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6 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Jekyll believes there are two sides to every individual |
. Jekyll is an established gentleman, with "the respect of the wise and good" in society . On the other hand, he is guilt of "irregularities" - sins and desires that he keeps hidden . "man is not truly one, but truly two" - Jekyll states this as fact, because he's so convinced he's right . He feels like the good and evil sides of his personality are struggling against one another and decides to take action by separating them, however he fails to do so as he is "radically both" . Jekyll underestimates how closely the good and bad sides of his personality are bound together, as well as the power and attraction of his purely evil side, shown how the evil side takes over Jekyll |
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Jekyll's nature |
. Without Hyde, Jekyll lives a virtuous life and is "distinguished for religion" and charity - but he is also an "ordinary secret sinner" . All people, including Jekyll, are a mixture of sin and virtue |
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Hyde's nature |
. In contrast to Jekyll, Hyde is the purely satanic side of Jekyll - He writes all over Jekyll's religious text with "starling blasphemies" . Jekyll calls Hyde "My devil", and Utterson thinks that "Satan's signature" is written on Hyde's face . Jekyll says that Hyde could have been created as "an angel instead of a fiend", if only the experiment had been done with more "pious" intentions (for God's glory, bot his own) |
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The two sides can be seen as civilised and uncivilised |
. Hyde isn't just the sinful side of Jekyll, he's also the uncivilised side - He disrupts the ordered, civilised world that Jekyll and his friends live in . Some upper-class Victorians though the people who committed crimes, or disrupted the social order, were less evolved - They tried to use Darwin's theory of evolution to make themselves seem as more highly evolved than the rest of society . Stevenson forces his reader to consider the possibility that there's a savage within all people, even if they seemed civilised - Hyde is a part of Jekyll which suggests that it is the civilised side of Jekyll's personality that exercises restraint, without it, all that is left is the pure evil of Hyde - This can be shown in other characters, E.g Poole is a loyal, "well-dressed" servant, but he shouts at another servant with "ferocity" |
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Stevenson uses man's dual nature to comment on society - part 1 |
. Stevenson uses the idea of duality to criticise respectable society - He suggest that the gap between appearance and reality in the people and places of Victorian London is hypocritical . Jekyll appears respectable, until he puts on the "thick cloak" of Hyde - This mirrored in Jekyll's house - it "wore a great air of wealth and comfort" from the front, but it is secretly connected to the shabby door to the laboratory - Stevenson uses imagery and clothing to show how people and places can put forward a misleading appearance to the world |
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Stevenson uses man's dual nature to comment on society - part 2 |
. Characters are proud of their reputations, so they prioritise the appearance of respectability over honesty - The gentlemanly characters look down on immoral activities in public, and the do them anyway (obvious in Jekyll's case) - Stevenson shows that this behaviour can have terrible consequences, Jekyll's fate is a warning about trying to hide who you are . In contrast, Hyde's evil nature is shown clearly in his "displeasing smile" and "extraordinary appearance" - He is the only one who doesn't hide behind appearances - Stevenson may be suggesting that appearances can only conceal so much |
