong behaviour was enough to
ruin anyone’s standing in society. Rather than this encouraging the
Victorians to behave properly however, it resulted in many living a
double life. Appearing respectable on the surface while hiding their
less savoury habits: debauchery, drug taking, alcoholism, gambling or
crime.

To add to Victorian angst about the nature of humanity, in 1859

Charles Darwin published his ground-breaking work On the Origin of
Species. In it, Darwin proposed that life on Earth evolved gradually,
shaped by the environment and natural selection. His 1871 book, The
Descent of Man, Darwin applied this theory to humans and proposed
that all human beings evolved from an apelike common ancestor and
that, this being the case, all human beings are the same species. Until
then it was believed that differences between humans, such as skin
colour, eye shape and hair type meant there were several different
species of humans on Earth. In The Descent of Man, Darwin suggested
that this was a misconception.

This shook Victorian society. First of all, it denied the notion that
God created mankind as distinct and different from animals. To think
humans may share an ancestor with apes was shocking and led to
ideas of humans having an ‘animal side’ to them.

Then to suggest that all humans were of the same species, none
‘better’ or ‘worse’ than another, knocked white European men off the
top spot status-wise and cast a very dark shadow over the fairly recent
activities of enslaving millions of Africans.

Stevenson plays on all of these ideas in Jekyll and Hyde. We see the
progress of science serving only to ‘unleash’ the dark side of human
nature. And that dark side, in the person of Mr Hyde, is often described
in animalistic terms, as if this part of Jekyll’s personality is less evolved
than the rest of him.

So in this tale of man’s duality, Hyde represents both the spiritual

and the scientific aspect of this idea. He is both original sin and the
‘animal’ side of human nature. His very name suggests that this is the
hidden aspect of humanity, one that we are loathe to admit to, but his
strength suggests that this side of our nature is also very powerful.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Context
21
 Themes: Duality

Key Quotes
“The two hands are in many points identical: The comparison of Hyde and
only differently sloped.” Jekyll’s handwriting foreshadows
Mr Guest, Incident of the Letter the fact that they are two aspects
of the same person. The only
difference between the writing
is that one leans one way, and
one leans the other. A literal and
metaphorical difference showing
one leans towards good and the
“I concealed my pleasures; and that when I other towards evil.
reached years of reflection, and began to look
round me and take stock of my progress and
Jekyll acknowledges that he was
position in the world, I stood already committed aware of his dark side even before
to a profound duplicity of me. Many a man the experiment. Even though
would have even blazoned such irregularities his ‘bad’ deeds were not so bad
as I was guilty of; but from the high views that that someone else might have
I had set before me, I regarded and hid them been honest about them, he still
with an almost morbid sense of shame.’’ felt the need to hide them. This
Dr Jekyll, Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement shows that Jekyll is restrained by
the expectations of society, not
of the Case
necessarily that Jekyll is a good
person to the core.

“It was thus rather the exacting nature of my

Jekyll here justifies his actions
aspirations than any particular degradation in
by saying he merely wanted to
my faults, that made me what I was, and, with
see if he could achieve the split
even a deeper trench than in the majority of
in personality, for the sake of
men, severed in me those provinces of good scientific knowledge. The fact he
and ill which divide and compound man’s dual did the experiment on himself
nature.” does suggest that he did not
Dr Jekyll, Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement foresee the outcome. Or does it
of the Case suggest that, secretly, he wanted
to indulge his dark side?

“It was the curse of mankind that these

incongruous faggots were thus bound
together—that in the agonised womb of
The ‘incongruous faggots’ are
consciousness, these polar twins should be
the two sides of human nature,
continuously struggling.”
good and evil. Jekyll explains that
Dr Jekyll, Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement everyone has these two aspects
of the Case and that they are in conflict with
one another all the time.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Key Quotes
22
 Themes: Duality

Mini Exams
Question 1

Jekyll and Hyde are binary opposites. Discuss.

Question 2

Who is responsible for the death of Sir Danvers Carew? Explain your answer.

Question 3

“All respectable men have a darker side. Stevenson shows

this in Utterson, Enfield and Lanyon as well as in Jekyll.”
To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Mini Exams
23
 Themes: Duality

Exam Question
Read the following extract from Chapter Five (Incident of the Letter) of The Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde and then answer the question that follows.
In this extract, Utterson visits Henry Jekyll, who he fears is entangled with the murderer,
Edward Hyde.

It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend’s
quarters; and he eyed the dingy, windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round
with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre, once crowded
with eager students and now lying gaunt and silent, the tables laden with chemical
apparatus, the floor strewn with crates and littered with packing straw, and the light
falling dimly through the foggy cupola. At the further end, a flight of stairs mounted to
a door covered with red baize; and through this, Mr. Utterson was at last received into
the doctor’s cabinet. It was a large room fitted round with glass presses, furnished,
among other things, with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon
the court by three dusty windows barred with iron. The fire burned in the grate; a
lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the fog began to
lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr. Jekyll, looking deathly sick. He
did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a
changed voice.
“And now,” said Mr. Utterson, as soon as Poole had left them, “you have heard the
news?”
The doctor shuddered. “They were crying it in the square,” he said. “I heard them in
my dining-room.”
“One word,” said the lawyer. “Carew was my client, but so are you, and I want to know
what I am doing. You have not been mad enough to hide this fellow?”
“Utterson, I swear to God,” cried the doctor, “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. And indeed he does not want my help; you do not know him as I do; he is safe, he
is quite safe; mark my words, he will never more be heard of.”
The lawyer listened gloomily; he did not like his friend’s feverish manner. “You seem
pretty sure of him,” said he; “and for your sake, I hope you may be right. If it came to

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Exam Question
24
 a trial, your name might appear.”
“I am quite sure of him,” replied Jekyll; “I have grounds for certainty that I cannot
share with any one. But there is one thing on which you may advise me. I have—I have
received a letter; and I am at a loss whether I should show it to the police. I should like
to leave it in your hands, Utterson; you would judge wisely, I am sure; I have so great
a trust in you.”
“You fear, I suppose, that it might lead to his detection?” asked the lawyer.
“No,” said the other. “I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde; I am quite done
with him. I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather
exposed.”
Utterson ruminated awhile; he was surprised at his friend’s selfishness, and yet relieved
by it. “Well,” said he, at last, “let me see the letter.”

Starting with this extract, explore how Stevenson presents the

struggle to separate the different sides of a personality.

Write about:
• how Stevenson presents duality in this extract;
• how Stevenson presents duality in the novella as a whole.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Exam Question
25
 Themes: Duality

Sample Answer
Good Response
Stevenson presents the struggle to separate the
two sides of his personality as one that has engulfed
and destroyed Henry Jekyll and, despite his scientific
success in creating Hyde, he is unavoidably tied to
this other part of him so the struggle can also be
seen as futile.

In the extract, Jekyll’s quarters symbolise the

different sides of him. The juxtaposition of a theatre
‘once crowded with eager students and now lying
gaunt and silent’ shows how Jekyll has gone from
being a lively and popular practitioner to one
who is withdrawn and empty. This is a change
Explanation but that has happened because of his obsession with Subject
no analysis. terminology and
transcendental medicine. Stevenson also uses
an interesting
pathetic fallacy with ‘the light falling dimly through interpretation
the foggy cupola’. This sense of darkness and that borders
on analysis but
depression being given to the building stands for
could go further
the fading light in Jekyll’s soul as Hyde continues to by considering
drain the life from him. the effect of
language.
The sense of doom and destruction is reinforced by
the entry to the doctor’s cabinet, which symbolises
Hell. This is suggested by the connotations of the
‘door covered with red baize’ and the fire burning
inside. It is a surprise that Stevenson has the steps
going up rather than down, though perhaps he is
trying to show how the angel/devil personality of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde has got so mixed up! The ‘windows

A perceptive barred with iron’ indicate that Jekyll has become

paragraph with trapped by his experiments and the monster that he
well-integrated has created, to the point that it is slowly killing him
textual evidence.
as he looks ‘deathly sick’. This is his punishment for

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Sample Answer
26
 trying to mess with the natural order of things and
Contextual
significance is playing God.
implied but it is
In his conversation with Utterson, he gives voice to
an appendage
with no real the internal struggle that he has been going through
exploration. in trying to separate the good and evil sides of his
character. “I swear to God” he cries when trying to
convince Utterson that he will have nothing more to
do with Hyde. He is insistent that he is done with his
other half, having seen his murderous capabilities,
As above, this is
and now realises that he would have been better an interesting
off repressing this side of himself rather than giving and well-
life to it. When he says “you do not know him as I evidenced
response but
do”, this knowledge comes from the fact that they lacking in
are one and the same, which counters Jekyll’s earlier analytical depth.
conviction that “Man is not truly one but truly two”. For instance,
is there an
This inability to escape Hyde is foreshadowed irony in Jekyll
by the significance of the letter. The analysis of simultaneously
asserting that
the handwriting by Mr Guest ties Jekyll closer to
he is done with
Hyde because he notices that it is “identical, only Hyde and that he
differently sloped”. This again shows that Jekyll and knows him well?
Hyde are two sides of the same person. Despite his
friend’s claims to the contrary, by the end of this
chapter Utterson is even more convinced that Hyde
has a hold over Jekyll. He has made it his life’s work
to separate the different sides of his personality but
the darker side will haunt him right to the end.

