The author builds up atmosphere and suspense by using London as the city where the novel is based. The author does this because London is a very atmospheric city with a lot of things happen in London. The writer also creates suspense by describing Hyde as a creature of great evil and countless vices. Nevertheless the reader only learns the details of two of the crimes committed by Hyde. The first victim of Hyde’s violence is a small female child; who’s parents Hyde pays of. The young girl was trampled over by Hyde, and the second victim to Hyde was Sir Danvers Carew who was brutally murdered. The author uses suspense a lot and creates it in several cases, one quotation is, “There at least he was not denied admittance, but when he came in, and he was shocked at the change which had taken place in the doctor’s appearance.” “He had his death warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer’s notice, as a look in the eye and a quality of manner that seemed to testify some deep-seated terror of the mind.” This shows that the author creates suspense by using a lot of description and by using words like, shocked and swift physical decay. These are words in which you the reader get captivated on and read the novel further and this creates suspense and fear of what Hyde has done. Murder would have been very shocking and demoralizing especially in a society which was not used to violence unlike the society today. The author builds up atmosphere by describing the streets and other things that are in London and he does this by building up suspense and by saying, “NEARLY A YEAR LATER, in the month of October, 18, London was startled by a crime of singular ferocity, and rendered all the more notable by the high position if the victim.” “The details were few and startling.” This is describing London at the scene of a crime and showing how London is when a brutal crime takes place. The city mirrors the misery of the people. The author then describes the city in a very notable way by saying, ‘Although a fog rolled over the city in the small hours, the early part of the night was cloudless.’ This describes London by using describing words and catching the attention of the reader by using the word ‘although a fog rolled over the city.’ The author uses the phrase the miserable bleak weather which reflects the awful event.
In the novel Jekyll says, “But the temptation of a discovery so singular and profound at last overcome the suggestions of alarm.” “I had long since prepared my tincture; I purchased at once, form a firm of wholesale chemists, a large quantity of a particular salt, which I knew, from my experiments, to be the last ingredients required; and, late one accursed night, I compounded the elements, watched them boil and smoke together in the glass, and when the ebullition had subsided, with a strong glow of courage, drank of the potion.” The word ‘particular’ is very vogue and it shows that he hates this evening but it is interesting that he kept going back to being Hyde even when he hates him. This shows that Jekyll is very excited and is not bothered if the potion works, even though he has a risk of being killed. Then the author describes how Jekyll is feeling at that moment when the potion is reacting inside him. It says, ‘the most racking pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death. The author describes how Jekyll feels in great detail and by describing each part of the reaction and where it affected Jekyll. Jekyll then after the reaction feels younger, lighter, and happier in the body and the Jekyll describes this to be a more ‘wicked’ live. The author has described Jekyll’s feelings very accurately and makes the reader know the facts of how Jekyll is feeling and what he is going through. The author describes the physical change of Jekyll and the change inside his body.
The reaction of others to Jekyll is that he is a very crafty and devious character as the novel progresses. At the start he is a very kind and respectable person but as the story progresses he starts to become more crafty and aware that people are watching him, so he starts to become more aware. Utterson especially and Enfield become very conspicuous at the way Jekyll has changed. This really starts from when Utterson goes to Jekyll and Jekyll says he has ended everything between Hyde, and Jekyll shows Utterson a letter. But Utterson’s Clerk notices that the letter has a very similar handwriting between Jekyll’s handwriting. This is when Utterson really starts to doubt Jekyll. Jekyll said that he had received a letter so then Utterson asked if he could read the letter. Utterson ruminated awhile; he was surprised at his friend’s selfishness, and yet reviled by it, “Well,” said he, at last, “Let me see the letter.” The letter was written in odd, upright hand, and signed ‘Edward Hyde.’ Utterson then asked if he could see the envelope but Jekyll said he had burnt it and there was no stamp on it, it was given by hand.
Utterson then said to Jekyll, “He meant to murder you. You have had a fine escape.” Jekyll replied, “I have had what is far more to the purpose.” He then said, “I have has a lesson-O God what a lesson I have had!” this is very ironic as Jekyll is the one who was going to be murdered. The author puts the explanation mark to describe the fear and relief of not letting Utterson find out the truth about him and Hyde and the truth was too unbelievable for anyone to really guess. And this is when Utterson starts to doubt Jekyll.
Lanyon then dies from the shock of finding out the truth received by Jekyll and he gives a letter to Utterson and instructs him not to open it until after Jekyll’s death. Utterson then goes on a walk with Enfield and sees Jekyll at his laboratory window. A Jekyll life in a well appointed home and inside his home Jekyll has his own laboratory. When Utterson and Enfield see him with three other men they see that Jekyll is having an argument and then Jekyll slams the window and goes. Then Jekyll’s butler called Poole comes and visits Utterson and then Utterson and Poole go to Jekyll’s house and see the servants huddled together in fear. They then break into Jekyll’s laboratory and find Hyde’s body with Jekyll’s clothes on. They find a letter which is says from Jekyll to Utterson and says he will promise to explain everything.
My reaction to how Utterson finds out the truth about Jekyll is that Jekyll should have been honest enough to come and tell Utterson himself or even at the bottom of the letter say why he did this and what he did. This is because Utterson really trusted Jekyll; nevertheless the trust grew weaker throughout the novel. Also I think it was wrong of Jekyll not to tell Utterson the truth about Hyde and about himself. Jekyll was a really kind and pleasant person but as soon as Hyde came along; Jekyll really changed, and Jekyll was no longer Jekyll but was now Hyde. I think Jekyll had his reasons not to tell Utterson the truth because they were very good friends and trusted each other, but o think that Jekyll never wanted to let Utterson know that he was slowly changing into Hyde. He wanted it to remain a secret. I think Jekyll also never told Utterson before because Utterson would have told he rest of his friends and Jekyll was a good person not a bad person.
