Jekyll and Hyde

1
Jekyll and Hyde

• Notes

2
Setting

• -   Darkness and light (including street
  lighting)
• -   Dirt and dust
• -   Fog
• -   Housing contrast of different areas
• -   Cupboards, closets, cabinets- things shut
  away

3
Structure and Narration

• - 3rd Person Narrative
• -   seen mostly from the perspective of Utterson
  (characterisation)
• -   Mauds story of the Carew murder (Hydes
  second crime)

4
Structure and Narration

• - 1st Person Narration
• -   Enfields story (Hydes first crime)
• -   Jekylls letters
• -   Lanyons story
• -   Jekylls statement

5
Structure and Narration

• - Framing everything is at one remove
• -   seen through the eyes of others
• -   told in letters or statements
• -   seen only in part
• seen through a window (Utterson talks to Jekyll
  through a window) (Imagery)

6
Structure and Narration

• - Draws us in further and further even if we
  already know or have guessed who Hyde is, we want
  to find out how, why and what it felt like.
• - Structured and written like a Report (cf
  Language)

7
Characterisation

• Utterson
• -   of unimpeachable probity
• -   totally reliable
• -   has led a very sheltered life
• -   probably very dull even boring (cf after
  Js party)
• Lanyon
• Jekyll
• Hyde
• The relationship of Jekyll to
  Hyde

8
Imagery and Language

• -   Wine
• -   hearth fires
• -   animals
• -   cupboards, closets, cabinets
• -   windows
• -   dirt, dust
• -   fog
• -   formal language
• -   detailed language
•  

9
Theme, Message and Relevance

• -   Jekyll well respected and the evil Hyde
• -   Jekyll though it been a very pure powder, but
  it had been contaminated the unknown impurity
  lent efficacy
• -   Front of Js house very respectable, but back
  is on dingy street (setting)
• -   Framing who and what do we believe
  difficulty of knowing the truth

10
Theme, Message and Relevance

• -   Criminals who were well respected (eg
  Shipman, Soham murderer)
• -   Political systems that claimed to be good but
  produced evil (Nazism, Communism, Inquisition,
  Prohibition (USA))

11
Theme, Message and Relevance

• The nature of personality
• -   Personality changes caused by illness,
  injury, trauma, stress, alcohol, drugs
• -   Multiple personality
• -   Brain research (cf Jekyll a mere polity of
  multifarious, incongruous, and independent
  denizens)

12
Theme, Message and Relevance

• 3.The nature of evil
• - our propensity to evil (cf Crime and
  Punishment )
• -   dualism
• -   Is pure evil more powerful than our normal
  mix of good and bad?
• Torturers (cf Psychological experiments)

13
Theme, Message and Relevance

• 4. The risks of scientific experiment
• -   nuclear technology
• -   genetic modification
• -   cloning (cf Frankenstein )

14
Antecedents

• Historical
• -   Deacon Brodie
• -   Dr Knox and the body snatchers, Burke and
  Hare (Stevenson wrote a short story based on this
  also The Bodysnatchers)
• Literary
• -   Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
• -   Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James
  Hogg)
• -   Tales of Hoffman
• -   Murders in the Rue Morgue (Edgar Allan Poe)
• Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoievsky)

15
Genre links

•  The Gothic esp Frankenstein (pre) Dracula
  (post)
• -   Crime ficion Edgar Allan Poe (pre)
  Sherlock Holmes (post) stories about Jack the
  Ripper (post) modern psychological crime fiction
  (eg Val McDermid)
• -   Horror
• -   Psychological fiction Confessions of a
  Justified Sinner (pre)
• -   Multiple Narratives Confessions of a
  Justified Sinner (pre) Dracula (post)

16
Higher Essay Questions

• development or deterioration of a character
  Jekyll and Hyde
• contrast between characters Jekyll and Utterson
• key scene
• the importance of setting buildings/fog/light/roo
  ms to eg appearance and reality
• narration different narrators, framing,
  characterisation of Utterson, language
• imagery
• theme, message or relevance