Science

CONTEXT

In the Victorian Era, because of the industrial revolution there was a rapid rate of scientific development. This made people scared of the future and how science may threaten the power of God.

Charles Darwin’s discovery of evolution sparked fears of ‘degeneration’, Stevenson uses these fears through the animalistic side of Mr. Hyde.

In the book…

there are 2 types of Science

• Lanyons: rational, practical

• Jekyll’s: transcendental, transgressive, supernatural, unscientific balderdash

The Transformation is so bizarre that normal science and it’s rational language cannot be used to describe it. So Stevenson uses more poetic language.

KEY MOMENTS

• CHAPTER 4 (Carew’s murder), Hyde kills Carew → consequences of transgressive science

• CHAPTER 5 (Incident of the letter), Utterson visits Dr. Jekyll → descriptions of Dr. Jekyll’s lab

• CHAPTER 9 (Lanyon’s Narrative), Utterson reads Dr. Lanyon’s letter → descriptions of Hyde’s transformation and other chemicals

• CHAPTER 10 (Jekyll’s Confession), Jekyll writes about why he created Hyde → felt repressed and desired freedom

BP ideas

• Stevenson builds upon Victorian reader’s fears of degeneration through Hyde’s animalistic side. Through this Stevenson exposes Victorians' anxieties around Charles Darwin’s discovery of evolution

  Quotes to use:

  • ‘something troglodytic’

  • ‘ape-like fury’

  • ‘trampled calmly’

  • ‘animal within me licking the chops of memory’

• The descriptions of Jekyll’s scientific experiments treads between scientific experimentation and the supernatural, through this Stevenson illustrates Victorians fears about scientific development and transgressive science

  Quotes to use:

  • ‘blood-red liquor’

  • ‘dark purple’, ‘watery green’

  • ‘my mind submerged in terror’

  • ‘the features seemed to melt and alter’

• Through Jekyll’s scientific creation of Hyde, in order to gain freedom from repression, Stevenson highlights the issue of Victorians expectations for Gentlemen, and how they are unrealistic

  Quotes to use:

  • ‘a solution of the bonds of obligation’

  • ‘younger, lighter, happier in body’

  • ‘innocent freedom of the soul’

  • ‘springing headlong into a sea of liberty’

• Dr Jekyll’s experiments ultimately end in tragedy; overall, it could be argued that the novel provides readers with a stark warning against the dangers of transgressive science

  Quotes to use:

  • ‘I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end’

  • ‘continually impending doom’

  • ‘like some disconsolate prisoner’

  • (carew murder)