An intriguing personal response demonstrating

perceptive understanding of the theme. However,
the candidate needs to deepen analysis of language
and/or structure and explicitly link to the context
in which it was written for AO2 and AO3 marks to
match AO1.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Sample Answer
27
 Themes: Duality

Sample Answer
Great Response
Stevenson uses the theme of duality, and the struggle
Both
to separate the different sides of personality, to
introductions
show a firm grasp explore the dangers of constraining one’s true self
of meaning and in a repressive Victorian society. This is portrayed
the candidates’
in Dr Jekyll’s struggle, as well as in other characters
ability to
synthesise their and the setting of Victorian London.
own thoughts.
Stevenson demonstrates Jekyll’s increasing struggle
to separate his two sides through the choice of
setting in this extract. For the first time Jekyll receives
Utterson in the “part of his quarter’s” where only
Hyde is permitted. This shows the inability of Jekyll
to keep his component identities apart. He has
revealed to Utterson the ‘Hyde’ sphere, the space
where Hyde has been manifested and enabled to
exist, usually locked and kept separate from his
‘Jekyll’ persona.

By inviting Utterson, who represents balance and

Succinct analysis
respectability, into this space, symbolic of troglodytic – says a lot in one
“ape-like fury”, Stevenson shows the merging of sentence!
the two personalities. Jekyll seems physically and
symbolically unable to access the front façade of his
house – the respectable part – where his butler and
servants would ‘receive’ guests and, as Poole insists,
Hyde “never dines”. Instead, he breaks his own rules
and admits Utterson into the cabinet. He is far from
the persona of a healthy and respected doctor.
Stevenson describes him as “looking deathly sick”,
“gaunt” and with a “changed voice”. Although he
is Jekyll here, the effects of being Hyde are evident
and no longer something he can distinguish and
conceal.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Duality - Sample Answer
28
 Stevenson also echoes this duality in the
Widens scope of
characterisation of Richard Enfield, “the well-known
question, thereby
demonstrating man about town”. For a man with a reputation
wider to uphold, the description of his whereabouts the
understanding of
night he met Hyde are questionable. The metaphor Analysis of
text.
“some place at the end of the world” is vague and language is
intentionally evasive, and the time “three o’clock simple but
effective.
of a black winter morning” has sinister, gothic
connotations. For a contemporary audience, this
would have conflicted with their ideas about the
Doesn’t go into
great detail appropriate conduct of a gentleman and drawn
about context attention to the duality and hypocrisy Stevenson
but, significantly,
was highlighting across society, where Hyde and
it is linked to
meaning. Enfield can occupy the same shady streets.

Similarly, Stevenson shows that even a character

as banal as Utterson, who “never lighted a smile”
is as Jekyll says, “truly two”. Stevenson describes
Utterson in ascetic tones, “he was austere with
himself”, and states “though he enjoyed the theatre”
he hadn’t been for 20 years. This gives an impression
of Utterson as fearing a loss of control. Though he
may present a sensible persona, it seems it takes a
lot of effort for Utterson to suppress the other parts
of himself.

Likewise, Stevenson’s presentation of Victorian

London is of a city with multiple ‘personalities’
meshed together. We see contrasting streets of
wealth and poverty side by side: “the street shone
out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire
in a forest.” Stevenson uses a natural simile which
contrasts against the urban description. He draws
attention to the duality of London and, its buildings
and inhabitants, demonstrating the different sides
in everyone.

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Themes: Duality - Sample Answer
29
 As with the good answer, this candidate offers a
perceptive interpretation of the text. One essential
difference is that they demonstrate a more thorough
understanding of the complete text by focusing on
elements other than the obvious Jekyll/Hyde duality.
In doing this under timed conditions, there is a danger
of stretching yourself too thin, but every paragraph
contains a clear analytical point.

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Themes: Duality - Sample Answer
30
 Themes
Religion and Morality
Each of the main characters is symptomatic of a religious perspective.

Most strikingly, Edward Hyde is several times likened to Satan, such

as when Utterson declares, ‘O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read
Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.’ Hyde
is the devil on Jekyll’s shoulder, stomping over traditional views of
morality and charging headfirst into a life of sin and iniquity.

This is not entirely against Jekyll’s wishes, for he is Hyde’s creator;

Hyde is symbolic of Jekyll yielding to his wicked and decadent nature.
The duality of human nature – the battle for the soul – is shown by the
angel-devil dichotomy of Jekyll and Hyde. If Hyde represents Satan,
then Jekyll is the angelic face presented to society; he is a respectable
man who reads scripture and does good deeds in the name of charity
and religion.

However, Jekyll’s inner turmoil and the struggle to suppress his

demons can actually be read on a favourite ‘pious work’ which is
defaced by blasphemous scribbles written in his own hand. The red
baize door to the chamber in which Jekyll conducts his transcendental
experiments is the gateway to Hell – Stevenson flags the colour, with
its fiery connotations of pain and danger, three times throughout the
text. And this divide also sets up a binary opposition between the
moral goodness of religion, represented by Jekyll’s public life on one
side of the door, and the threat of science, represented by his secret
and immoral experiments in this hellish locked room.

The very first words attributed to Utterson, in the book’s opening

paragraph, establish him as a non-judgemental observer of the conflicts
between good and evil, religion and science. ‘I incline to Cain’s heresy,
I let my brother go to the devil in his own way’ is a reference to Genesis
4:9: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ After being expelled from the Garden
of Eden, Adam and Eve bear two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain becomes

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Religion and Morality
31
 jealous of Abel and murders him. Cain’s heresy is to disregard his kin,
which Utterson concurs with in an outlook of general tolerance: each
to their own, even if it leads them into trouble.

However, the resolve to stay out of other people’s business that

Utterson and Enfield assert in Chapter One is clearly doomed. The
fair and balanced Utterson naturally sides with Jekyll and is not so
open-minded as to allow his friend’s peculiar relationship with Hyde
to go unheeded. Utterson purports to stand for tolerance but in fact
demonstrates a Christian tendency for officious do-gooding.

Religion functions as a lens through which to view good and evil but
the ‘law of life, which lies at the root of religion,’ as recognised by
Jekyll in his confession, is inherently more complex than it initially
appears. Adam and Eve bore a third child, Seth, and mankind can
theoretically be separated into descendants of Cain (those of a
wicked nature) and descendants of Seth (good, principled people).
Yet this ignores the notion of original sin, which suggests that the
whole of humanity inherited a tainted nature
and tendency to sin. For all Hyde’s hinted- What’s in a Name?
at debauchery, the greatest sin on show is
Utterson’s Christian name is Gabriel,
Jekyll’s attempt to usurp God by meddling
which means ‘God is my strength’
with creation for his own selfish ends and
and has biblical associations with the
disconnecting the duality that lies at the
archangel Gabriel who operated as
heart of mankind.
God’s messenger.

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32
 Context
The societal changes wrought to longstanding beliefs in God
by the Industrial Revolution and and creation. Religion remained
the Age of Enlightenment led a dominant ideology but it
to evolving attitudes towards was being shaken by scientific
science and religion that came to developments that were at odds
a head with Charles Darwin’s On with its teachings. Many people
the Origin of Species in 1859. felt that a belief in both was
mutually exclusive. In an essay
The idea that all life, including
published in 1861, Bishop Samuel
humans, was evolved from more
Wilberforce went so far as to call
primitive forms was an affront

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Religion and Morality - Context
33
 science ‘a fraud’, ‘schemes’, ‘falsehoods’ and ‘speculations against the
word of God’.

