‘The street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest’ Pg10
The use of the simile in the quote by Stevenson shoes the reader how colourful the streets of Victorian London are and also it creates imagery to the reader. The narrative structure of the novella is introduced into the text by the introduction of the strange house the showed nothing but a door from its front view. While the two Victorian lawyers were having their walk, Mr Utterson asks Mr Enfield if he ever new anything about that house. Mr Enfield answers back by saying yes and with it a story which involves the door. Mr Enfield recalls to Mr Utterson that one night when he was returning home at about three o’clock in the morning he saw a girl of about eight or ten running hard and he also saw a man who was walking.
“one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross-street.” Pg11
Then Mr Enfield recalls the two ran into each other at the corner and then the little man horribly trampled over the girl’s body and left her screaming. He then tells Mr Utterson that he went and caught the man and brought him back to the scene of the accident. A doctor had come and checked the girl out and found nothing wrong with her. The family of the girl’s demanded that the little man pay a hundred pounds for the incident. The little man then went to the house of the mystery door, opened it with a key and came back with ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance. Mr Enfield then took the cheque and saw that it was signed with a name that he can’t mention.
This builds up tension to the reader because the reader would wants to know whose name is on that cheque. The cheque is therefore a precursor because it links to in front to the text as the reader keeps on reading. Enfield calls the strange house ‘Blackmail house’. Stevenson uses this metaphorical use of language to show the reader that the strange man might be blackmailing someone inside the house and doesn’t let him come out at any time.
“there is a chimney, which is generally smoking; so somebody must live there” Pg14
Mr Enfield then explains to Mr Utterson that the appearance that the little man had was indescribable.
“an extraordinary looking man” Pg15
He explains that there is something displeasing about his appearance and that he gives a feeling of deformity.
“He must deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity” Pg15
The appearance of Mr Hyde, as the strange is known as is allegorical because it links back to everyone who sees Mr Hyde as having an ugly appearance. This physical reaction by Enfield has gone on to everyone who has seen him. They as Victorians don’t accept him in to their society because of his looks, his personality and the way he shows his appearance.
“I was struck besides with the shocking expression of his face” Pg65
Victorian society people don’t see people like Hyde everyday because as Victorians they had to have a good appearance.
“This person was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person laughable” Pg65
This links back to the allegorical appearance of Hyde .This shows the reader that Victorians don’t accept people whose appearance is not good in to their society.
The genres of the novella are gothic horror and mystery. The genre mystery is used a lot in the text to increase tension and to excite the reader to keep on reading. A lot of mystery is used at the end of chapters to make the reader keep on reading.
“What” he thought. “Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!” And now his blood ran cold in his veins. Pg39
Elements of the horror genre are paradoxically written by Stevenson to add to the build up of tension to the story. Elements of the horror genre are created when Sir Danvers is murdered by Mr Hyde in a horrible way. The horror of the murder was described by a maid servant who witnessed it all from the top of her home by the window. She describes Mr Hyde as ‘a very small gentleman’. This links back to what the others who too have seen Hyde as having a horrific appearance. Sir Danvers was brutally murdered by a cane that Hyde was carrying with him.
‘bones were audibly shattered’ Pg30
The diction used by Stevenson creates horror and it gives the reader a feeling of how devastating the murder was. In the final chapter Dr Jekyll explains all that he did why. Stevenson summarises the whole text as one. The themes raised in the final chapter are all to do with what Jekyll did to turn him self into Hyde and how he went on to die. Another theme raised in this chapter is that of how Jekyll goes on to uses drugs with science besides him and how he goes on to lose his friends.
“And it chanced that the direction of my scientific studies, which led wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental, reacted and shed a strong light on this consciousness perennial war among my members” Pg70
The final chapter starts of by Jekyll introducing his past to the reader to show some of the reasons why he turned him self in to Hyde.
