English - Jekyll and Hyde

"Large handsome face of Dr Jekyll"

"Satan's signature upon a face"

Shows the duality between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Shows how different they are and how there appearance is different.

The biblical reference appears to add weight to the description. (Contrast / duality / violence / religion)

"Trampled calmly over the child's body"

The use of the oxymoron with trampling, calmly creates an idea of duality as you can't trample calmly.

The age of the child makes the attack more brutal however, the use of simpler language suggests the could be a disregard for human life rather than a deliberate or premeditated act of violence. The lack of emotion in the phrase shows Hyde's detachment from what he has done. ( Violence / Contrast )

"with ape like fury"

Animalistic tendencies, almost an unevolved version of Dr Jekyll. (Character / Science)

"I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde."

By Jekyll talking about himself in the third person illustrates- to the reader that he is not himself and is being controlled by Hyde.

"awakened" shows a deeper connection between the two characters and suggests an easy change from one to the other. (Duality / Character)

"I concealed my pleasures"

This shows how in Victorian society it was important to suppress anything that didn't conform to society's belief of right and wrong. The appearance that Jekyll presents is far from the reality.

He suppressed his sinful side in order to gain social respect.

In Victorian times there was a very clear idea of what it meant to be a good, honourable and respectable person. People needed to be religious, have good morals and behave in a way which was not sinful. (Character / Appearance vs reality)

Man is not truly one, but truly two"

Jekyll understands that everyone has two sides and that the human character can be split. (Duality)

Reputation - Victorian Gentleman

Dr Jekyll says he wanted to be well respected and held himself to very high standards. However, this did not make him happy which led to his experiment.

If you did something to damage your reputation then you'd be an outcast in society - rejected by family and friends.

Duality

Duality is used to emphasise the concept of good versus evil which is central to the novella. However, whilst Hyde is pure evil, Dr Jekyll is not pure good which encourages the reader to think about the nature of humanity.

The novella asks questions about whether we should be trying to live as one or other, or whether we should accept both sides of ourselves

Duality is also represented through Dr Jekyll's house with the front and back door of the house.

Secrecy

Secrecy is used throughout the novella to hide the truth until the big reveal at the end, creating tension and suspense for the reader.

Secrecy is shown in many ways such as locked doors, letters that cannot be opened, characters refusing to give information, unexplained events.

Pathetic fallacy is used to represent the mystery and Utterson's inability to see the truth with fog being used again and again to represent this. "A fog rolled over the city in the small hours."

Setting

Setting is important as a symbol for the characters of Jekyll and Hyde. (Fancy town house - Jekyll,warm and inviting, clean and tidy, displaying his wealth, concerned about reputation compared to tumble down lab on the back - Hyde, secretive, lives only in the night, untidiness of the doorway, door bears no knocker, doesn't want people prying or want visitors or guests)

The 'rolling fog' in the streets of London hides Hyde literally and cloaks the shady characters of the night. Eventually the fog becomes a horrible storm with empty streets adding a sense of foreboding as the reader knows something is about to happen as the streets are too physically quiet. The setting was used to suggest the the plot was about to take a turn for the worst.