Stevenson’s treatment of the debate reflects the complex thinking of

someone steeped in religious doctrine and scientific understanding
from an early age. Christianity is respectfully presented as a strong
belief system that’s fundamental to maintaining social order, albeit
accompanied by a note of cynicism, as in the hypocrisy of Jekyll’s
superficially respectable reputation and Utterson’s insistence on
upholding it. Science is to be approached with caution, yet there are
principled scientists like Dr Lanyon who represent the best of both
worlds and even Jekyll’s immoral designs have a degree of merit. The
primitive ‘ape-like’ Hyde alludes to Darwin’s evolutionary theories,
so both religion and science can be seen to influence Stevenson’s
thoughts.

Jekyll’s eventual suicide, thereby killing his dangerous alter-ego, could

be taken as religious moral orthodoxy reasserting its dominance over
science. Suicide, however, is condemned as a mortal sin by nearly all
religions. Even in death, Jekyll is an affront to God.

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 Themes: Religion and Morality

Key Quotes
‘It was his custom of a Sunday, when this Utterson’s routine shows the organising
meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a principles of religion on daily life.
volume of some dry divinity on his reading However the adjective ‘dry’ suggests that
desk, until the clock of the neighbouring even divine works can prove tedious and
church rang out the hour of twelve, when distasteful reading, presenting Christian
he would go soberly and gratefully to bed.’ living as a sober chore that even the
conscientious Utterson ‘gratefully’
Search for Mr Hyde
escapes from.

Utterson ponders what past sin must

‘In the law of God, there is no statute of have brought Jekyll into the service
limitations.’ of Hyde. He concludes that it must be
Search for Mr Hyde something from a wild youth and that
there is no escaping ‘the ghost of some
old sin’ in the eyes of God. His deduction
presents religion as unforgiving, even
though Christianity preaches forgiveness.

Jekyll throws himself into religious

‘Whilst he had always been known for service in an attempt to counteract the
charities, he was now no less distinguished growing influence of his Hyde persona
for religion. He was busy, he was much in but, before the end of the chapter, he
the open air, he did good; his face seemed has been forced back into seclusion and
shocked the life out of Lanyon.
to open and brighten, as if with an inward
consciousness of service.’
Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon Utterson’s exclamatory plea on witnessing
the distortion in Jekyll’s countenance,
seconded by Enfield, demonstrates an
instinctive dependence on the deity to
“God forgive us, God forgive us.” protect and guide. Utterson himself has
Incident at the Window done nothing to offend but his appeal
to a higher power suggests a general
concern over the ‘unnatural’ exploits of
mankind.

In contrast to the merciless glee Hyde

takes in the murder of Sir Danvers
‘The pangs of transformation had not Carew, much to his maker’s horror, Jekyll
done tearing him, before Henry Jekyll, with immediately begs forgiveness from
streaming tears of gratitude and remorse, his own maker. However, the illeism of
had fallen upon his knees and lifted his referring to himself in the third person
clasped hands to God.’ plays into the idea of transcendental
realisation, as if literally ‘tearing’ himself
Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case in two, and could be seen as Jekyll
absolving himself of responsibility.

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Themes: Religion and Morality - Key Quotes
35
 Themes: Religion and Morality

Mini Exams
Question 1

Who is the text’s most moral character? Explain your answer.

Question 2

To what extent can religion and morality be separated?

Question 3

“By the time Jekyll and Hyde was written, God was essentially
dead.” Discuss.

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Themes: Religion and Morality - Mini Exams
36
 Themes: Religion and Morality

Exam Question
Read the following extract from Chapter Eight (The Last Night ) of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde and then answer the question that follows.
In this extract, Poole reports to Utterson that Jekyll has locked himself away and the butler
suspects ‘foul play’. They go together to Jekyll’s quarters.

“Well, sir,” he said, “here we are, and God grant there be nothing wrong.”
“Amen, Poole,” said the lawyer.
Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door was opened on
the chain; and a voice asked from within, “Is that you, Poole?”
“It’s all right,” said Poole. “Open the door.”
The hall, when they entered it, was brightly lighted up; the fire was built high; and
about the hearth the whole of the servants, men and women, stood huddled together
like a flock of sheep. At the sight of Mr. Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical
whimpering; and the cook, crying out “Bless God! it’s Mr. Utterson,” ran forward as if
to take him in her arms.
“What, what? Are you all here?” said the lawyer peevishly. “Very irregular, very
unseemly; your master would be far from pleased.”
“They’re all afraid,” said Poole.
Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted her voice and now wept
loudly.
“Hold your tongue!” Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent that testified to his
own jangled nerves; and indeed, when the girl had so suddenly raised the note of
her lamentation, they had all started and turned towards the inner door with faces
of dreadful expectation. “And now,” continued the butler, addressing the knife-boy,
“reach me a candle, and we’ll get this through hands at once.” And then he begged
Mr. Utterson to follow him, and led the way to the back garden.
“Now, sir,” said he, “you come as gently as you can. I want you to hear, and I don’t
want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if by any chance he was to ask you in, don’t
go.”
Mr. Utterson’s nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a jerk that nearly threw
him from his balance; but he recollected his courage and followed the butler into the

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Religion and Morality - Exam Question
37
 laboratory building through the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles,
to the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned him to stand on one side and listen;
while he himself, setting down the candle and making a great and obvious call on his
resolution, mounted the steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the
red baize of the cabinet door.

Starting with this extract, explore the significance of religious beliefs in

Stevenson’s novella.

Write about:
• how Stevenson presents religious beliefs in this extract;
• how Stevenson presents religious beliefs in the novella as a whole.

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Themes: Religion and Morality - Exam Question
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 Themes: Religion and Morality

Sample Answer
Good Response
Stevenson’s representation of religion fits in with the
beliefs of the times, which were that Christians were
good honest people while anyone not conforming to
the standard morals of the day, such as the scientific
heretic Dr Jekyll, were sinners.

The extract contains lots of words that fit into a

semantic field of religion, showing how pervasive it
was and what a big significance it had in people’s
lives. In the first utterance from the butler Poole,
he says “God grant there be nothing wrong” as if
seeking reassurance from a higher power. In times of
need and distress, it was felt that an omniscient God
would guide people and provide the solution. Poole
says “Amen”, which expresses agreement, showing
Understanding
that faith in God was the dominant ideology, shared
of how context
affects character. by all right-thinking people. However, there is also Analysis extends
something a bit mechanical in this and it could be contextual
argued that Stevenson presents religion as no more point by linking
it to author’s
than a superstition, which would fit with the author’s
intentions.
own atheistic views.

In fact, it might be significant that the servants

who pray to God are described as being ‘like a flock
of sheep’. This phrase has biblical connotations
because Jesus said “I am the good shepherd” and
people were expected to follow him. In the text,
Utterson could be seen as the Jesus-like shepherd
Typical of the
thoughtful and figure who might deliver them from evil. However,
imaginative ideas Utterson is a lawyer, which is not a profession that is
in this paragraph. looked on so favourably by Christianity, and a very
rational rather than spiritual person, even though
he fits in with accepted practices by expressing

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Religion and Morality - Sample Answer
39
 religious ideas. An alternative reading of the ‘flock
of sheep’ could be that those relying on religion are
Alternative
following blindly and are described as being like interpretations
sheep because they are unthinking. are a great way
of extending
Stevenson also uses religious iconography in this analysis and
extract that makes readers think Utterson and Poole demonstrating
are descending into Hell and in need of a shining complexity.

light. For example, the candle is a religious symbol

of light and hope, so it is significant that they use
this, even though candles were also the standard
form of lighting in the Victorian era. The ‘red baize
of the cabinet door’ is used throughout the novella
to signify an entry to Hell, showing that what goes
on behind the door is considered evil and unholy.
And Poole even warns Utterson not to enter – “if
by any chance he was to ask you in, don’t go” –
which reinforces the image of Utterson as the Jesus
character and Jekyll/Hyde as the devil attempting
to tempt him over to the other side.

Elsewhere in the text, Hyde is referred to as

Impressive resembling Satan so he clearly represents evil and is
terminology not
the antithesis of religion. In fact, the battle between
supported by
analysis. good (religion) and evil (blasphemy) is played out
in the Jekyll-Hyde split but, true to the times, evil
is ultimately defeated and religious morality is
reinforced.

