The Victorian Age

1
The Victorian Age

• The Victorian era, spanning from 18301901, was a
  period of dramatic change the world over, and
  especially in England, with the rapid extension
  of colonialism through large portions of Africa,
  Asia, and the West Indies, making England a
  pre-eminent centre of world power and relocating
  the perceived centre of Western Civilization from
  Paris to London.

2

• The Victorian early period (183048) can be
  described as a time of dramatic change, with the
  improvement of the railroads and the country's
  first Reform Parliament, but it was also a time
  of economic distress.

3

• Although the mid-Victorian period (184870) was
  not free of the previous period's problems, it
  was a time of overall prosperity and general
  social satisfaction with further growth of the
  empire improving trade and economic conditions.

4

• The later period (18701901) was a time of
  changing attitudes about colonialism,
  industrialization, and the possibility of making
  scientific advancements.

5

• The conditions of publishing, including the
  prominence of the periodical press, dramatically
  shaped the form and production of literature in
  the Victorian era.

6

• We are interested in the era of 1870-1901
• There is an attitude of change
• Colonialism
• Industrialization
• Scientific advancements

7
The later period (18701901) was a time of
changing attitudes about colonialism,
industrialization, and scientific advancement. 

• Rebellions and war in the colonial territories
  made the public increasingly more aware of the
  costs of empire.
• Various events challenged the sense of England's
  endless prosperity as a world power, such as the
  emergence of Bismarck's Germany and its threats
  to English naval and military positions and the
  expansion of the American grain industry, driving
  down the price of English grain.
• Socialist movements grew out of this
  discontentment, as well as a melancholy spirit in
  the writing of the end of the century. Oscar
  Wilde's making a pun of "earnest," a typical and
  sincerely used mid-Victorian word, is typical of
  a dying Victorianism.

8

• In addition to social and economic changes,
  dramatically affecting the content of literature
  during the Victorian era, other technological
  changes in publishing shaped literary production
  in other ways. 
• The conditions of publishing, including the
  prominence of the periodical press, dramatically
  shaped the form of literature. 
• Serialization of novels, for example, allowed for
  an author to alter the shape of his narrative
  based on public response to earlier instalments.

9

• In the later years of the era, authors started to
  position themselves in opposition to this broad
  reading public and serialization gave way to
  three-volume editions.
• The Victorian novel was primarily concerned with
  representing a social reality and the way a
  protagonist sought and defined a place within
  this reality.
• The increased popularity of periodicals also
  allowed non-fiction to become a widespread and
  popular literary genre.

10

• Victorian poetry was also published in
  periodicals and underwent its own dramatic
  changes during the era, with Victorian poets
  seeking to represent psychology in new ways.
• Theatre, on the other hand, was a popular form of
  entertainment, but did not flourish aesthetically
  until the end of the Victorian era.

11

• There was a rich connection in the Victorian
  period between visual art and literature.
• Much Victorian aesthetic theory makes the eye the
  most authoritative sense and the clearest
  indicator of truth.
• Victorian poetry and the Victorian novel both
  value visual description as a way of portraying
  their subjects.
• This emphasis on the visual creates a
  particularly close connection between poetry and
  painting. Books of fiction and poetry were
  illustrated, and the illustrations amplified and
  intensified the effects of the text.
• The texts, engravings, and paintings provide an
  insight into the connection between the verbal
  and the visual so central to Victorian
  aesthetics.

