Duality Quotes

subthemes: J vs H, good vs evil, battle, duality

front door vs lab door (J vs H)

Lab door (Hyde) = Blistered and distained, Neither bell nor knocker ( ch 1)

• ‘no bell and no knocker’ presents how secretive and uninviting the door is, which makes sense as the lab is connected to transgressive science.

• Hyde is only associated with that part of Jekyll’s building,possibly reflecting how Hyde is part of Jekyll’s personality/soul

• adjectives ‘Blistered and distained’ reflect how unpleasant/repulsive Hyde’s appearance is

Front Door (Jekyll) = It wore a great air of wealth and discomfort (ch 2)

• verb ‘wore’ could possibly present how Jekyll is covering and masking his true whole self and innermost desires from society

• as the front door it could present people’s initial perception of Jekyll, a standard Victorian Gentlemen

• noun ‘discomfort’ shows how uncomfortable Jekyll currently is with his mass repression, he’s struggling with not being able to fully express himself

hands (J vs H)

Dr. Jekyll: firm, white and comely (ch 10)

• white connotes innocence and goodness

• comely means pleasant and agreeable

Mr. Hyde: lean, corded, knuckly (ch 10)

• corded and lean reflect how thin and unnatural Hyde is

• knuckles are often associated with violence

incongruous compound (J vs H)

one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll, that incongruous compound (ch 10)

• adjective ‘incongruous’ demonstrates how Jekyll isn’t comfortable in his body, he feels incomplete or different due to repressing Hyde because he feels it’s wrong to feel the way he does

• contrast between Hyde being completely evil and Jekyll not being one sole thing highlights the complexity of human nature, someone isn’t completely evil or good but a mixture, showing how high members of society can be evil and commit crime

London vs Soho (good vs evil)

general cleanliness and gaiety of note (ch 1)

• “cleanliness” also could refer to moral cleanliness, as they believe high status members are all moral, they’re separated from the dirty crime of the poor

• everyone appears happy and good, because of all the secrets hidden away

muddy ways and slatternly passages(ch 4)

• adjective “muddy” implies immorality and corruption infect the area

• “slatternly passages” are often places of crime, as they’re hidden and dirty

• this description of Soho shows that not all parts of a person (London) are nice/clean

evil face (good vs evil)

evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy: but her manners were excellent (ch 4 - Mr. Hyde’s maid)

• juxtaposition between her looks and behaviour imply that the 2 are in a delicate equilibrium

• most things associated with Hyde are connected to evil

pale moon (good vs evil)

a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her (ch 8)

• pale moon could present Jekyll, and Hyde as the wind is overpowering him, causing him to “tilt”

• night is associated with secrecy and forces of darkness/evil, Hyde is trying to break the light in the sky, which he shouldn’t be strong enough to do

• mention of the moon helps create a gothic and supernatural atmosphere, as evil is now overpowering good, things seem to be acting strange

child (good vs evil)

child of Hell (ch 10)

• juxtaposition between “child” and “hell”

• child connotes innocence, perhaps Jekyll refers to Hyde as a child because he seems like the offspring of the devil

• hell symbolises evil and corruption

polar twins + womb (battle)

agonised womb of consciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling (ch 10)

• metaphor ‘womb’ presents how both Jekyll and Hyde have naturally always been there, Hyde isn’t some unnatural curse

• adjective ‘agonised’ displays the suffering and torment inside Jekyll’s body, which contrasts with the idea of a womb being safe for a foetus to grow

• oxymoron ‘polar twins’ describes how opposite and conflicting Jekyll and Hyde are, which contrasts to normal ‘identical’ twins. This contrast highlights the unusual nature of Hyde

• the ‘continuously struggling’ combined with the ‘womb’ reflects Jekyll’s ongoing struggle throughout his life, this creates sympathy for Jekyll

perennial war (battle)

the perennial war among my members (ch 10)

• metaphor ‘perennial war’ demonstrates the constant internal conflict between Jekyll and Hyde.

• The imagery of a ‘war’ helps presents the pain and hardship Jekyll is feeling

• ‘my members’ highlights that the suffering is not between another force but is an internal issue inside Jekyll that’s hard to get rid of

gone to bed… awakened (battle)

i had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde (ch 10)

• Hyde now has the power to control Jekyll’s body, he’s more strong/the more dominant side now

• verb ‘awakened’ presents the fluidity between the 2 states and how connected they are

• this links to previous of imagery of Hyde being dormant inside of Jekyll, e.g. “long-caged”, “spirit of hell awoke”

all human beings (duality)

all human beings… are commingled out of good and evil (ch 10)

• Dr. Jekyll is being reflective on his experiment and condemning the existence of Hyde as natural

• verb ‘commingled’ displays how the two parts of Jekyll were blended together and you can’t have one without the other

truly two (duality)

man is not truly one but truly two (ch 10)

• noun ‘man’ displays how this is a generalized statement and not just specific towards Jekyll and Hyde

• the alliteration of ‘tr’ helps to reinforce the significance of the phrase

• the repetition of ‘truly’ shows how this statement is supposed to viewed as a statement and despite the novel being fiction, Stevenson could mention this to present his views on humans duality

• the conjunction ‘but’ could be used in order to create a tone of realisation and discovery about the duality of human nature