This is an extremely interesting response with a good

balance of AOs. Its downfall is sticking too closely to
the extract. The introduction and conclusion frame
it within an understanding of the novella as a whole
but no other aspects of the narrative are explored.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Religion and Morality - Sample Answer
40
 Themes: Religion and Morality

Sample Answer
Great Response
The extract is littered with allusions to religious
Incisive summary
beliefs, yet Stevenson seems almost to be mocking
of extract.
Relevant subject religious piety, which offers no defence to what is
terminology and on the other side of the cabinet door as science
context neatly
has effectively usurped religion. Exclamations and
integrated.
interjections such as “God grant there be nothing
wrong”, “Amen” and “Bless God!” show an instinctive
resort to old-fashioned ways of thinking, as if there is
a higher power capable of providing protection and
answers. Yet Utterson is a rational man who knows
that falling to his knees in prayer is insufficient.

Indeed, when Jekyll does just this in an act of remorse

Link to wider
text – extract a
after murdering Sir Danvers Carew, it has no spiritual
jumping-off point healing effect. Immediately prior to this moment,
for showcasing Stevenson writes that ‘the pangs of transformation
analysis of
had not done tearing him’; though this refers literally
language, form
and structure. to the ‘transformation’ between Jekyll and Hyde, it
could also apply metaphorically to a transforming
world in which Jekyll has usurped his own maker, as
the Creation stories taught people to think of God.
In the nineteenth century, religious beliefs were
Context linked
being torn asunder by scientific developments such clearly to
as Darwin’s theory of evolution and the ‘pangs’ felt meaning.
by Jekyll symbolise the conflict between the two, just
as the Jekyll/Hyde duality personifies the individual
conflict between good and evil. Stevenson himself
experienced the same ‘pangs’; having been brought
up a strict Presbyterian but with a strong grounding
in science and engineering, he later denounced
his faith and Jekyll and Hyde could be seen as a
dramatic representation of his own worldview in

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Religion and Morality- Sample Answer
41
 which science is predominant – even though Jekyll,
like his servants, pleads to God, it is of no use: he, the
scientist, has taken God’s place. However, the fact
that the transformation ‘had not done tearing him’
Detailed analysis
may also indicate a slight unease at this situation on
of quotation.
the part of the author. Though a professed atheist,
Stevenson realised that religion was still a dominant
force in Victorian Britain, hence all characters
employing religious lexis. His lingering respect for
the church and the values taught to him necessitate
Jekyll being punished for his transgressions, with
Hyde ‘tearing’ at both the morals of the day and his
own soul.

Stevenson’s complex thinking about religion is

reflected in his narrative. On the one hand, the
Jekyll and Hyde characters can be read as a binary
opposition in which Jekyll is the good Christian man
and Hyde is the sinner, or as Utterson remarks, ‘if
ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on
that of your new friend’, depicting Hyde as the one
leading Jekyll into temptation when in fact it is Jekyll
who has created Hyde. The extract highlights this
Extract integrated
into more holistic dichotomy with the red baize door, symbolising the
reading but gateway to Hell, marking the boundary between
still precise and the two. On one side are the righteous folk and on
analytical.
the other is the murderous Hyde, though the fact
that Hyde is also Jekyll, and Utterson is unable to
confirm who exactly is behind the cabinet door
could be Stevenson parodying the idea that there Original
is a simple divide between saints and sinners. The interpretation.
earlier reference to ‘Satan’s signature’ is echoed in
both the ‘pious work… annotated in his own hand
with startling blasphemies’ and Guest’s observation
that ‘the two hands are in many points identical,
only differently sloped’. Where Utterson considered
it easy to read a person’s character in their face,
borrowing from the outdated ideas of physiognomy,
Stevenson scribbles all over that notion, with the
motif of ink indelibly linking Jekyll and Hyde. It is

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42
 interesting that he uses the word ‘pious’ to describe
Jekyll’s favourite religious text because the word
has a double meaning; although it denotes devout Close
consideration of
religion and virtuousness, it also implies a vanity
language.
and self-importance that could easily be read as
negative. Organised religion has been criticised
for presenting one face to the world while being
corrupt and rotten on the inside. Jekyll and Hyde
are not just two-faced but two-bodied, taking the
idea of duplicity to an extreme, yet even in the guise
of Jekyll Stevenson emphasises the hypocrisy of
using religious and charitable service to cover for
one’s sins. Stevenson himself could be considered
similarly two-faced in producing a text that makes
religion appear superficially significant and virtuous
while also tearing it apart.

As opposed to the good answer, this one barely

references the extract directly but instead uses it
to launch into a wide-ranging analysis of authorial
craft. Unlike the neatly-ordered good answer,
the complex considerations of the great answer
occasionally threaten to derail it but the candidate
just about manages to keep their ideas under control,
maintaining links between thoughts and addressing
all AOs. Jekyll and Hyde approaches show that
there is not a single ‘correct’ answer but the more
comprehensive reading undoubtedly showcases
greater sophistication.

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Themes: Religion and Morality- Sample Answer
43
 Themes
Reputations and Secrets
Why does Dr Jekyll create Mr Hyde? The simple answer is that his
other half allows him to indulge in sin while preserving his reputation;
Hyde only exists to keep Jekyll’s name clean.

The significance of social standing is evident from the title onwards.

Dr Jekyll is expected to uphold certain standards and act in a way
befitting a learned professional, while even the deplorable Mr Hyde is
afforded a respectful title in polite Victorian society. In Chapter One
(Story of the Door), Mr Utterson and Mr Enfield reinforce this sense
of decorum by disapproving of gossip, which they nevertheless dip
into with the recount of the story – hypocrisy and double standards
are the darker Hyde-like version of this
theme. Utterson’s prime concern is making What’s in a Name?
sure that Hyde doesn’t damage Jekyll’s Hyde is a homophone of hide –
reputation rather than uncovering the he and the characteristics that he
skeletons in his friend’s closet and making represents are to be concealed and
him account for any unlawful or immoral hidden from the public glare.
behaviour.

The narrative thrust largely revolves around

secrets being revealed or repressed, typically in relation to Jekyll’s
reputation. Again beginning with the Story of the Door, Enfield keeps
Hyde’s name to himself until the very end of his recount, signifying the
importance of a name as something precious and worth guarding.
Similarly, upon hearing this name, Utterson doesn’t disclose that he
is already familiar with it. Most of the novella’s revelations occur
in letters and documents – addressed, sealed and locked away on
gentlemen’s agreements – rather than through
homophone
conversation, and there is a heavy weight
A word with the same
on what
pronunciation goes unsaid.
as another,
but different meanings
and spellings.

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 It is a cliché of masculinity that men don’t open up and share their
inner thoughts or feelings. Jekyll and Hyde takes place in a hyper-
masculine world where the only female characters are victims and
maids. Yet the men too are victims, of a society that places such
emphasis on being seen to do the right thing that nobody is able to
act on impulse or instinct; even in Chapter Eight (The Last Night ), on
the verge of breaking into Jekyll’s laboratory because they believe him
to have been murdered by Hyde, Utterson rejects the scared maid’s
tactile approach and tells the servants off for gathering in a “very
irregular, very unseemly” manner that would displease their master.
Doing the right thing is paramount.

Stevenson’s characters conform to these strict conventions but a

deeper consideration of character motivation suggests the author
is critical of the requirement to maintain standards and keep up
appearances. Why does Dr Jekyll create Mr Hyde? Because he has
no other option. In a repressive society he has no other outlet for
urges that must remain secret and unspoken. Under these conditions,
skeletons in the closet mutate into a monster.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Reputations and Secrets
45
 Context
The Victorian era (1839-1901) the done thing to cover chair and
is heavily associated with strict table legs; snuffers were used so
morals and social restraint. that women would not be seen
Anything remotely sexual became blowing out candles because
taboo, to the extent that the the pursing of lips was deemed
terms ‘white and dark meat’ too suggestive; people spoke of
arose to avoid having to refer to ‘retiring’ rather than ‘going to
‘breast or leg’ at the dinner table. bed’ because of the things besides
As with those of flesh, it became sleep that ‘bed’ might connote!

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Context
46
 The reasons for such prudishness are convoluted. One explanation can
be found at the intersection between gender roles and religion. The
Industrial Revolution had separated the spaces of work and home
which became male and female spaces respectively. The conventional
image of the woman was The Angel in the House, popularised by the
1854 Coventry Patmore poem of the same name. With their greater
freedom, men continued to fornicate but such sinful activity was driven
underground and into the shadows. Superficially at least, men wanted
to live up to the same idealistic expectations that they had set for
their women. The paradox of the situation was heightened by Queen
Victoria, a really rather risqué woman of power, styling herself as a
virtuous, dowdy monarch because it chimed with the times.