12

• "All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who
  go beneath the surface do so at their own peril.
  Those who read the symbol do so at their own
  peril."--by Oscar Wilde, Preface, "The Picture of
  Dorian Gray"

13
Very brief synopsis of Dorian Gray

• The novel opens with Henry Wotton and his friend,
  Basil Hallward. The pair are admiring a painting
  recently of a young man of extraordinary
  personal beauty. (Wilde, 1992, pg.5) The young
  man in question is Dorian Gray.
• One evening, Dorian realises that his beauty will
  soon wither and fade, and makes a deal with the
  devil to retain his youth If it were only the
  other way! If it were I who was to be always
  young, and the picture that was to grow
  old!(Wilde, 1992, pg.24)
• Dorian and Sybil
• Dorian meets a young actress, Sybil Vane and
  spends his evenings watching her perform at a
  local theatre. He woos her for a short time and
  soon proposes marriage, which she accepts.
  Sybils brother James vows that if this man
  wrongs my sister, I will find out who he is,
  track him down and kill him like a dog. (Wilde,
  1992, pg.58)
• The next evening Dorian, Basil and Henry go to
  watch Sybil perform, but her acting is appalling.
  After the performance Dorian breaks off his
  engagement to Sybil, declaring that he cannot
  ever love her. Upon returning home Dorian
  realises that the facial expression of his
  portrait has altered to reflect his cruel
  treatment of Sybil.

14

• Dorian decides that the proper thing to do is to
  go back to Sybil and reaffirm his love for her
  however, the next day Dorian hears the news that
  the young actress has killed herself in the
  night.
• The Altered Portrait
• After this incident and over the following years
  Dorian leads a life of debauchery the portrait
  alters each time a sin is committed. Dorians
  debauchery is heavily influenced by an unnamed
  book given to him as a gift by Henry.
• Many years later Basil goes to visit Dorian with
  the intention of confronting him about the sinful
  life he has been living. Dorian does not deny the
  things he has done and takes Basil to see the
  portrait that has always remained hidden.
• Murder
• On seeing the altered portrait, Basil begs Dorian
  to repent his sins. Dorian, in a fit of madness
  and resentment stabs Basil to death. He seeks out
  Alan Campbell, an acquaintance, and blackmails
  him into destroying Basils corpse.
• Following this incident, James Vane inadvertently
  catches Dorian leaving an Opium den but releases
  him, believing him too young to have been the man
  involved with his deceased sister. A passing
  woman reveals to James that he is indeed the man
  in question. The following week, Dorian spots
  James on the grounds but the next day James is
  accidentally killed while Dorian and his friends
  are out hunting.

15

• Dorians Final Act
• Dorian finally realises the error of his ways and
  reaffirms his desire to be good, hoping that the
  portrait will change to reflect his new life.
  When he inspects the painting he finds that there
  is no real change except that the painting has a
  look of cunning, and in the mouth the curved
  wrinkle of the hypocrite. (Wilde, 1992, pg.176)
• In a fit of rage, Dorian seizes the knife he used
  to kill Basil and stabs the portrait with it. His
  servants hear a scream and call for the police.
  When they arrive they find the portrait as it
  originally was and a corpse aged horribly and
  unidentifiable it was only when they examined
  the rings that they recognised who it was.
  (Wilde, 1992, pg.177)
• References
• Wilde, O., 1992, The Picture of Dorian
  Gray, Hertfordshire Wordsworth Editions Limited

16
Whats it all about?

• Homoerotic love?
• Homoerotic love is an underlying theme of the
  novel, although it is never stated directly. Both
  Lord Henry and Basil Hallward are deeply
  attracted to Dorian Gray on account of his great
  physical beauty. Basil insists that his love for
  Dorian is "noble and intellectual," and there is
  no reason to doubt him. But he also speaks about
  Dorian in terms that a man would normally speak
  about a lover and about falling in love. "I
  worshipped you," he says to Dorian. "I grew
  jealous of every one to whom you spoke. I wanted
  to have you all to myself. I was only happy when
  I was with you" (chapter 9). Basil sublimates any
  erotic dimension to his feelings about Dorian by
  pouring them into his art.

