Stevenson also uses something else to incorporate the Victorian setting. He uses London fog to give the reader the feeling of a dark, dingy atmosphere. This is described to the reader by this quotation, “The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city”, Pg 37. There is loads of quotations in the story, another quotation is, “For even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly”, Pg 31. This describes the setting to the reader very well also giving the reader the sense of mystery and suspense.
In Victorian London, gentlemen had many expectations. For one they were expected to go to work to earn money for there family’s while there wives were expected to look after the children. They were higher up in the world than women, most gentlemen were very respectable and manly very nice people. In the story the reader is made to believe that Dr Jekyll is a well-respected Victorian gentleman. This is shown to the reader using this quotation “A large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness”, Pg 26. This is a good description given to the reader by the writer of Dr Jekyll describing him as a nice warm gentleman.
Dr Jekyll is known to the reader to be a well respected doctor of science. In Victorian times they were only just getting use to having and understanding science. So he must have been a nice person and he would have been trustworthy.
Other characters had different professions. Firstly Mr Utterson was a lawyer so he also would have been pretty well respected. Dr lanyon was a doctor of medicine. Doctors about at that time were nicknamed “sawbones”. So he would have been respected and trusted. Mr Enfield is known to be a well-known man around the town. Mr Enfield is a cousin of Mr Utterson and they go out on a Sunday for a walk around town. The reader is not told what Mr Enfield’s profession is.
You could place constraints on Dr Jekyll. For one you could have someone watch over his work and possibly keep an eye on him. You could make him report back to someone about his experiments and his findings.
Stevenson uses the duality of this kind of repressive society to show the reader that all men have a dual nature by not telling the reader exactly everything about a character by leaving something out about him and leaving secrets in the story about that person. Stevenson makes people look liking there holding something back. In one of the chapters when Mr Utterson is talking to Dr Jekyll in this quotation Dr Jekyll talks about Mr Hyde as if he knows something we don’t, “I will tell you one thing: the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde”, Pg 27. This shows the reader Dr Jekyll is keeping it a secret of how he can get rid of Mr Hyde.
Dr Jekyll’s character changes as the novel goes on. At the start of the novel Dr Jekyll is seen as a nice man but as the story progresses he changes. In this quotation something seems strange about the Dr, “Close up to the warmth, sat Dr Jekyll, looking deadly sick. He did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice”, Pg 35. This is another quotation showing that Dr Jekyll had changed a lot. “The doctor, it appeared, now more than ever confined himself to the cabinet over the laboratory, where he would sometimes even sleep; he was out of sprits, he had grown very silent”, Pg 44.
Dr Jekyll was born into a large fortune. We are not told much about his family, just about how they were upper-class people who had a large fortune. Mr Hyde is seen to be the opposite of Victorian ideals by showing him as a nasty unpleasant man. In this quotation Mr Enfield tries to describe Hyde, “He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable”, Pg 15. This shows the reader that Mr Hyde is not really liked and is not a very nice person.
The crimes the occur in the story are good because they have a good affect on the reader. They make the reader want to read on. For instance the Carew murder is good because the reader knows that Mr Hyde committed the crime but what the reader doesn’t know is why Hyde did it. This is the same question for the rest of the crimes, “why”? This makes the reader want to read on and find out why.
Dr Jekyll creates Mr Hyde to prove that man has a different side to his usual side. Dr Jekyll changed his will so if anything was to happen to Jekyll he could just change into Hyde and everything would pass to him. He also wanted to explore what was inside of him, what was the worst he could do?
Mr Utterson is shown to be a nice man who is respectable. He is a lawyer and is good at it. During the story we do not really see another side to him only when he’s worried about Hyde. Dr Lanyon is a doctor of medicine and is also seen to be a nice man. There is one strange bit in the story when he locks himself in his house and then later dies which give the reader suspicions about what has happened to him for him to do this.
We first see first person narrative in the story when we read the chapter called Dr Lanyon’s narrative. This is good because we see what his point of view is on the situation and gives some reason for why things have happened. We see third person narrative quite a lot during the story. This gives the reader a different view on things. Stevenson uses these two narratives to give the reader different perspectives on the story and how things have happened. This is good because it helps the reader understand things easier. Also some parts of the story will be better in the narrative that Stevenson uses and the reader will understand things much more clearly. This is why Stevenson uses these two different narratives.
In conclusion Stevenson illustrates that man has a dual nature in many different ways. He uses the setting to give the reader different sides of Victorian London. Stevenson uses Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’s houses to show the reader there nature whether it be good or bad. Stevenson uses the London fog to give the reader the feeling of uneasiness about the setting. Stevenson uses the Victorian society to show the reader what the typical gentleman should do and have. He tells the reader about Jekyll’s profession and how this tells the reader more about himself. Stevenson uses the repressive society to show the reader that all men have a dual nature. Stevenson makes Dr Jekyll’s character change slowly. He uses good crimes to make the reader think why. The other characters also show a bit of a dual nature. Stevenson uses two different narratives to give the reader two sides to the story. Throughout the story Stevenson uses good language and different little things to show that man has a dual nature.
By Stephen Rickard.