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Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Context
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 Themes: Reputations and Secrets

Key Quotes
“I feel very strongly about putting Enfield uses the metaphor of a rolling
questions; it partakes too much of the stone to explain the problem with asking
style of the day of judgment. You start questions: ask one, another follows and the
a question, and it’s like starting a stone. answer keeps moving away. A quieter life
You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and can be had by minding one’s own business
away the stone goes, starting others…” and not quizzing others, especially in sordid
matters such as those being discussed
Story of the Door
here. He also opines that questioning
implies judgment, which encroaches on the
role of God and religion.
‘Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some
old sin, the cancer of some concealed Jekyll’s hidden wrongs are imagined to have
disgrace.’ festered and taken on a new life, personified
Search for Mr Hyde first as a ghost come back to haunt him and
then as a tumour that has infected and
threatens to destroy him.

Jekyll’s stated concern is for his own

reputation and the fear of his darker nature
being ‘exposed’ by Hyde. ‘Character’ has
“I cannot say that I care what becomes
a double meaning: Jekyll is referring to
of Hyde; I am quite done with him. I was
his reputation but the word’s dramatic
thinking of my own character, which this
connotations suggest a role being acted,
hateful business has rather exposed.” an appearance that masks reality. And the
Incident of the Letter irony is that he may profess to be ‘done
with’ Hyde but that character is not yet
finished with him.

Lanyon suggests to Utterson that some

information is best kept secret. In alignment
“I sometimes think if we knew all, we
with his orthodox scientific views, here he
should be more glad to get away.”
expresses the standard social belief that
Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon unorthodox behaviour is shocking, and he is
qualified to speak on both having just learnt
the truth about Jekyll. However, the rules
of civil society (and narrative suspense)
dictate that he can only hint at Jekyll’s
misdemeanours; as ever, deeper thoughts
“Lanyon, you remember your vows: what and feelings go unspoken.
follows here is under the seal of our
profession.” Explaining Lanyon’s previous inability
Dr Lanyon’s Narrative to tell all to Utterson, the good doctor’s
written account has Hyde remind him of
the Hippocratic Oath before proceeding to
break all manner of ethics with his shocking
transformation back into Jekyll.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Key Quotes
48
 Themes: Reputations and Secrets

Mini Exams
Question 1

We never hear from Mr Hyde’s perspective. To what extent do you think he

cares about reputations?

Question 2

What is the most problematic secret in the novella and why?

Question 3

“Would the outcome be the same if written today or would

Jekyll have alternative outlets for his immoral impulses in
the modern world?

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

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49
 Themes: Reputations and Secrets

Exam Question
Read the following extract from Chapter Two (Search for Mr Hyde) of The Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde and then answer the question that follows.
In this extract, Utterson is pondering the connection between his friend Henry Jekyll and
the monstrous Edward Hyde, whom he has recently encountered and whom Poole has just
informed him Jekyll’s servants are under instruction to obey.

“Poor Harry Jekyll,” he thought, “my mind misgives me he is in deep waters! He was
wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is
no statute of limitations. Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of
some concealed disgrace: punishment coming, pede claudo, years after memory has
forgotten and self-love condoned the fault.” And the lawyer, scared by the thought,
brooded awhile on his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, least by chance
some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there. His past was fairly
blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was
humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into a
sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing yet avoided.
And then by a return on his former subject, he conceived a spark of hope. “This Master
Hyde, if he were studied,” thought he, “must have secrets of his own; black secrets, by
the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll’s worst would be like sunshine.
Things cannot continue as they are. It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing
like a thief to Harry’s bedside; poor Harry, what a wakening! And the danger of it; for
if this Hyde suspects the existence of the will, he may grow impatient to inherit. Ay, I
must put my shoulders to the wheel—if Jekyll will but let me,” he added, “if Jekyll will
only let me.” For once more he saw before his mind’s eye, as clear as transparency,
the strange clauses of the will.

Starting with this extract, explore how Stevenson presents the power of
secrecy.

Write about:
• how Stevenson presents secrets in this extract;
• how Stevenson presents secrets in the novella as a whole.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Exam Question
50
 Themes: Reputations and Secrets

Sample Answer
Good Response
Stevenson tells the reader that lots of characters
have secrets in the novella Jekyll and Hyde. In
Chapter Two, Utterson does not know who Hyde is,
or why Jekyll has made him the beneficiary of his
will, and decides to find out. Utterson is presented
as an honourable gentleman who wishes to protect
his friend Jekyll. He believes Hyde is blackmailing
Sound
understanding Jekyll for an ‘old sin’ or a ‘concealed disgrace’ that
supported could ruin his friend’s public reputation. Utterson
by neatly
also decides to reveal what Hyde’s own ‘black
integrated textual
references. The secret’ could be. This implies that all people have
final sentence secrets that could ruin them.
edges towards
analysis but Utterson assumes that Hyde is an evil character,
needs to explicitly based on his appearance and how he acts. The Awareness of
comment on Victorians believed someone’s looks could reveal context but
the effect of relevance needs
their character; if someone looked bad, it meant
language. to be more clearly
they probably were. True Victorian gentlemen were
explained.
polite, neat and respectful at all times, whereas Hyde
is rude and blunt. Utterson calls Hyde a ‘thief’ who is
trying to steal Jekyll’s fortune. This tells the reader
that Hyde is associated with crime and bad behaviour
by other characters. Utterson also calls Jekyll ‘poor
Harry’, which tells the reader that he believes Jekyll
is Hyde’s innocent victim. Utterson also believes
that even if Jekyll did have secrets they would be
like ‘sunshine’ compared to the horrible secrets
Hyde probably has. Utterson considers Jekyll to be
Considers
meaning of a perfect gentleman based on his public reputation
language choices as a doctor of the sciences. Furthermore, Stevenson
but on quite a establishes with Hyde’s name, which sounds like the
simplistic level.
verb ‘hide’, that he will be a character who is both

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Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Sample Answer
51
 mysterious and secretive. Utterson doesn’t know
that Hyde is really Jekyll’s evil side that has become
separate due to Jekyll’s scientific experiments.
Opportunity
In conclusion, Stevenson shows us that everyone, missed to
good or bad, has secrets and a dark side to their broaden
nature. Even Utterson, who is a good man, worries response and
showcase deeper
that he might have secrets which could come out
understanding.
and ruin him. The whole novella is a lesson in not to Where is the
judge someone by their appearance. Jekyll appears evidence for
this? Don’t drop
and acts like a good gentleman but in fact has a
new ideas into a
dark and evil side that will eventually overtake and conclusion.
destroy him.

The candidate has clearly engaged with the text and

understands it at an intermediate level. Comments
are explained and structured but lacking the critical
analysis required to take it to a higher level.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Sample Answer
52
 Themes: Reputations and Secrets

Sample Answer
Great Response
Stevenson presents secrets as dangerous and toxic
in the extract from Chapter Two, as well as the rest
of the novella. As Utterson vows to discover the
connection between Jekyll and Hyde, Stevenson
uses powerful religious language such as ‘sin’ to
explain what secret could connect a monster like
Hyde to a proper Victorian gentleman like Jekyll.
Stevenson uses the metaphor of ‘cancer’ to create
Subject
terminology and the emotive effect that this secret is destroying
consideration Jekyll’s life. Utterson assumes that it is Hyde who is
of audience the dangerous monster, based purely on his hideous
response.
appearance. This is ironic as Stevenson implies that Thoughtful and
Jekyll is not as innocent as he first appears – Utterson developed.
remembers that Jekyll’s past was ‘wild’, implying that
Jekyll did get up to mischief but that is long forgotten
now he is a respectable doctor of the sciences. The
threat of past secrets ruining one’s future disturbs
Utterson; he pities ‘poor Harry Jekyll’ and wonders
what ‘ill things’ he also could be ‘humbled’ by, even
though Stevenson tells the reader that Utterson’s
Developed and past is actually fairly ‘blameless’. The adjective ‘ill’
linked.
continues the metaphor that secrets are diseases,
which threaten the life and reputation of the decent
Contextual
Victorian man. Utterson quickly contradicts himself reference could
when it comes to Jekyll’s past; he acknowledges that be further
developed.
Jekyll was ‘wild’ when he was younger, but there is
no ‘statute of limitations’, meaning that anything
Jekyll did as a young man is now forgiven.