17

• Lord Henry prefers the company of Dorian to that
  of his wife, and he consistently expresses
  misogynist views. He worships youthful male
  beauty as embodied in Dorian, and he encourages
  Dorian to give full rein all his secret desires.
  When he says the following to Dorian, he may well
  be suggesting that Dorian has a previously
  unacknowledged sexual attraction to men "You
  have had passions that have made you afraid,
  thoughts that have filled you with terror,
  day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory
  might stain your cheek with shame-" The language
  here, and the use of the word "shame," suggests
  that Dorian's "sins," although they are never
  explicitly described, may be of a sexual nature.
  One has to remember that in the Victorian age,
  attitudes to homosexuality are very different
  from what they are today.

18
Art vs. Life

• The novel presents a contrast between art and
  life. Art possesses beauty and form it is
  contrasted with the ugliness and shapelessness of
  real life. Lord Henry encourages Dorian to treat
  his own life as if it were a work of art. He must
  experience it fully, as one would a piece of art,
  but at the same time remain detached from it, in
  the way that one might appreciate a great
  painting or a play. This involves a paradox he
  must be at once involved and uninvolved, fully
  participating, not drawing back from anything,
  but always remaining a spectator. Such is Lord
  Henry's notion. He is depicted as being a
  connoisseur of all the arts and surrounds himself
  with objects of beauty. He maintains the
  essential detachment that enables him, or at
  least he claims it does, to avoid the pain of the
  world. It also means that he does not adopt moral
  positions on anything, since that would mean
  taking life more seriously than art. For Lord
  Henry, the purpose of life is not to exhibit
  one's moral prejudices but to contemplate beauty.

19

• The contrast between art and life can be seen in
  the chapters that describe Dorian's walk to the
  theater where Sibyl Vane performs and on his ride
  to the opium den. In both instances, the
  sordidness of these parts of London is described.
  Dorian feels this keenly, and he takes refuge in
  the art that Sibyl creates. Her value to him is
  that she enables him to live out Henry's creed.
  When she ceases to show an interest in art,
  Dorian ceases to be interested in her. On the
  ride to the opium den, Dorian's position has
  changed. He now embraces the ugliness of life. He
  has forgotten the creed that Henry taught him. He
  has exchanged art for life-and that itself is a
  sin, in Oscar Wilde's credo.

20

• Sensual GratificationLord Henry's philosophy of
  life, which is adopted by Dorian, is that the
  senses should be indulged to the full. In the
  fleeting sense experience lies the intensity of
  life, and all life is simply a series of these
  intense moments. This is not intended as a
  mindless indulgence for the sake of it, but is a
  conscious quest for beauty.

21

• Dorian thus learns to cultivate all kinds of
  sense experience, passions and sensations in the
  pursuit of beauty. He studies exotic perfumes, he
  collects musical instruments and precious stones.
  He once went to a costume ball wearing an outfit
  covered with 560 pearls. Neither Henry nor Dorian
  believe in any restrictions on desire, because
  desire is life itself, whereas self-denial in the
  name of morality is exactly that-a denial of
  life. Henry's belief is that self-development,
  not self-restraint, is the purpose of life. He
  describes this philosophy as a new Hedonism. It
  is a refined understanding and appreciation of
  life that amounts to a form of spirituality.

22

• And so Henry's friend and disciple Dorian
  believes that in indulging the senses he is
  freeing them to be what are intended to be, a
  channel for the experience of beauty. In chapter
  11, he states his belief that the senses have
  never been properly understood before "they had
  remained savage and animal merely because the
  world had sought to starve them into submission
  or to kill them by pain, instead of aiming at
  making them elements of a new spirituality, of
  which a fine instinct for beauty was to be the
  dominant characteristic"

23

• 1. There is no such thing as a moral or an
  immoral book. Books are well written, or badly
  written. (Preface)
• 2. There is only one thing in the world worse
  than being talked about, and that is not being
  talked about." (Ch. 1, Lord Henry, to Basil.)
• 3. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of
  his enemies. (Ch. 1, Lord Henry)
• 4. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to
  yield to it. (Ch. 2, Lord Henry)
• 5. "To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is
  only shallow people who do not judge by
  appearances." (Ch. 2, Lord Henry)

