Jekyll and Hyde: Duality quotes

Quotes about the duality of man

Thesis statement (4 ideas)

• Explore ideas about good and evil

• Exploit Victorian fears of crime, violence and homosexuality

• Exploit the fears of science and drugs

• Expose the hypocrisy of middle-class men

I let my brother go to the devil in his own way. (3 ideas)

Said by Utterson in Chapter 1

• Introduces Christian context

• Dual nature - respectable gentleman (lawyer) but makes friends with sinful people

• Stevenson suggests we all suffer from the dual nature of man in society (at least middle-class men do)

It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut. (4 ideas)

Said by Enfield, about Hyde, in Chapter 1

• Introduces Christian context

• Irony - it is exactly like a man. This is what men are like, but they present a facade of a gentleman

• Victorian: Christianity teaches us to behave like Jekyll, not Hyde

• Dual purpose - giving readers a novel that reinforces Christian morality to kill Hyde as a punishment for his sins. But a deeper meaning that Christianity encourages false facades for people to cover up their sins

The child was not much the worse. (1 idea)

Said by Enfield in Chapter 1

• Irony - Hyde is perceived as vile and monstrous but didn’t do any damage

Turn sick and white with the desire to kill. (2 ideas)

Said by Enfield, about the doctor, in Chapter 1

• Christian: Something so evil about Hyde, which turns moral people evil

• Doctor is more evil than Hyde since he wants to murder him

We screwed him up to a hundred pounds. (1 idea)

Said by Enfield, about Hyde, in Chapter 1

• Blackmailed him for £100 so they are more evil than Hyde

Troglodytic (2 ideas)

Utterson, about Hyde, in Chapter 2

• Darwin’s theory of evolution doesn’t say man will get better; it says survival of the fittest. We could regress if it meant we could survive more. Society fears this reversion back to primitive behaviour

• Hyde outlives Jekyll - survival of the fittest

I read Satan’s signature upon [Hyde’s] face. (2 ideas)

Utterson, about Hyde, in Chapter 2

• Christian: Hyde is as evil as Satan

• Plays on ideas of physiognomy and reading someone’s face. But Jekyll is evil which exposes the Victorian myth of physiognomy since he doesn’t look like it

Wrong in mind. (1 idea)

Said by Lanyon, about Jekyll, in Chapter 2

• Lanyon objects to Jekyll’s thinking

The moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde. (2 ideas)

Said by Jekyll, to Utterson, in Chapter 3

• If the novella was a tragedy, this would be the hamartia

• He thinks he is more powerful, but he isn’t, which leads to his downfall

Ape-like fury… the bones were audibly shattered… the body jumped upon the road. (4 ideas)

Maid in Chapter 4

• Victorian: Plays on the fear of Darwin’s theory of evolution, crime and violence

• Hypocrisy - Readers are entertained by the things they fear. They would buy Penny Dreadfuls which were tales of horror and violence

• Hyperbole - Over dramatic

• Dual purpose - Criticise evil of Hyde, but also the evil enjoyment of the readers

Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer! (4 ideas)

Utterson in Chapter 5

• Instead of going to the police, he keeps the letter in his safe

• Dual nature - A lawyer symbolically should uphold the law

• Homosexuality - Protecting Jekyll to preserve their relationship

• Reputation - Avoid gossip and preserve Jekyll’s reputation so his respectability is not ruined

A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven. (5 ideas)

Description of setting in Chapter 4

• A pall is a cloth you cover a dead body with

• Chocolate is desirable, represents sin

• Heaven is goodness

• Londoners are happy with the disguise so they can be corrupt underneath

• Londoners prefer to live in a state of sin, as long as they can have a facade that is not sinful

The drowned city. (3 ideas)

Description of setting in Chapter 5

• The world was drowned in the Great flood to punish sin

• Metaphor of what should happen to this city

• Dual purpose - Stevenson thinks the biggest sin is hypocrisy, but Christian’s biggest sin is crime/violence/homosexuality

He must have raged to see himself displaced; and he has not destroyed the document. (4 ideas)

Said by Utterson, about Hyde, in Chapter 8

• Jekyll has given everything to Utterson in the will, but Hyde won’t destroy it since it is his revenge on Jekyll

• Hyde knows Jekyll wants his science to live on and get credit, but he knows Utterson is corrupt

• Utterson takes the letter, confession, will, forgery, and puts it all in his safe. The truth is hidden forever. He covers the truth like society covers our true nature and stops us from living the lives we are supposed to

• Utterson does this because getting all of Jekyll’s fortune will be part of a wider scandal. Instead, he can inherit everything with no one thinking the worse of him

A new province of knowledge. (4 ideas)

Said by Hyde, to Lanyon, in Chapter 9

• Lanyon doesn’t have to see the transformation, but he wants to

• Hyde tempts him, like Satan tempts Eve

• Lanyon becomes so horrified that he would rather die than live in a society with this science in it

• Lanyon denies the truth, but Jekyll exposes it, even if it’s horrible

Committed to a profound duplicity of life. (1 idea)

Jekyll in Chapter 10

• Never says his sins because they are too great

Man is not truly one, but truly two. (1 idea)

Jekyll in Chapter 10

• Victorian: Christian view of good and evil

Bravo (2 ideas)

Jekyll, about Hyde, in Chapter 10

• A bravo is someone you hire to do the evil things you want to do

• The sins committed by Hyde, are Jekyll’s inner desires and sins

Monstrous (2 ideas)

Jekyll, about Hyde, in Chapter 10

• Irony - Other people described Hyde as dwarf-like but Jekyll claims the evil is Hyde’s doing

• Lies - He got Hyde to kill people for him and presents himself as a victim of his science

The animal within me licking the chops of memory. (3 ideas)

Jekyll in Chapter 10

• Jekyll is reliving the memory of the murder and enjoying it - biggest clue that Jekyll wanted the murder to happen to Carew

• 1885 - criminalisation of homosexuality (also when the book came out). Carew was an MP who would’ve voted for this rule

• Victorian: Man needs the Christian teaching to stop them acting on their animal instincts

Love of life. (2 ideas)

Jekyll in Chapter 10

• Envy - Hyde enjoys his life but Jekyll doesn’t

• A Victorian society with lots of expectations and rules will get rid of our love of life