Utterson assumes that Hyde is either blackmailing or

threatening Jekyll, due to some ‘concealed disgrace’
within Jekyll’s past. Utterson is keen to protect the

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Themes: Reputations and Secrets - Sample Answer
53
 reputation of his friend Jekyll and vows to uncover
Hyde’s own ‘black secrets’. Stevenson frequently
Understanding
of authorial craft explores the idea of binary opposites throughout the
and meaning. novella, including that of light and dark and secrets
Is the binary
and revelation. Utterson assumes that Hyde’s secrets
opposition
between Jekyll are ‘black’, an idea that is repeated with Hyde and
and Hyde his later description, for Stevenson presents Hyde as
a simplistic a repulsive character who deserves to live in secrecy
reading? Critical
and darkness.
analysis might
explore this By contrast, Utterson assumes that Jekyll’s secrets
further.
are no worse than ‘sunshine’, compared to Hyde’s,
associating lightness and truth with Jekyll, based
purely on his outward reputation and public deeds.
These are evident of how the characters of Jekyll
and Hyde are presented initially as binary opposites
to the reader- yet in reality, Stevenson repeatedly
suggests to the reader that a man’s nature is more
complex than merely good versus evil – by the end of
the novella, Jekyll commits suicide to prevent Hyde
from fully overtaking his form. When Stevenson Begins to delve
describes Jekyll’s dying body as ‘contorted’ the deeper with
reader realises that his secrets have overtaken and a well-chosen
citation.
left him unrecognisable.

The theme of secrets and concealment are also

represented in the ways Hyde and Jekyll enter Jekyll’s
house; Jekyll enters through the front door, as the
front of the house is both presentable, desirable
and attractive, like the man himself. Yet Hyde enters
through the back door, which is in the shadows and
away from public gaze. The back door also faces the
less desirable part of the city and is associated with
degradation and filth. The very fact that this house
Convincing can link two areas of Victorian London so closely
explanation of also warns the reader that perhaps Jekyll is not so
symbolism.
far removed from ‘sin’ as Utterson cares to believe.

Stevenson reveals Utterson’s disgust with Hyde’s

appearance and features, as he does not present
as a respectable gentleman. Earlier in Chapter Two,
Stevenson presents Hyde as physically repulsive, with

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54
 a face devoid of ‘mercy’ and a grotesque physique
which gives the reader the impression of ‘deformity’.
The Victorians linked physical appearance to an
individual’s character and morality – therefore, if
a person looked deviant in appearance, they were
heavily and severely judged by society’s standards.
The Victorians were overtly pious and therefore more Context used to
base desires and feelings were often encouraged enhance writer’s
ideas.
to be suppressed and hidden. Stevenson suggests
Jekyll’s desire to separate his evil side, thus creating
Edward Hyde, is both a transgression against
science and morality. Indeed, Jekyll’s lifelong friend
Doctor Lanyon is so horrified to discover Jekyll and
Hyde are one and the same that he swiftly dies from
the shock.

In conclusion, Stevenson explores how the idea of

secrets are damaging to the characters. In Chapter
Two, the secrets are mysteries to be solved and
uncovered; the reader is as unclear to Hyde’s true
identity as Utterson, who is determined to protect
his friend Jekyll from societal damnation and ruin.

Though there are ideas which could be explored

further, an examiner will not be expecting perfection
in timed conditions. Most importantly, each paragraph
contains an analytical element that develops the
candidate’s understanding and lifts their response
above the good one.

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55
 Themes
Science and the Supernatural
As well as its conflict with religion, the rational world of science also
clashes with the mysterious, inexplicable sphere of the supernatural.

Gothic horror exploits the tension between these two realms. This dark
genre of literature is often assumed to revolve around supernatural
beings such as vampires and ghosts. However, original Gothic texts
like Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) and Ann Radcliffe’s
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) preyed on the nerves of their audience
by using supernatural ingredients to whip-up a tense, melodramatic
atmosphere before ultimately restoring order with a rational
explanation of their mysteries. The narrative structure of Jekyll and
Hyde partly subverts this convention; Chapters One to Eight follow
Utterson’s rational attempts to explain events, with the third-person
narration and his characterisation as a fair, educated man marking
him as a reliable reporter, whereas the final two chapters descend into
the first-person madness of Lanyon and Jekyll, in which explanations
are offered but the melodrama is cranked ever higher.

If the author is celebrated for mixing science with the

supernatural, the same combination in his main character is
a punishable crime. Dr Lanyon denounces his fellow physician
Dr Jekyll’s interest in transcendental medicine as “unscientific
balderdash” which ultimately condemns them both. Seeing
Jekyll’s ideas successfully applied means the destruction
of Lanyon’s stable, rational worldview, which also leads to
a destruction of self as he declares ‘I feel that my days
are numbered, and that I must die; and yet I shall die
incredulous’. Similarly, Jekyll’s narrative ends in his
death as a result of his experiment spiralling out of
control and the science being overtaken by unnatural
elements. Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case

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 doesn’t read like a doctor’s notebook, it is instead full of abstract,
poetic language: ‘added one of the powders’ belongs to a spell or
incantation rather than a scientific formula.

Hyde joins Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster on the roll call of classic
Gothic creatures. He is intimidating and dangerous but perhaps the
most unsettling feature of Mr Hyde is that he is all too human. Before
the monsters took centre stage, human duplicity was at the heart of
Gothic storylines and that is where Stevenson returns it to; Jekyll is
revealed to be the true villain of the piece and Hyde merely the fearful
manifestation of what humans are capable of. His monstrousness is
reflected in his appearance: human, definitely, but deformed in a way
that nobody is able to adequately describe or explain.

Stevenson also gives his settings a Gothic twist. The smart façade
of Jekyll’s townhouse contrasts with the unsightly back door used
by Hyde which carries the signs of corrosion and decay typically
found in creepy Gothic castles and mansions. Inside, the laboratory
should be a clean, sterile space but is equally weathered by Hyde’s
malign influence. And then there is the weather itself. Stevenson uses
pathetic fallacy to cast a dark cloud over meteorology and inject the
weather with a paranormal sense of menace. For example, between
the Carew murder and Guest’s handwriting analysis linking Jekyll
to the murderer, Stevenson describes how ‘The fog still slept on the
wing above the drowned city’. The fog shrouds the city in a cloak of
hazy gloom just as Utterson’s own thoughts are clouded by sorrow,
apprehension and ambiguity.

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 Context
Gothicism is the dark twin of Through the eighteenth and
Romanticism. Both artistic nineteenth centuries then, there
movements grew out of were tensions between science
dissatisfaction in the advancing and religion, science and nature,
belief that science held the answer science and art. However there
to everything; where Gothicism were also tensions within the
accentuated the supernatural scientific community. This
and troubled psyches, Romantics is referenced in the hostility
believed in individual subjectivity between Drs Jekyll and Lanyon,
and the wonder of nature. with Jekyll speaking violently

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58
 of ‘war’ between the sides. Darwin’s theories provided a fertile
battleground. While evolution conflicted with religious creation stories,
the associated theory of devolution sparked fears among scientists
who believed firmly in progress and the forward movement of their
school of thought. Darwin noted, though, that humanity is capable
of devolving back to its more humble beginnings because ‘Man still
bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin’. For
academics seeking to discredit this idea, the primitive form of Hyde
was terrifying for its scientific connotations.

Different branches of science were competing for ascendancy.

Pharmacology was the emerging study of chemicals and their effect
on mind and body. Modern readings of Jekyll and Hyde might focus
on behavioural drugs and the power of science to alter our physical
and mental states. Going out of fashion at the time of writing was
physiognomy, the belief that personality and disposition could be
identified from facial features and outer appearance. The grotesque
appearance of Hyde symbolising his wicked character is a nod to this
but the inability of observers to describe or explain his appearance
also alludes to its limitations.