24

• 6. "I can sympathize with everything, except
  suffering." (Ch. 3, Lord Henry at the lunch at
  Aunt Agatha's.)
• 7. "Men marry because they are tired women,
  because they are curious both are disappointed."
  (Ch. 4, Lord Henry explains why he advises Dorian
  never to marry.)
• 8. "A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect
  pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one
  unsatisfied. What more can one want? (Ch. 6, Lord
  Henry.)
• 9. "It is better to be beautiful than to be good.
  But . . . it is better to be good than to be
  ugly." (Ch. 17, Lord Henry to the Duchess of
  Monmouth.)
• 10. "To get back my youth I would do anything in
  the world, except take exercise, get up early, or
  be respectable." (Ch. 19, Lord Henry to Dorian.)

25
. What are the mythic elements in the novel? 

• There are allusions to two myths first, the
  story in the book of Genesis about the garden of
  Eden, the temptation of Eve by the serpent, and
  the fall of man and second, to the Faust legend.
• The second chapter of the novel strongly suggests
  a temptation scene. It takes place in a garden.
  Basil Hallward, the painter, is like God the
  creator he has just created the picture of
  Dorian in all his perfection.

26

• The tempter is Lord Henry, who wants to persuade
  Dorian to ignore all the conventional rules of
  society, just as the serpent wants Eve to
  disregard the commandments from God. Dorian is
  like the first man, Adam, innocent in his
  perfection, who is being told by the serpent
  to taste of the forbidden fruit of sensual
  experience. At various crises in Dorian's life,
  Henry retains the role of the tempter. He is at
  Dorian's side encouraging him to adopt an
  attitude toward life that will cost him dear in
  the long run. For example, when Dorian and Henry
  discuss the death of Sibyl, Henry encourages him
  to view it from a detached point of view, like an
  episode in a play. This means that Dorian never
  develops the moral sense necessary to balance his
  love of sensual experience. He "falls" and his
  soul is blackened.

27

• In the Faust legend, Faust sells his soul to the
  devil in order to gain knowledge and power.
  Dorian is a Faustian figure because he wants to
  obtain eternal youth, something that under normal
  circumstances no human being can obtain. He
  enters into a Faustian bargain when he prays that
  he might be able to remain forever young while
  the process of aging is confined to the picture.
  When the woman at the opium den says that "Prince
  Charming" sold himself to the devil for a pretty
  face, she is unconsciously referring to the Faust
  myth.

28
2. Wilde was condemned by his critics for writing
an "immoral" book he claimed it was a very moral
work. What justification is there for either
view? 

• On publication, The Picture of Dorian Gray met
  with a storm of hostile reviews which condemned
  the book for its alleged immorality. The tone of
  the reviews was often virulent. The critic for
  the Daily Chronicle wrote, "It is a tale spawned
  from the leprous literature of the French Decadent
  s-a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is
  heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and
  spiritual putrefaction." Others suggested that
  the authorities should consider prosecuting Wilde
  for the content of the book. Wilde replied, in
  letters to literary magazines, that the novel had
  a moral message that "all excess, as well as all
  renunciation, brings its own punishment." He
  points out that Dorian, "having led a life of
  mere sensation and pleasure, tries to kill
  conscience, and at that moment kills himself."
  Wilde also claimed that Basil worshiped physical
  beauty too much and instilled vanity into Dorian,
  and that Henry suffered because he sought merely
  to be a spectator of life.

