Jekylle and Hyde

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Becci Pearce   10EMS

Re-read chapter four from “it was by this time about nine in the morning and the first fog of the season…”to “…wait for him at the bank and get out the handbills.”

Explain how Stevenson uses descriptive passages to create a mood of dread. In your answer you should refer to descriptive languages used in the passage and refer to similar examples in the text.

     In Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde he creates a mood of dread very well. The extent of the vocabulary helps to broaden the fantastical images in your mind. In chapter four the descriptive words leave little to the imagination, so you actually feel as if you’re in the setting. “Nine in the morning”, shows that judging the time it should be light but, “the first fog of the season”, shows that the view in the streets would have been restricted. This is all about the gothic setting, “chocolate-covered pall” shows that the fog was almost like a blanket of fog blocking out the path to heaven.

     The dread starts to creep in as the only alternative would be hell “conflagration” makes you think of a fire, as if it really is a virtual hell on Earth. “Twilight” although it is nine in the morning the appearance of night is still brought in keeping with the theme of horror. Contrasts are then brought in “back end of evening” this is a complete opposite of the opening about it being 9.AM. Repeated again is the referral to darkness but now there is a little daylight “a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths,” whatever daylight there was, it was like a distorted swirl of fog.

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     When Mr. Utterson took the witness maid to where Mr. Hyde’s accommodation was the element of disappointment appears as he lives in the “dismal quarter of Soho” with its “muddy ways,” not only is the place run down but it’s uncared for. You have to question the people willing to live there. You can picture an image of a sinister creature lurking in the depths, waiting to pounce. Pure evil This raises a debate as to where Mr. Hyde is docile of living. “Slatternly passengers” the appearance of the people at first glance are messy, scruffy, seedy characters. “Combat this ...

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