Perhaps the most radical scientific developments of all during the late
nineteenth century were in the field of psychology. Concerned with the
study of mind and behaviour, conscious and unconscious phenomena,
psychology was like a scientific commentary on the Gothic novels
that so fascinated ordinary people. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was
beginning to question how a person could put their belief in a divine
being or an afterlife through means of faith rather than science and
reason. Though Jekyll and Hyde came before Freud’s theory of The Ego
and the Id (1923), it is a prophetic example of it. Freud reasoned that
the human psyche could be separated into three constituent parts: the
ego, the id and the super-ego. The ego is the rational part of the mind,
responsible for organising thoughts and making sense of the world, as
represented by Jekyll and Utterson. The id is the primitive, instinctive,
purely emotional part of our personalities. It stands in contrast to the
ego and is represented by Hyde. The super-ego fulfils the critical and
moralising role, a part played by Stevenson and the reader.

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 Themes: Science and the Supernatural

Key Quotes
“Such unscientific balderdash,” added the
doctor, flushing suddenly purple, “would
Lanyon has several choice words for
have estranged Damon and Pythias.”
Jekyll’s ideas but ‘unscientific balderdash’
Search for Mr Hyde neatly summarises his own view. The
‘purple’ complexion exposes his passionate
strength of feeling, as does the reference
to the Greek legend of Damon and Pythias
– friends who would gladly lay down their
lives for each other. For Lanyon, Jekyll’s
“God bless me, the man seems hardly ‘scientific heresies’ are reason enough to
human! Something troglodytic, shall we cancel their friendship.
say?”
Search for Mr Hyde Utterson’s exclamation refers to Darwin’s
devolution theory, which was itself seen as
regressive and ‘troglodytic’ by some in the
scientific community. Hyde is those fears
brought to life and the rationale of Utterson
has difficulty comprehending him.
“No, sir, that thing in the mask was never
Dr Jekyll – God knows what it was, but it
Hyde’s appearance in Jekyll’s chamber,
was never Dr Jekyll; and it is the belief of
pretending to be Jekyll still, is baffling to his
my heart that there was murder done.”
staff but Poole and Utterson continue to
The Last Night seek logical explanations such as a ‘mask’
and even ‘murder’ – the transcendental
nature of Jekyll’s experiments are beyond
their conception.

“And now, you who have so long been

bound to the most narrow and material Jekyll (as Hyde, but about to turn back
into Jekyll) takes great pleasure in proving
views, you who have denied the virtue of
Lanyon wrong and revealing the victory of
transcendental medicine, you who have
‘transcendental medicine’ over ‘narrow’
derided your superiors – behold!”
science. And the showmanship of his grand
Dr Lanyon’s Narrative reveal is more in keeping with a magician
than a scientist!

Lanyon is so bound to his ‘narrow’ worldview

‘I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard,
that he finds Jekyll’s transformation
and my soul sickened at it; and yet now
unfathomable. The phrasal repetition
when that sight has faded from my eyes,
shows him grasping at the meaning but
I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot
it remains unpalatable – the sibilance of
answer.’ ‘soul sickened’ sounds as if he’s spitting the
Dr Lanyon’s Narrative information back out because it conflicts
with his more orthodox beliefs.

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 Themes: Science and the Supernatural

Mini Exams
Question 1

“Stevenson presents the supernatural as stronger than science.” Discuss.

Question 2

Are the scientific characteristics of Jekyll and Hyde scarier than the
supernatural ones?

Question 3

Is Dr Jekyll a good scientist?

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 Themes: Science and the Supernatural

Exam Question
Read the following extract from Chapter Nine (Dr Lanyon’s Narrative) of The Strange Case of
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and then answer the question that follows.
In this extract, Dr Lanyon has received a visitor who has come to collect the drawer from
Jekyll’s cabinet and who now offers to reveal the secrets of its contents.

“Sir,” said I, affecting a coolness that I was far from truly possessing, “you speak
enigmas, and you will perhaps not wonder that I hear you with no very strong impression
of belief. But I have gone too far in the way of inexplicable services to pause before I
see the end.”
“It is well,” replied my visitor. “Lanyon, you remember your vows: what follows is
under the seal of our profession. And now, you who have so long been bound to the
most narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue of transcendental
medicine, you who have derided your superiors—behold!”
He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered,
clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth;
and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became
suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I
had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arms raised to shield me
from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.
“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again; for there before my eyes—pale
and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man
restored from death—there stood Henry Jekyll!
What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on paper. I saw what I
saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has
faded from my eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life is shaken
to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day
and night; and I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must die; and yet I shall
die incredulous. As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears
of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror. I will say
but one thing, Utterson, and that (if you can bring your mind to credit it ) will be more

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62
 than enough. The creature who crept into my house that night was, on Jekyll’s own
confession, known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every corner of the land as
the murderer of Carew.

Starting with this extract, explore how Stevenson presents the mysteries
of science.

Write about:
• how Stevenson presents science in this extract;
• how Stevenson presents science in the novella as a whole.

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 Themes: Science and the Supernatural

Sample Answer
Good Response
Dr Lanyon represents an orthodox, rational
scientific view whereas Dr Jekyll stands for mystical,
transcendental ideas of what science is capable of.
This difference is shown in the contrast between
their language at the start of the extract. Lanyon’s
vocabulary choices reflect the formal ‘coolness’
that is typical of him but that he is having to affect
when faced with the strangeness of this mysterious
situation: ‘enigmas’ and ‘inexplicable’ both show
Clear comment
on author’s the difficulty he is having comprehending what’s
language choices. happening but also the scientific mind trying to
make sense of it, to resolve the enigmas and
make it explicable. Jekyll’s opinion of this rational,
common-sense approach is that it is “narrow and
material”. The word ‘material’ gives the impression
that Lanyon is concerned with ordinary physical
objects whereas he, Jekyll, is exploring ideas that,
Clear comment
in his mind at least, go far beyond this mundane
on author’s
view and are otherworldly. Indeed, he even refers language choices.
to himself as one of Lanyon’s ‘superiors’ and talks
of the ‘virtue of transcendental medicine’, implying
that his experiments are ethical and virtuous, when
Lanyon and most sane people would take the
opposite view. This points to the opposing views of
Contextual
relevance is
science and where it was headed that existed in the
implied but not 19th century.
explained.
Despite the title Doctor, when he says ‘behold’ at Compelling
the end of the second paragraph the exclamation interpretation
makes Jekyll sound more like a showman performing supported with
reference to
a magic trick than a man of science. And, as with
language.
some magic acts, this trick certainly carries an

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64
 element of danger. Lanyon’s description of Jekyll
during the transformation makes him sound as if
he is undergoing torture; for example, the triplet
Personal response
to the effect of of verbs ‘reeled, staggered, clutched’ shows him
language also struggling to withstand the effect, while the image
takes in author’s of his face becoming ‘suddenly black’ and his
intentions.
features seeming to ‘melt’ sounds like a climactic
scene from a horror film. This is reinforced by the
effect that it has on Lanyon who is ‘pale and shaken’
(the physical image contrasts with Jekyll as well as
their vocabulary) and screams ‘“O God!” again and
again’, hinting towards the conflict between science
Context is again
and religion. hinted at rather
than explored.
However, there are also similarities that can be
drawn between Lanyon and Jekyll. Both suffer and
ultimately die as a result of Jekyll’s reckless scientific
experimentation. A link is made in the extract
when Lanyon declares ‘my soul sickened’, which
could equally apply to the effect that Hyde has on
Jekyll’s own soul. Overall it appears that Stevenson
disapproves of Jekyll’s work, although the narrative
structure also makes it mysterious and alluring.
Just as the story is structured around enigmas that
Utterson seeks to understand and resolve, this
extract ends with Lanyon trying to reason what he
has witnessed but being unable to. Logic and reason
are required but, like Lanyon and Utterson, they are
a bit boring and incapable of explaining the exciting
mysteries of Jekyll and Hyde.

The final paragraph suggests that this candidate is

on the verge of a really interesting, conceptualised
response to the extract in question and the whole text.
Although their answer contains plenty to recommend
it, especially the analysis of key words, the ideas are
not extended enough for it to be deemed convincing
rather than clear.

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 Themes: Science and the Supernatural

Sample Answer
Great Response
Throughout Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson
presents the mysteries of science as complex,
divisive and destructive. We see this through the
portrayal of the breakdown of the life-long friendship
between Lanyon and Jekyll. Lanyon states that Jekyll
‘became too fanciful’ with regards to his scientific
interests and justifies their estrangement with an
exaggerated comparison to the Greek legend of
Damon and Pythias. Lanyon’s example illustrates
him as an educated man, calling upon classical
Judicious use of literature to support his point and also seeks to
textual reference.
prove he is entirely justified in his dispute with Jekyll
as the legend is about an ideal friendship.