29

• Wilde is correct in the sense that Dorian does
  meet a bad end, and one could find passages where
  he is explicitly condemned, such as when he
  leaves the opium den, "Callous, concentrated on
  evil, with stained mind and soul hungry for
  rebellion." But the novel is far from being a
  simple moral parable that sin meets with
  punishment. There is a discrepancy between the
  moral framework and the overall tone of the
  novel. Wilde takes such relish in the luxurious
  sensual descriptions of Dorian's life that it can
  sound as if he approves of it. His heart is more
  in the varieties of sensation that he gives to
  his protagonist than in his moral condemnation of
  him. There is perhaps a parallel here with
  Milton's Paradise Lost. Many readers feel that
  the hero of the epic is not Christ but Satan,
  because Milton seems to put so much more energy
  and life into his devil than in his God. The poet
  William Blake once famously said of Milton that
  he was "of the devil's party without knowing it."
  Perhaps it might be said that Wilde was of
  Dorian's party-and only succeeded in partially
  disguising the fact.

30
The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde brief
synopsis

• Mr. Utterson is a London lawyer who is a friend
  of Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll gave up his regular
  practice to experiment with non-traditional
  medicine. Utterson is concerned because Jekyll
  has written a will that leaves all his money to
  his new partner Mr. Hyde. Utterson has heard bad
  things of Hyde and disliked him at first sight.
  The lawyer thinks his friend is being
  blackmailed.
• One day, the lawyer is asked to identify the body
  of a murdered man, Sir Danvers Carew, one of
  Uttersons clients. Hyde is suspected of the
  murder, but he has disappeared. Jekyll swears
  that he has not seen Hyde and has broken with him
  forever. The case remains unsolved and Jekyll
  becomes more sociable than he had been.

31

• Suddenly, though, he locks himself into his
  laboratory, yelling to the servants through the
  door, directing them to gather chemicals for him.
  The servants recognize a change in his voice and
  think that their master has been murdered
  another man has taken his place in the lab. They
  call Utterson who breaks down the door. On the
  floor lies Hyde, who has killed himself with
  poison. Sadly, Utterson assumes Hyde returned and
  killed Jekyll, but the doctors body is nowhere
  to be found.
• He does find, however, a letter in which Jekyll
  explains his relationship to Hyde. Jekyll had
  sometimes indulged in debauches which, if
  discovered, could have ruined his reputation and
  of which he is ashamed. Pondering this split in
  his personality, he decides to find a way to
  separate his two beings. Jekyll creates a potion
  that releases his evil side, Mr. Hyde. Hyde is
  shorter and smaller than Jekyll, having not had
  as much exercise.

32

• For a while Jekyll enjoys his two bodies he can
  do whatever he likes without fear of discovery.
  His pleasure is stunted when Hyde kills Carew in
  a nonsensical fit, and he resolves never to take
  the potion again. Hyde is now strong, however,
  and emerges whether Jekyll will have him or not.
  Indeed, Jekyll must use the potion to be rid of
  him if only for a moment. Jekyll knows that it is
  only by killing his body that Hydes body, too,
  will die.

33
Commentary

• The story has a complex view of the relationship
  between body and mind. The mind and body are
  intricately linked. Indeed, the mind can make a
  body different. Thus, Hyde must have his own
  distinct body he does not merely "take over"
  Jekylls body. On the other hand, before the
  experiment, Hyde and Jekyll both live in one
  body. Or, perhaps they are not two minds, then,
  but two aspects of one mind. Stevenson does not
  try to resolve these complexities so much as make
  them available. His story is primarily a critique
  of non-rational science.

34
How Does Robert Louis Stevenson Challenge and
Criticise Victorian Ideals Through the Story of
Jekyll and Hyde?

• http//bookstove.com/book-talk/how-does-robert-lou
  is-stevenson-challenge-and-criticise-victorian-ide
  als-through-the-story-of-jekyll-and-hyde/
• The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was
  written in 1885 by Robert Louis Stevenson.
  Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist
  andtravel writer who is best known for two of his
  novels, Treasure Island and the strange case of
  Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
• The novella was published toward the end of the
  Victorian era, a period that was a time of change
  for England. It was the time of the industrial
  revolution and a lot of new technology came
  about, most people moved to the big cities and
  developed new lifestyles, and a lot of ideas in
  science also came about. During this period the
  lifestyles depended on personal wealth and
  status. Everyone was divided into social classes
  and communities. The society was very patriarchal
  but things were changing.

