Another running theme is secrecy, Jekyll keeping Hyde a secret, keeping homosexuality a secret amongst middle-upper class men and the ignorance of Utterson, in that, Jekyll keeping everything from him and Hyde’s own secrets from Jekyll as well as everyone else, ‘He must have secrets of his own, black secrets by the look of him; secrets compared to which Jekyll’s own would be like sunshine.’ The readers’ response to this is to question what the secrets may be, because at this point they know no more than Utterson, and so do not realise that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, or at least share the same body. It also makes the reader want to know Jekyll’s secrets, because although it says that his secrets are not as bad as Hyde’s, the bluntness of this statement implies that Jekyll’s secrets are very deep and very dark indeed.
Throughout the story Stevenson uses a lot of references to dark and light. Especially when Dr Jekyll is thinking about Hyde or when Hyde is being the main point of interest. Stevenson made a point of Hyde only coming out at night, in the dark, reflecting Hyde’s personality and nature. Hyde was like the dark side of the moon, the side the most people are ignorant about, the side that no one sees. An example of this is “And with that he blew out his candle,” Utterson says this immediately after talking about Hyde. By having so many links to darkness and Mr Hyde the reader will create a dislike for him, even without a description of him, from Utterson and Enfield.
Another interpretation of the uses of light and dark could say that the light represents knowledge and dark represents ignorance. As previously said Hyde is only mentioned at night, in the dark, with this opinion the reason would be because we, as the reader, knew little about Hyde. His secrecy “toiling in mere darkness, besieged by questions,” the ‘toiling in mere darkness’ means that Utterson struggles in the dark, with thing he doesn’t know. In the dark you cannot see as clearly as in the light, you know about your surroundings, and with Hyde, he seems to be surrounded, shrouded by a cloud of doubt and darkness. Utterson’s questions can only be answered if Hyde’s darkness lets in some light and lets out some information. The reader feels involved by this, the drifting in and out of knowledge and ignorance, light and dark. They see through the eyes of the lawyer, involved in the yearning to know more about Hyde. Some texts involve the reader by letting them into extra information, more than the characters, subtext, but the fact that the reader knows as little as Utterson is what keeps us enticed.
The final reason for the prominent use of light and dark is to create extra contrast between the two extremes of the Jekyll/Hyde persona. The dark being the evil, emotionless, conscience free Hyde and the light being the generally normal side, Jekyll, full of shadows.
Stevenson uses a lot of references to Victorian humour and society, a lot focused on Darwin’s theory of evolution, the theory being that humans evolved from apes. This was not taken lightly and a lot of people rejected the idea, as they didn’t like the idea that humans are just animals, but Stevenson used it creatively in his novel to depict a terrifying character, in Hyde. “With ape like fury” Stevenson describes Hyde in a moment of anger, at the time the response from the reader would have been dramatic because of the hype of Darwin’s theory. This is the response that Stevenson would have been aiming for, in 20th-21st century, evolution has become common place in our ideas and so does not create the same response, instead it creates a more animated character, and a more interesting character, that he can be described as an ape, or creature, and that when Jekyll takes the chemical concoction it is like a ferocious animal being released from a cage. Also in the last chapter- Henry Jekyll’s full statement- it says ‘the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed’ meaning that as Jekyll slowly turns into Hyde, he becomes more and more primitive, violent and an amoral form of Hyde. Stevenson is saying that as hard as we try to become more civilised we will all still have the ape, creature, within us, at the core, and we cannot escape from it, this is also shown by the last persona that the Jekyll/Hyde body takes is that of Hyde, he is the core and really the true personality of Jekyll. This has a great impact on the reader, which I’m sure is what Stevenson wanted. The reader here, will realise that Hyde had definitely been the core of Jekyll, and perhaps begin to doubt their own feelings or personality, or on the other hand may respond the opposite to that, in that they are grateful that they don’t experience anything like that. But the message that Stevenson was actually trying to convey is that none of us can escape from our base, or origins and that we must repress, but not abandon this side of ourselves, which I’m sure will have gotten across to some readers.