Likewise, Jekyll also has a defensive tone, stating

Lanyon is a ‘hide-bound pedant’ who doesn’t like
his ‘scientific heresies’. Jekyll’s tone is bitter and
acknowledges the chasm between them – Lanyon
fundamentally disagrees with Jekyll’s pursuit into the
transcendental side of science. Utterson is unable
to see it as more than a differing on ‘a point of
science’. However, the ramifications for Lanyon and
Understanding
Jekyll are far greater, existential even, and echo the situated within
rifts contemporary readers would have recognised social and
historical context.
in their post-Darwinian society, where divisions lay
between religion and science.

Lanyon’s reaction to Hyde’s transformation is ‘soul

sickening’. The man of science, who dismissed Jekyll
as ‘wrong in mind’ has been ‘shaken to [his] roots’,
so much so that he feels incapable of living. His life
has no meaning, science – his science, has failed
him and he has been invaded by elements of the

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

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66
 supernatural, ‘sleep has left me; the deadliest terror
sits by me at all hours of the day and night’. Lanyon’s
personification of terror is startling and abstract,
his description is like an apparition and shows how
Detailed and
insightful altered he has been by his experience. Possibly worst
analysis. of all is that he “shall die incredulous”. A life spent
educated and full of knowledge is now full of doubt
and questions. Lanyon’s anxiety was felt by many
Context integral
Victorians confronted with a feeling of unease at
to audience
the end of the century; rapid change in both ways of response.
living (Industrialisation), and thinking (Darwinism),
meant the future was uncertain.

Jekyll is also destroyed by the knowledge he sought

to gain. In this extract, we see Hyde as a gloating,
boastful man desperate to ‘stagger the unbelief of
Satan’. After tempting Lanyon into indulging in his
‘province of knowledge’, Hyde is not content merely
to reveal the discovery to Lanyon. He taunts him,
repeating ‘you who have...’, revelling in Lanyon’s
ignorance. This is far from the gentlemanly behaviour
of Jekyll who acknowledged their dispute but kept
a polite distance for ten years. Instead, we see
behaviour that is more animalistic and what Jekyll
calls Hyde’s ‘ape-like spite’. Hyde is in the home
of Lanyon, bragging, whilst simultaneously at his
mercy due to requiring the drawer. This is far from
the freedom Jekyll sought from his experiments.
Instead, Jekyll has become caged by what he hoped
he could free.

A thoughtful, carefully structured response. The final

lines indicate a beautifully conceptualised reading of
the whole text. Consistently fulfils all AOs to a high
standard.

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67
 Glossary
Literary Terms
allegory literal definitions. inference
Something is For example, gold is A conclusion
allegorical if it has defined as a precious reached on the basis
a deeper meaning metal or as the colour of evidence and
or message that’s of said metal but it reasoning. When
designed to give the connotes wealth and we infer, we are
reader a moral or luxury. responding to what
teach them a lesson. first-person has been implied.
Jekyll and Hyde is an Narrative point of view irony
allegory as it has a of a character in the A rhetorical device
moral lesson contained story; relates action in which a contrast
within it. using first person is created between
allude pronoun I. surface and reality. It
To make passing foreshadows is ironic that Jekyll, a
reference to Foreshadowing is the doctor who has sworn
something, thereby writer hinting towards to heal, is responsible
bringing to mind events to come later in for the brutal
ideas associated with the narrative. murder of
it. Jekyll and Hyde Sir Danvers
homophone
contains biblical and ...
Carew.
A word with the same
scientific allusions. ...
pronunciation as
binary opposition another, but different
A pair of related terms meanings and
or ideas that stand in spellings.
direct contrast to one
illeism
another.
The act of referring
connotations to oneself in the third
Ideas or feelings person (using own
that are evoked by name) instead of first
words or images, person (“I”).
in addition to their

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Glossary
68
 metaphor set of circumstances. sibilance
A figure of speech pathetic fallacy Strongly stressed
that regards one A figure of speech consonants producing
thing as symbolic in which the natural a hissing sound.
or representative of world is presented third-person
something else. as having human Narrative point of
novella characteristics. view of a detached
A short-form novel personified observer; relates
that could feasibly be Personification is the action using third
read in a single sitting. representation of an person pronouns such
paradox abstract quality in as he, she, they.

A logically false or human or tangible

contradictory idea or form.

Contextual Concepts
Age of Enlightenment territory. twins, paranormal
Period of intellectual devolution phenomenon or
and philosophical The backward harbingers of ill fate.
development that movement into a lower ego
changed European or worse state; the The ego is the rational
societies across the opposite of evolution. part of the mind,
seventeenth and responsible
dominant ideology
eighteenth centuries. for organising
The views or beliefs
atheism that are mostly widely thoughts and
The belief that there is shared within a making sense of
no God. society. the world.

blasphemous doppelgänger ...

Language insulting German for ‘double-
or disrespecting God/ walker’, the mythical
religion. doppelgänger is
colonisation the double of a
The act of taking living person. Often
control over a presented as evil

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Glossary
69
 Gothic centuries in which Romanticism
There are Gothic large-scale changes A literary and
movements in in manufacturing artistic movement
architecture, fashion processes transformed that focused on the
and music as well as working lives and inspiration of the
literature. They are social behaviours. natural world and
united by a sense of meteorology the importance of
gloom and morbidity. Scientific study emotion.
heresy of weather and pessimistic
A belief that goes atmosphere. Describes a negative
against what is original sin mental attitude of
generally accepted, Refers to Eve’s biting always
especially relating to into the forbidden expecting
religion. fruit in the Garden of the worst.
Hippocratic Oath Eden which, according
An ethical pledge to Christian thinking,
made by physicians. It resulted in humanity
dates back to ancient inheriting
Greece and one of a tainted
its key components nature and
translates as ‘I will tendency to
abstain from all sin.
intentional wrong- pharmacology
doing and harm’. Scientific study
id of chemicals and their
The id is the primitive, effect on mind and
instinctive, purely body.
emotional part of our physiognomy
personalities. It stands Study of a person’s
in contrast to the ego outer appearance as
and is represented by a means of assessing
Hyde. their personality.
Industrial Revolution psychology
Period between Scientific study of the
the eighteenth human mind.
and nineteenth

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Glossary
70
 Golden Vocabulary
Words to help you sound impressive. Many of these relate to the strict
Victorian moral code.

abstain conform (often a deceptive

To go without; refrain To comply with one).
from indulging in the accepted fallibility
something. rules, standards or Tendency to make
austere conventions. mistakes and commit
Plain and puritanical. conventions errors.

beneficiary Typical practices or hypocrisy

The person who rules; the way in which The practice of
stands to benefit something is usually claiming high moral
from something, most done. standards that one’s
notably the inheritor dichotomy own behaviour does
of possessions left in a An equal division of not match.
will. two parts that are hypothesis
represented as being An initial deduction
in opposition to one based on evidence and
another. reason but requiring
disclosed further investigation.
A disclosure is new itinerant
or secret information Regularly moving from
being revealed. place to place.
duplicity manifest
Deceitfulness; the Make plain; to give
state of being double something theoretical
or two-faced. or abstract a more
eponymous concrete presence.
Person, place or thing melodrama
after which something A melodramatic work
is named. is one with sensational,
esteemed exaggerated elements
Held in high regard. designed to appeal to

façade the emotions.

Outward appearance ...

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Glossary
71
 morbid retrograde transcendental
Describes an unnatural Backwards-looking; Transcending (rising
interest in dark and rooted in the past. above) earthly
disturbing subjects, risqué limitations and
especially death and Mildly indecent and entering a different
disease. likely to shock the faint state of being,
orthodox of heart, especially often spiritual or

Conforming to the by being sexually supernatural.

set rules; as opposed suggestive. transgressor

to being unorthodox, subvert Someone who
which would mean To undermine or transgresses is
being unusual. challenge the accepted someone who goes
persona rules, standards beyond the limits of

Image that is or conventions. what is acceptable.

presented to others; Subversion is uncanny

a role played rather the opposite of Strange or mysterious
than a true reflection conformism. in an unsettling way.
of self. superficial virtuous
rational Surface state or Morally pure or
Able to act based on appearance; lacking superior.
logic or reason, as depth.
opposed to the often taboo
irrational influence of Describes something
emotion. that is deemed
repressed unacceptable or
Kept hidden or forbidden by social
inactive, as if locked conventions.
down.

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Glossary
72
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