35

• The Victorian society preferred not to
  acknowledge the rational and prized reputation
  and decorum above all. If something threatened to
  upset the social society they preferred to
  repress the truth and this led to a lot of the
  upper classes being blackmailed by lower classes
  because if the word got out that they had done
  wrong their reputation would be soiled and for
  this reason the lower classes made the upper
  classes pay them to keep quiet about bad things.
• The Victorians often feared the Unknown, the
  Uncanny, a concept developed by Sigmund Freud
  where something can be familiar yet foreign at
  the same time leading to uneasiness, and also
  the Supernatural.
• Jekyll and Hyde challenges several Victorian
  values by showing several of the flaws that were
  brushed under the carpet to make it seem as if
  nothing was wrong and to make it seem like
  everything was perfect. Jekyll and Hyde is
  written in the genre of gothic fiction, often
  called gothic horror, which is a literature genre
  that combines horror and romance. The genre is
  believed to have been created by Horace Warpole,
  an English author, in 1764 in the novel the
  castle of Otanto. The features in the novella
  that are gothic are the setting and the way its
  described, supernatural, doubles and death, and
  also the reaction to Victorian values, the way it
  exposes the fears of main society and the
  elements of detective fiction, e.g. if he be Mr
  Hyde, I shall be Mr Seek, which shows how they
  wish to find out about particular things in life.
  The features of romanticism are the way it
  asserts emotion and intuition over rationalism,
  strong examples of fear and a slight fascination
  with death.

36

• Stevenson used the character of Jekyll to
  criticise and challenge Victorian values. He does
  this as Jekyll lives in a nice house, is quite
  wealthy, is well respected and has a good
  background. This reputation led to repression, a
  Freud theory which means the unconscious hiding
  of uncomfortable thoughts, of certain urges such
  as to do wrong and to be Hyde. His house is
  described as being in a square of ancient,
  handsome houses which shows that he is well off
  in life, Jekyll himself is described as well
  known. These things show that he is upper class
  and the contrast shown with his experimentations
  and creation of Hyde shows that not everyone is
  how they seem on the outside. His scientific
  experiments are done with a particular drug,
  whose name is not mentioned, and Jekyll is
  determined to find a way to unlock his second
  side, man is not truly one, but truly two. This
  shows how he was asserted that humans have a dual
  nature, this challenges Victorian ideals as they
  believed that dualism was a theory that was not
  possible and they believed it to be unacceptable,
  and it was this that led to his experimentations
  with a drug that he knew risked his life. When he
  first becomes Hyde he says that he felt younger,
  lighter, happier in body which shows how he
  initially enjoys being Hyde and that he feels
  better within himself, he also says later in this
  chapter that he was tasting delight from every
  blow which shows how he likes beating people and
  also reveals his guilty pleasures as it shows
  what, deep down, he really wants to do at times
  and he uses Hyde as an emotional outlet.

37

• After Hyde murders Carew, Jekyll starts to hate
  Hyde and says it was the horror of being Hyde
  that racked me, which suggests torture, and also
  I, who sicken and freeze at the mere thought of
  him which shows his complete transformation from
  loving Hyde to hating Hyde and also shows how
  Hyde makes him feel sick. At first Jekyll feels
  no guilt about being Hyde and of the bad deeds he
  is doing which suggest he is quite shallow and
  also that he doesnt really think about his
  actions and what would come of them which show
  him to be quite hypocritical. Jekyll eventual
  complete transformation into Hyde suggests that
  eventually evil will prevail over good if society
  represses individuals. For this many Victorians
  would have seen Jekyll as mentally ill and would
  view him as an outcast and also a degenerate.
• The novella shows the disintegration of Jekyll as
  it shows how he was very friendly and sociable
  and how he slowly changed to locking himself away
  and speaking to no-one, it is said that he would
  write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw
  it on the stair. This shows how he wanted no-one
  to see or hear him because of unexpected
  transformations into Hyde.

