Stevenson uses pathetic fallacy to create an atmosphere ideal for that of a horror story. Throughout most of the novel the weather is described as foggy, ‘face of the fogged city moon’ this adds to the idea of not being able to see clearly. The sentence ‘A haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths’ was as if the light were fighting to break through the fog just like Jekyll fighting to break out of Hyde. Personification is used in the chapter eight-The Last Night to describe the trees ‘the thin trees in the garden were slashing along the railings’ as if they were in despair and acting out of anger.
The way Stevenson describes London adds to the horrific atmosphere of the book. The description ‘labyrinth of lamp-lighted city’ conjures up a sense of mystery making the city sound like a maze where every thing looks the same and there is no escape. Another description that adds to the atmosphere is ‘lamps of a nocturnal city’ this gives the idea that the city comes alive at night like a wild animal. It also adds to the idea that the streets are thriving with crime. Stevenson also touches on the sensitive idea that in Victorian London even respectable, middle class gentlemen visit prostitutes.
In Chapter one it is said that Mr. Enfield was ‘coming home from some place at the end of the world, about three o’clock of a black winter morning’ this makes you think why he describes it as ‘the end of the world’ and why was he in that sort of area at that time in the morning.
Stevenson looks at the duality of human nature, the good and evil sides which are within all of us the emphasising the consequences of too much of one side or another of our nature, making the point that in each human being there is the potential both for extreme good and for extreme evil. Throughout the novel Stevenson hints on the fact that there are two sides to every character, even the smaller less important characters show signs of having a two-sided nature. In chapter four ‘The Carew Murder Case’ there are many examples of this ‘the policeman’s eye lighted up with professional ambition’ shows that the policeman is almost happy even though someone has just been savagely murdered to get the chance to work on such a big case. The description of Hyde’s land lady ‘she had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy, but her manners were excellent’ this shows that even though she looks cold and evil she can actually be polite and kind.
In the novel Stevenson describes the acts and behaviour of Edward Hyde much like those of a young wild beast. The attack on the young girl ‘of maybe eight or ten’ is the first time we hear of Hyde and this gives the reader impression of him right away as after he trampled on the little girl he acted as if nothing had happened. In the horrific murder of Sir Danvers Carew ‘an aged…gentleman’ it is described that Hyde acted with an ‘ape-like fury’ making Hyde sound inhuman and almost prehistoric. The victims of the attacks that are mentioned in the novel, the trampling of the young girl and the brutal murder of Carew are as if the Hyde were singling out the less able old and the young, just as a predator singles out the old and young in a herd. All the characters that have come across Hyde have said that they can’t really explain his face but it looks familiar this is because Stevenson is trying to say that they all recognise him as there is a Hyde in all of them trying to break out.
Stevenson builds up tension in the novel by confining some of the evidence until the end or simply letting the reader use their imagination. At the beginning we do not know that Mr. Hyde has any thing to do with Dr. Jekyll as we hear about him for the first time from Mr. Enfield but as the story progresses Stevenson feeds us more and more evidence to make us wonder, who is he? Where has he come from? And finally what is he doing with Dr. Jekyll? You only find out at the end that they are the same person this builds up a horrific atmosphere and a mysterious twist to the tale. Another way Stevenson builds up tension is by not telling us about all the crimes that Mr. Hyde commits but hints on them allowing us to use our imagination. There are also a lot of suspicious disappearances before we find out that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person there is a period that Hyde goes missing for a while this makes the reader wonder what has happened to him and if he is coming back? Also the sudden death of Dr. Lanyon makes the reader consider weather Hyde had any thing to do with his death.
The idea of a transformation of some sort is very popular within the horror genre. It is normally a transformation from a human to some sort of animal, Stevenson however has approached this idea from a different angle and instead of having an animal behaving with some human traits he has a human behaving like some sort of animal. The novel has some familiarities with stories containing vampires such as the transformation normally takes place at night and they then commit some sort of savage act. They also are ferocious beast or deformed being making them horrible to look at and terrifying to imagine. When they attack it is usually other the top and unnecessary ‘Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth’ this shows that Hyde had no remorse for his victim what so ever.
The theme of unorthodox science experiments is very popular within the horror genre as there are many films and novels based around scientific experiments gone wrong. In this novel Stevenson tries to change this in some respects, instead of him creating a ghastly creature he merely separates the two sides to his personality this puts across the point that within in all humans there is the potential of a monster if it is not controlled. This is much like the 1792 novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Wollstonecraft where a scientist creates a monster from human remains but then can’t control it and it turns on him and his family. In some parts of the novel it is set in Jekyll’s laboratory this creates a strange, spooky atmosphere as it conjures up the image of a dark place with cobwebs, electricity, potions and mad experiments.
In conclusion I think the novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is good yet different to other horror stories in some ways, but I found this effective because even though Stevenson uses many traditional horror conventions he changes them slightly. Although it has many horror conventions it also has many symbolic parts to it the fact that Jekyll changes his name to Hyde is like he is trying to hide the fact that they are the same person. It also may fall into the category of being a mystery novel as we find out the plot of the story as Mr. Utterson unveils the clues until we find out the truth. I found that the description of Hyde being like some sort of ferocious beast was very effective as it conjures up an image in your head and almost makes the reader afraid of him even though he is a fictional character. Stevenson is also very secretive about the character of Jekyll as most of the novel of focused on the terrifying behaviour of Hyde all we know about him is that he is a well renowned doctor that is performing unorthodox experiments.