Another society based focus is that of social status and reputation. ‘“And you never asked about- the place with the door?” said Mr Utterson
‘“No sir, I had a delicacy,” was the reply. “I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgement.”’ Utterson asks about the mysterious door that Hyde lies behind, and whether Enfield had asked about it, Enfield’s reply says that respectable men don’t enquire about strange doors, in bad neighbourhoods, that it is a time of judgement and any wrong questions asked, any wrong statement said can be taken in completely the wrong way, and judgements are made of you. This may have been what Stevenson was trying to say, that people, especially middle class men of the era, were not true to themselves or other people as they were too worried about other people’s opinions about them. The stress of this in his mind may have been what convinced Jekyll to resort to the experiment, or drugs, which is what it may have represented, to escape from the normal formalities of his life, as a respectable member of society, a point of release. It implies that most middle-upper class people led a very sheltered life, oblivious to the true character of the society of London/Edinburgh at the time, just like they are oblivious to them selves. On the surface they come across as very respectable, well mannered and well presented. For those that hear about London or Edinburgh, it seems to be very posh, and perhaps glamorous, but for those who know it better, they know that it is full of back alleys, secrets and dirty dealings. Much like the life of Jekyll/Hyde, no one really knows Hyde, the backstreets, the dirty dealings, and no one really wants to and so stay away, but everyone can see Jekyll, and can see that he is perfectly ‘normal’. Stevenson definitely deliberately included this as a comparison for readers to consider and think about, and for them to realise that it isn’t just one person that has a split personality, good and bad sides, but we are all infected with it.
There are also a few, very subtle references to homosexuality as well, which could be a battle of restraint, as homosexuality was also looked down upon, although it was so relevant at the time, as so many men were wondering about their sexual orientation, it was not widely commercialised although every intelligent person was aware of it creeping in. It came with new music, new art and new drugs- opium, heroine etc. Stevenson’s wanted response was probably to get the readers asking questions about whether taking the ‘medicine’ that released him from his social cage was purely for his passion for science, or for personal reasons, to let out his true feelings. Because although, when conscious, he feels that he really doesn’t want to become Hyde, he always goes back to the drug, goes back to Hyde, in the end uncontrollably and causes mass destruction that he couldn’t fathom himself doing in a normal state of mind, until Hyde is no longer a point of release but Jekyll’s captor, it is ironic that what Jekyll was running away from he seems to run right into again, in another form. The reaction from the audience is meant to be shock and to consider Jekyll even in his normal state as deplorable as he keeps returning to the mind of the crime.
Stevenson’s use of narrative technique is unusual, in that, not only are there multiple narrators but it is also not in chronological order, which is important to the plot. The first narrative is through Utterson, although not in first person narrative it follows the events that Utterson hears about and sees, this is important because a lot of the early information is relevant to Utterson, i.e. Jekyll’s will, which is the reason the lawyer decides to go after and find more out about Hyde. The second narrative is in first person and by Dr Lanyon, a friend of both Utterson and Jekyll, it explains how Jekyll and Lanyon communicated on the day that he sees Hyde change back into Jekyll, disturbing him considerably and thus leading to his death. And the final narrative is that of Jekyll, a full confession, this is the clinching, explanatory part of the story, it explains his ideas, his downfall and his emblematic surrender to Hyde. It shows his original thinking for the experiment and how he found that man is not one, but two people, metaphorically, “I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man… if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.” The importance of the non chronological order of the narratives is that, each one starts from roughly the beginning, or just earlier on within the book, and goes over it in more detail, or just adds extra information, the knowledge that the reader has been waiting for. I believe that this is the effect that Stevenson wanted from his readers, seeing the different narrators as a source of information as well as an entertaining character.
Stevenson’s use of language is very clever, his sentence structure in relation to the actually plot of the story in particular. The novel in itself is not long at all, and could really be counted as a short story, and yet, unusually found in short stories, there are quite long and complex sentences used, reflecting the complex plot of the story. His use of metaphor, especially to do with Darwin’s origin of the species, using metaphorical phrases when refereeing to Hyde, just to give a more animated approach to him, although he is made out to be flamboyant and generally animated anyway, the added use of this means that Stevenson can get across an almost cartoon like perspective on Hyde, in that Hyde is so extreme in his evilness, and that he seems to get away with such extreme feats, much like a cartoon character, always getting back up and carrying on in the next episode, like Hyde, always revisiting Jekyll to create more havoc.
In conclusion Stevenson uses a wide variety of techniques to draw in the reader, and uses specific techniques to receive a required response. The response that in finishing the book the reader keeps thinking about the issues raised within it, such as the bored and suppressed societies that we live in now, and that people have lived in for years and everyone’s double sided persona. The techniques that Stevenson has used are incredibly effective, and work for all eras, not just for the 19th century readers as it was originally intended for, but also for 20th and 21st century readers as well, because the points within it are always relevant, because there is always something wrong with society, that I believe Stevenson saw and so decided to get his ideas into the public, whether they picked them up within the book or not.