38

• Hyde is described by several people throughout
  the novella and none have anything good to say
  about the way he looks. Enfield states there is
  something wrong with his appearance, something
  displeasing, something downright detestable
  which shows he is a very unpleasant looking man
  who doesnt have to do much to scare you. Jekyll
  says his every act and thought centred on self
  which shows selfishness. Throughout the novella
  quite a lot of animalistic expressions are used
  to describe Hyde, my devil had long been caged,
  and he came out roaring, and the word devil
  suggests that he is not very nice, the word
  caged is a comparison to animals which show how
  Hyde was locked away and the word roaring
  suggests anger and demonstrates his want to do
  evil. When Jekyll describes the murder of Carew
  in the last chapter he says that Hyde was
  tasting delight from every blow which once
  again shows his selfishness, it also shows how he
  gets pleasure and enjoyment from this act, it
  also challenges Victorian values as this would
  have been seen as outrageous.
• Hydes house is described as being in a dismal
  quarter of Soho and is described as a district
  of some city in a nightmare which shows the bad
  aura the place gives and also suggests something
  of Hydes personality as it is dark and unknown
  and is quite an ugly place which represents the
  less respectable side of London which challenges
  Victorian values as they wanted everything to
  seem perfect.

39

• Early in the novella Utterson thinks that Hyde is
  blackmailing Jekyll as Hyde seems to be lower
  class and it was quite common for lower class
  members blackmailing higher classes. Many people
  believe Hyde to be uncanny, a theory developed
  after the novella was originally published. Hyde
  has a tendency toward the repetition of criminal
  behaviour, also called recidivism, as first there
  is the trampling of the little girl and then the
  murder of Carew and this suggests that he may
  have a mental disorder. Victorian people believed
  strongly in the theory of physiognomy and when
  they read the description of Hyde they would have
  thought he was a criminal because of his
  demeanour as he represents the common criminal
  who has a disorder.
• Stevensons description of London makes it sound
  like a dark, scary place and this was done as it
  challenges Victorian ideals as they wanted London
  to be seen as a nice respectable place. Stevenson
  also uses pathetic fallacy to emphasise the gloom
  and crime going on in London, such as Hydes
  crimes. The character of Hyde is used to show
  what was really happening in London and to imply
  that London wasnt as perfect as it seemed.
• Early in the novella Utterson dreams of Hyde
  storming around London like a human juggernaut
  who just knocked people down and carried on
  walking. The fact that it is set in London
  suggests that London, like Hyde, has a deep,
  sinister inside and that once you looked past the
  appearance you found a dark, bad place. The
  description as they travel to Hydes house also
  suggests that Londons a bad place and the
  weather also mirrors the eeriness of the
  situation as it says that a great chocolate
  coloured pall lowered over heaven. A good
  example of London being described as a bad place
  is some city in a nightmare which makes it
  sound very scary and quite gloomy.