The Victorians would have reacted very badly because the novel portrays a good image of Jekyll and for him to turn into a bad person would have been demoralizing because Jekyll was known by everybody as a great and respectable character and a very pleasant. The Victorians would have been shocked as why Jekyll would have done this, to turn form good to pure evil. They also would have been ashamed and astonished in the fact that Jekyll such a polite person to turn into Hyde such an evil and murderer and repulsive person. Also they would have been ashamed in the fact that Jekyll was pleased into transforming to Jekyll and in the last part of the novel Jekyll says that he knows he will be permanently become Hyde. Also Jekyll struggles with himself but soon gives in and does extra good work to ease his conscience. Jekyll refers to himself as if he could be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that which was unbearable. Jekyll was delivered form the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin. He would do good things in which he found pleasure and no longer exposed to disgrace and regret by the hands of this unrelated evil. This is why Jekyll wants to make a twin, his double. In the novel he says, ‘It was the curse of mankind that these incongruous ‘faggots’ were thus bond together- that in the agonised womb of consciousness these polar twins should be continuously struggling. This means that the people of that time the Victorians, where Jekyll says ‘curse of mankind.’ Jekyll is referring to the Victorians as they where the people to blame about the curse. The use of severe language describes the feelings of Jekyll towards the Victorian people. The author has used this phrase to make obvious the feelings of Jekyll and the author has captivated on the phrase to make the feelings clear and he has made the reader aware of this by using the word ‘faggots’.
Nevertheless science was growing and this would have been the kind of thing people would have seen as possible.
So the Victorians will be astonished at the way Jekyll has changed.
The way the characters have changed at the end of the novel is very astonishing for the reader. The author makes a very dramatic change to the character of Jekyll who is the main character. Jekyll changes a lot. The way he changes makes the novel exciting and interesting. The author does this to create suspense and atmosphere in the story. The other characters haven’t changed throughout the novel, except Utterson. Utterson hasn’t changed his formal character but as the story progressed he changed the character of his mind. He changed the way he approached Jekyll and how much he trusted Jekyll. Nevertheless as the novel came to a close all the other characters felt that Jekyll was a deception and untrustworthy. The other characters felt very annoyed at the way Jekyll turned from good to evil and they knew that Jekyll was a very kind and pleasant person; but they had never seen his bad and fearsome side. Hyde never changed much as from when Jekyll transformed Hyde was a very evil and appalling person. Hyde was always a character who was for the evil of the novel, unlike Jekyll who was a very good person but when he turned into Hyde he turned evil.
In the novel it describes Jekyll as being very observant and says, “I wore the semblance of Edward Hyde; none could come near to me at first without a visible misgiving of the flesh.” “And Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind was pure evil.” This shows that Hyde is a very ugly and a person who when you look at you think to yourself that he is a person who God created but created very badly. The Victorians were very religious people at that time and believed in God and they would have thought to themselves that Hyde is an unwanted and is the badly made creature of God. So this describes the approach of other people to Hyde and the way he looked. Also it says that Hyde was pure evil even without knowing the facts about Hyde, only his figure.
The first experiment was done but the second and conclusive experiment had to be done. It was to be done to see if Jekyll had lost his identity beyond redemption. The second experiment was a success and Jekyll had turned into Hyde.
Jekyll’s conscience is no guilty as in the novel it says, “Jekyll was no longer worse; he woke again to his good qualities seemingly unimpaired; he would even make haste, where it was possible, to undo the evil done by Hyde.” “And thus his conscience slumbered.” Jekyll is very ashamed at his creation and he tries to retrieve his good side by doing good things. This shows that Jekyll doesn’t want to be Hyde but Hyde is too strong for his mind and his making him drink the potion and turn into Hyde and he drinking the potion even though he doesn’t want to and his conscience is very devastated upon turning into Hyde. This refers to both Jekyll and Hyde in third person and describes Jekyll as feeling guilty over the fact he has made Hyde. This shows that there is a massive difference in the feelings of Hyde and Jekyll. Jekyll had a very big weakness which was he enjoyed the compensations of an approving conscience. And that is why he kept drinking the potion even though he didn’t like being Jekyll. In the novel it says, “A change had come over me. It wax no longer the fear of the gallow’s it was the fear of being Hyde that racked me.” Jekyll knows he has done wrong and he knows he will compensate for his wrong doing and will have to live as Hyde for the rest of his life, until Hyde dies. This shows that Jekyll didn’t want to be Hyde and that Jekyll could not overcome his weakness, and he had to live with this because he knew he would become Hyde eventually, for ever. Also in the last part of the novel it shows that Jekyll was unhappy to be Hyde and says, “Will Hyde die upon the scaffold?” “Or will he find the courage to release himself at the last moment?” Jekyll knows that until Hyde doesn’t die the evil will carry on and this shows that Jekyll does not want to be Hyde and from his one mistake of being arrogant he will suffer as being Hyde until he doesn’t die.
So the novel portrays a very clear image of a person turning form good to evil and using this as the centre of the novel the author portrays the image of Jekyll turning form good to bad very effectively and very interestingly. The author does this to build up suspense and atmosphere. The novel is a great suspense novel and a very good and an interesting way to how the author shows Jekyll turning into Hyde using description and a great use of context. The location is also great as it matches the way the author has described the novel, and the way the author has used the way the language describes the characters.
