repression

stevenson depicts elements of repression in jekyll and to a lesser extent enfield and utterson, he perhaps does this to comment on the hypocrisy of victorian gentlemen who claimed to be pious and morally perfect - yet they longed (or secretly) indulged in their deepest desires.

context

repression is shown in stevenson’s formal writing - he had to abide to victorian indecency laws, he creativity was repressed by the manacles of victorian society

* “trampled calmly” and “something displeasing” - delibrately vague language used
* this increases the mysterious element for the readers

murder of carew is especially brutal - stevenson could be commenting on how the extreme moral conscious society caused the repressed desires to explode in a more violent form

“storm of blows” “audibly shattered” - with “glee”

* auditory imagery


* much more violent and represent the concentrated and repressed violence that has built up from hiding it in the extremely pious society

stevenson demonstrates how the release of the repressed anger brought happiness and freedom for jekyll

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although his actions led him to extreme inner conflict

“i felt younger light happier in body”

“unknown but not innocent freedom of the soul”

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“chief of sinners, chief of sufferers” - conveys how his actions cause him extreme pain

“fell upon his knees” and “lifted his clasped hands to God” - conflict within his pious nature and the side that indulges in hyde

he was “plunged in shame”

repression shown through mr utterson

“austere with himself” - suggests that he didn’t indulge in his pleasures

“drank gin” - in order not to indulge in nicer things (wines) - although this is ironic as gin is much more alcoholic

“hadn’t crossed the doors of one in twenty years” "- “enjoyed” the theatre but did not indulge

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“But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, **almost with envy**, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds”

* he would “envy” those who completed crimes and indulged in desires as he spent his life living morally and piously, repressing his innermost desires
* hyde may be a construct conveying the effects of repressing desires