40

• Stevenson seems to suggest that Hyde is a man
  free from the restraints of society. He proves
  this in the last chapter as Jekyll, who is Hyde,
  says I did not even exist which is how he shows
  how he was so confident as Hyde and this was why
  he didnt care what he did. He also says Jekyll
  was now my city of refuge which shows that after
  his crimes he could just take the drug, turn back
  to Jekyll and no-one would figure out that it was
  really him, it also shows a self confidence
  knowing he could do what he wanted and never be
  discovered. Jekyll frees himself through Hyde as
  the things he wishes to do he cannot do himself
  as it would ruin his reputation.
• Lanyon represents the common Victorian who tries
  to blend into the background and keep secrets
  quiet to uphold the perfect world view. He seems
  to have a problem revealing the truth, never
  refer to this again which shows how he wishes to
  not speak about things that threaten the worldly
  view. Lanyon is, like Jekyll, a scientist, but
  believes in material science and because of this
  he says that Jekylls experiments are
  unscientific balderdash. This shows that he
  doesnt believe in what Jekyll does and that he
  thinks hes a bit psychotic. Later in the novella
  when he sees Hyde transform into Jekyll he has
  such a shock that he eventually dies. This is
  because it goes against everything he believes
  and has believed for most of his life. When he
  sees the transformation he reacts by screaming O
  god! repeatedly which shows his fear and shock.
  He also says I must die and this is because of
  what he saw with Hydes transformation into
  Jekyll.

41

• He writes this into a letter which is to be
  opened when he and Dr Jekyll are both dead which
  again suggests his problem of revealing the truth
  if it threatens the perfect worldly view. This is
  common of Victorian times as they never told the
  truth when it threatened to upset the perfect
  worldly view. Stevenson may have chosen to
  finally reveal the secret of Jekyll and Hyde in
  Lanyons narrative as it shows it from a view
  where he can explain how everything happens. This
  would also shock the Victorian reader as its
  from a normal persons point of view.
• Utterson represents the common upper class man
  who wishes to hide the truth if it threatens the
  conventional world view. If something without
  explanation that is shocking occurs he makes up a
  story that makes it sound reasonable, for example
  in the last night he says that Jekyll has been
  plainly seized with one of those maladies that
  both torture and deform the sufferer which shows
  how he tries to make a bad situation seem
  reasonable and to push the truth under the
  carpet. In the novella he is a key character as
  he is Jekylls lawyer, Carews lawyer, Enfield
  confides in him and Lanyon trusts in him
  immensely. I think Stevenson chose to show most
  of the story as Utterson because he is a well
  respected man who represents the common
  Victorian.

42

• He prizes reputation above all and even when he
  suspects Jekyll of criminal behaviour he still
  tries to save his reputation, we may at least
  save his credit, he says this at the end of the
  novella when they discover the truth about Jekyll
  and although he has committed something
  outrageous he still wishes to save his
  reputation, this also shows how much he prizes
  reputation and that he wishes to save it no
  matter what. Another example is of Jekylls
  association with Hyde where he says if it came
  to a trial your name might appear which shows
  his concern for his friends reputation and how he
  wishes Jekyll to disassociate himself from Hyde
  to save his reputation, when he discovers they
  are no longer friends he says he is relieved by
  it. He doesnt seem to want to see the truth
  which portrays him as narrow minded.
• In conclusion Stevenson challenges and criticises
  Victorian ideals mainly through the characters of
  Jekyll, Hyde, Lanyon and Utterson. Jekyll because
  it shows that someone upper class could be dark
  and have a deeper side, which wasnt expected in
  Victorian times. Hyde because he shows what
  London was really like and also because the way
  he acts is different to what was expected of
  people. Utterson because of the way he is so
  naive and investigates the Jekyll-Hyde saga and
  doesnt realise the truth. People in modern times
  would read the novella differently because twists
  such as a double personality are expected at the
  end of a book, whereas in Victorian times they
  werent.

43

• Nowadays because of things like TV most people
  know the story of Jekyll and Hyde so they would
  know what to expect. It would also be read
  differently in modern day because things like
  repression of certain feelings and psychic splitti
  ng are a lot more common in the modern day.
  People in modern day would also read it
  differently because of the Jekyll-Hyde expression
  in the dictionary. Because of things like this
  people know bits about Jekyll and Hyde and know
  what occurs with the two of them. People also
  know a lot because it is popular culture, there
  have been books, TV programmes, films, cartoons
  and merchandise about Jekyll and Hyde.