The first important gothic element that Stevenson uses to create the gothic novella is setting. He uses it in almost all of the chapters of the story, but this is because it is important to explain the setting to your readers, so that they can understand the atmosphere of the particular scene and also you must explain the setting of the chapter or scene, so that the reader knows what is going on and where. A type of setting that Stevenson used was the weather. He says in chapter one, “a black winter’s morning,” this is to simply let the readers imagine the scene and but also he uses imagery because instead of just writing winter’s morning, he writes “black winter’s morning”, which creates the image of a dark sky. This helps when trying to gain the gothic effect of the novella. Another example of Stevenson using setting is when Mr Utterson says “the streets as clean as a ballroom”. This is an example of Stevenson using a simile and Stevenson uses this simile to make it much easier for the reader to imagine the appearance of the streets.
Another element that Stevenson uses to make his novella gothic and something that is found throughout the novella is good vs. evil. When Stevenson portrays this in his book he separates the good and evil into a split personality, one half is the good half and is known as Dr Jekyll and then the evil half which is shown in the character called Mr Hyde. The good vs. evil is not always expressed throughout the book by using dialogue and also it is not always between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. When Stevenson does use the dialogue of the characters, he uses it well enough to portray the good and evil to his readers. Mr Utterson’s dialogue is very polite and he sympathises with both perspectives of the two characters. Mr Utterson says “I see you are going in” this part of dialogue shows Utterson’s personality and that he still manages to remain calm and polite even though he is talking to a man that he dislikes. However, the dialogue for Mr Hyde is different to Mr Utterson’s dialogue. Mr Hyde says “What do you want?” this shows how Stevenson made Hyde’s dialogue very blunt and aggressive, almost like his personality. But then in chapter one when Stevenson doesn’t use dialogue to portray good vs. evil, it says “for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground”. The quote is juxtaposition and shows the contrast of good and evil when the girl is trampled. The contrast is between the good and innocence of the child and the evil of Mr Hyde which allows him to simply walk over the helpless child, leaving her on the ground screaming. Also the Stevenson reflects the personalities of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde when he creates the setting of home and laboratory of Dr Jekyll. The contrast of the house and the laboratory is that the house is where Dr Jekyll resides and the interior of the home reflects the calm and civilized personality of the character. But then the laboratory is where Mr Hyde is created and the laboratory setting it reflects the personality of the monster by when it says that the laboratory is a “dark and dingy, windowless structure”.
Violence and death is something that Stevenson uses a lot of throughout “The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. But of course it would be expected by the readers to be used a lot in the novella because the entire book is a gothic novella and is supposed to frighten the reader. In the book when Stevenson wants to make a situation in the novella gruesome and frightening he will use violence and death to get the best reaction out of the reader. In the novella it says “and the human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams” this is a good example of Stevenson using violence because he wants the readers to understand how much pain and suffering this child is going through. So he uses such words as “juggernaut” and “trod” to show that Mr Hyde is an overpowering monster and the word “trod” suggests that the monster has an uncaring attitude and has no ability to have any empathy or sympathy for the child.
The descriptions of the appearance and personalities of some of the characters resemble the element of good vs. evil. Dr Lanyon is the former friend of Dr Jekyll, but they fall out over a disagreement based on scientific matters. Dr Lanyon is described in a way that suggests that he values the good in people above all else. But Dr Jekyll could be seen as the opposite to Dr Lanyon because all Dr Jekyll wants to do is withdraw the evil from someone’s personality and create this alter ego. The description of Mr Hyde is simply said by Dr Jekyll that he is “pure evil” and this is how Stevenson wants to simply some up Mr Hyde in the Novella. Stevenson manages to depict the characters easily to the readers and manages to remain subtle in the novella when talking about the descriptions and isn’t so direct that the novella seems unreal to the audience.
Stevenson was an intelligent man and knew what elements, themes and techniques needed to be acquired for the novella to be a successful gothic story and a story that would entice and entertain the readers. The fascination that Stevenson had with Deacon William Brodie inspired so much of the novel and also this fascination Stevenson obtained from a young age, influenced Stevenson all through his life and the fact that Stevenson based his book on the life and personality of Brodie shows how much Stevenson was affected by him. The novella is one that is still popular today and many different media productions have been made about “The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, some even modernising the book. The reason behind the success and popularity of the book could be because it is a different to the usual horror stories and isn’t just a straight forward, gruesome and bloody horror story, but is a story that invites the reader in and also the success of the book has now made it a household name all over different nations.
