On page fifty-four, there is another good example of how weather can play a large and important part in the setting of a story, helping to develop a particular atmosphere.

Onpage fifty-four, there is another good example of how weather can play a large and important part in the setting of a story, helping to develop a particular atmosphere.

“The square, when they got there, was all full of wind and dust, and the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing.”

The reference to the weather is vital to the image of the scene. Suffocating dust pollutes the air and the railings are cage-like, preventing escape. The thin, malnourished trees give the impression that they are punishing themselves, whilst at the same time seeking refuge against the elements. This is indicative of the physical and psychological condition of Dr. Jekyll himself at this point in the story.

A third example of the impact that the weather has on the atmosphere, occurs on pages forty-nine to fifty, when Mr Utterson is on his way to meet Dr Jekyll:

“The court was very cool and a little damp, and full of premature twilight, although the sky, high up overhead, was still bright with sunset.”

This reference to the weather symbolises the split personality of Dr Jekyll. The struggle between the light above and the darkness below, represents the conflict between good and evil. This presents a rather disturbing, image reinforcing our assumption that darkness is likely to prevail. The sinister aspect of this being, that darkness is the absence of light, and goodness.

All through the story we have the impression that s ...

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All through the story we have the impression that s ...

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his spare time, and then he would go back home to his family and act like the ‘perfect son’. The more he suppressed his evil and immoral side the more it grew, just as the more undeveloped Dr Jekyll’s evil side was the more the evil Mr Hyde would grow. This leads on to the ways in which the novella shocked its reader and how the morality of Victorian Britain made this book stunning and un-heard of. We often talk of people having “Victorian Values”. This means that they have very high moral standards, and are very polite and ‘conservative’ people. “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” will have shocked people in the Victorian period and made them question their morals. The duality of human nature shown in this novella will have made people really think about the true nature of human beings. Robert Louis Stevenson’s ideas about a split personality, and the way in which Dr Jekyll’s undeveloped evil side is so much more evil because it needs to liberate itself, will have been such a shock to some people, that it may have if made them question their own existence. However, the novella today would have brought about I very different reaction. Instead of shock, most people today would probably accept the novella as a confirmation of what they have always believed. ...

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‘really like Satan’. This could be Stevenson’s way of telling us that Hyde is not human but purely evil. Trying to hint to us, the reader, something. This obscure appearance makes other people in the book have an immediate hate for Hyde. The doctor who was tending to the girl Hyde had trampled over, whenever he looked at Hyde, wanted to kill him. The doctor had been nicknamed ‘sawbones’ for being so unemotional. The eyes of the family of the girl were filled with h ...

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way that he ‘…snarled aloud into a savage laugh…’which suggests how he is related to evil, like a monster. Many horror stories have monsters and other characters to portray them as horrific, but Stevenson takes it a step further and makes you picture a monster of your own choice with the little information and description given to you, this builds up the tension and horror layer by layer the more you read on. Another theme is shown when the Jekyll/Hyde double in the laboratory is described as having ‘…a mask upon his face.’ This shows the dual nature of Jekyll/Hyde.

The weather also plays a big part in the story, it effects it by making the atmosphere feel real and heightening the horror. Stevenson uses pathetic fallacy to change the setting and atmosphere into one of which suits the story, ‘…it was an early cloudless night…’ and ‘…a brilliantly lit lane…’ with a ‘…full moon…’which gives a sense of calmness. Stevenson then gives intense action, which has a strong effect on the reader and therefore effectively heightens the horror. The action is a murder, which is very horrific anyway. A maidservant witnessed the murder from her bedroom window. The maidservant described the victim, Sir Danvers Carew, as ‘…an old aged beautiful gentleman…’ she did not recognise him but he seem ...

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that Hyde is a cruel and vicious character. The question is why is Jekyll connected with Hyde.

We also learn that Doctor Lanyon doesn’t keep in touch with Jekyll any more. He says Jekyll has become ‘too fanciful for me’. This means that Lanyon thinks that Dr Jekyll is doing something medically that he should not be doing.

This again builds the tension. Hyde needs to be found and Utterson not just wants but needs to find him. If he can find him he feels that he might be able to look at his face and then find out the secret of why Hyde is so friendly with his close friend Jekyll.

Uttersons’ searching again builds up a picture of fear, and we are told that Utterson began to ‘haunt the door’ to Hyde’s house. The word ‘haunt’ frightens us.

weather plays a big part in the story, it effects it by making the atmosphere feel real and heightening the horror. Stevenson uses pathetic fallacy to change the setting and atmosphere into one of which suits the story, ‘…it was an early cloudless night…’ and ‘…a brilliantly lit lane…’ with a ‘…full moon…’which gives a sense of calmness. Stevenson then gives intense action, which has a strong effect on the reader and therefore effectively heightens the horror. The action is a murder, which is very horrific anyway.

s street, two doors from the corner, stands a dreary, Gothic house, which "bore in every feature the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence." As we proceed further in the novel, Jekyll¹s house itself will be seen to have an inborn duality: friendly, prosperous, respectable, as well as threatening, mysterious, and sinister. This duality is manifested by each of its two facades: the respectable, Jekyll side of the house stands out in contrast with the seediness of its neighbouring structures. The Hyde façade is bleak, neglected, and lowering on a stre ...

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