“I was born in the year 18_ to a large fortune” Pg69
Stevenson uses the ‘18_’ to make the reader make up an own Victorian year to make it more realistic. The reader is also told that Jekyll was born to a wealthy middle class Victorian family. So as a child he had to respect the Victorian values that children had to follow such as they were only seen but not heard. Jekyll didn’t like following these Victorian values and also when he became older he didn’t like being a Victorian gentleman as he couldn’t do what he wanted to. So he decided to change his appearance to a person who commits only evil. Stevenson uses the metaphor ‘incongruous faggots’ to tell the reader that there are many sides to a person and not only one. In the story Dr Jekyll represents good whilst Mr Hyde represents evil and this is a contrast of good and evil. In the text we are told that evil can take over the good because Dr Jekyll felt more better being Mr Hyde who commits evil only.
“as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde alone, it the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.” Pg73
This quote has allegorical meanings to it because one represents good and the other ‘pure evil’. Stevenson uses imagery to make images on the readers mind to let them know what is going on in the text. The metaphor which is used in “I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck” Pg70 shows the reader that Jekyll is going through a tough time because he can’t do what he wants to because of the Victorian values he has to follow. The moment after Jekyll changed him self into Hyde he felt more comfortable than being Jekyll.
“I knew myself, at the first breath of my new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil” Pg72
Mr Hyde’s name is also an allegorical element because Jekyll tries to hide his evil side from society so he called his new look Mr Hyde. The social moral that Stevenson is telling the reader is that man has many sides to his life. One which he tries to show in society and the other he tries to conceal and repress. He explains how drugs should be taken seriously and how it can damage a person’s life. When Jekyll turns him self into Hyde he looses his good side and goes to his evil side without and control of it.
Stevenson’s use of contrast is typical as a whole in the novellas. He contrasts attractive appearance against ugly. He contrasts good appearance people like Utterson and Jekyll while an example of an ugly appearance is Hyde. Another type of contrast that Stevenson uses is acceptable versus unacceptable in Victorian society. He explains how Victorian people sometimes don’t accept in to their society because of his appearance. Though Dr Jekyll, they accept because he has a good Victorian gentleman appearance.
The final chapter gives an opinion on human beings and their desires. It shows how people of the Victorian era and today’s desire for drugs. Drugs in Victorian society were high but it was used out side public. Today too drugs are used but it is commonly known. Dr Jekyll needed to take chemical drugs to transform him self into Hyde. In the chapter ‘The Last Night’ we are told by Poole that some one inside the cabinet keeps on demanding for drugs by leaving notes out side the cabinet door. Both Poole and Mr Utterson assumes that the person inside the cabinet is not Dr Jekyll and therefore they think its Hyde.
‘twice and thrice in the same day, there have been orders and complaints’ Pg51
This shows the reader how desperate and how addicted Hyde is too the drugs he is demanding for.
In my opinion I agree with the points presented by Stevenson. He explains to the reader how Dr Jekyll didn’t have the freedom and determination to do what he wanted to because of the Victorian values, so he changed his personality in which he wouldn’t have to follow any values and he could do whatever he wants. He also explains how humans desire for small things like drugs which can ruin a person’s life like Jekyll’s. The social morals that are explained by Stevenson are those of good, evil and drugs. In my view these social morals are still relevant today because humans in today’s society all have a good and evil side in them like Dr Jekyll did. The nurture of all humans is always different because one day you can be good and the other day you can be full of evil. In my opinion our upbringing doesn’t mean we will be like that because what we learn form outside can influence our personality too. In Dr Jekyll’s case he was brought up to be a Victorian gentleman but he didn’t like the life of a Victorian gentleman as it was boring to him. So the change into Hyde that he had was his type of life as he got to do what he wanted to. Drugs in today’s society are the same as Victorian time but it is commonly known to the public. Where as in Victorian days it was illegal to take drugs. ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ has a social moral to it which tells the reader how to behave in a society.
Anshuman trile
