The idea of hidden identities and keeping secrets in Jekyll and Hyde is to help make the truth harder to see. One of the first in history to occupy using hidden identities was Deacon William Brodie, who lived in the later 1700’s. Brodie was the son of a respected cabinetmaker in Edinburgh. However he also enjoyed a life of gambling and was even gambling on the evening of his father’s death. Many roads in Edinburgh’s ‘Royal Mile’ are named after Deacon William Brodie and his double life as a tradesman but also a daring thief, his life is also said to be the inspiration for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Hidden identity is also seen in the later novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, where Dorian Gray is different to his painting but at the same time, the same person. The painting represents all the evil done by Dorian and is therefore kept away and the person represents all the good about Dorian Gray and is a public figure.
Stevenson cleverly uses his description of Dr Jekyll’s home to depict the idea of duality or the art of hidden identities, which makes the truth harder to see in the novel. Stevenson is trying to say that there are two sides to everything, like an alter ego or ulterior motive. He is also trying to explain to us the two sides of being human, one being good and one being evil.
This presumption is also explored by the doctor and psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, after Jekyll and Hyde was written. Freud dug deep into our psyche and endeavored to investigate those psychological processes which are not manifested in our principles but have a strong influence on our behavior. He believed in the idea of the ‘id’, which was our good side and our ‘ego’, which was the side that pushed us to do inappropriate actions or have guilt-causing urges. This proposal was used in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, with Jekyll being the ‘id’ and Hyde being the ‘ego’, although it cannot be said that any of these ideas were related. He also displays this theory is his description of the two doors that lead into Dr Jekyll’s house, even though the two descriptions seem to be in such contrasting places, the single element seems to stand out. Stevenson uses personification to emphasize the link between this house and the two characters together and to strengthen the idea. While describing Mr. Hyde’s door, he mentions the ‘blind forehead’ above the door, this can be seen as a blind space or something being hidden as we most commonly know that doors are surrounded by windows or a type of passage to see what is behind it. Stevenson may be attempting to convey the idea that Hyde is very secretive and uses the description of the door to help do so. This is the same with Jekyll and his ‘handsome door’. The scheme of the doors link very well with the hypothesis of secrets in the novel, because the back door has this persona of being ‘sordid’ and ‘blistered’, we wonder what could be revealed upon entering the door, but it is locked and only Mr. Hyde has the key. With the front door, the truth is revealed more easily and the truth reveals the good in Dr Jekyll.
The entire novel is written to resemble a mystery or some type of investigation. Many police investigations often involve a lot of secrets and mystery, which is common throughout this novel. Throughout Jekyll and Hyde, there are constant references towards the idea that the structure of the novel is one of a mystery.
In the case of this mystery, Mr. Utterson would be the detective, and that role is often associated with his character, usually with the events that take place, or the comments that he makes. For example, in the chapter Search for Mr. Hyde, Mr. Utterson, says ‘If he Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek’, explaining that he shall make several attempts to get to the end or the bottom of this investigation, where hopefully there will be answers to the many unanswered questions within the novel. As Mr. Utterson is the detective, the minor characters are portrayed to be the ‘witnesses’ in the case. Dr Jekyll’s butler, Poole, and Mr. Hyde’s maid are examples of these witnesses. Furthermore, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has several similarities to that of a police investigation, we can see this instantly from the title of the novel and the chapter titles. The key words in the title; ‘strange’ and ‘case’, immediately indicates that this is about a type of exploration or events. This is also shown to us in the ten chapter titles. These consist of terms such as ‘case’, ‘incident’, ‘remarkable’ and ‘full statement’. These words help enforce the proposal of a mystery. The last chapter in the novel, Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case, the title demonstrates the end of the case or the conclusion to the investigation, like the end of a police investigation, in this chapter Dr. Jekyll fully explores the secrets that arose in the novel. This allows us to see Dr. Jekyll in two different ways; as a scientist, as he explains the process in which he transformed into Mr. Hyde. Also, a criminal, as he details his actions of Mr. Hyde ad his encounters which involved him trampling over a little girl and murdering Sir Danvers Carew.
In Jekyll and Hyde, a number of clues are left to help the readers, answer the number or mysteries and unanswered questions that arise within the novel. This makes the truths in the novel easier to see. There are also a lot of coincidences, but the readers are not apparent of these until the later stages of the novel. There are several clues that lead us to answering some of the questions, for example, right at the beginning of the novel, after Hyde’s encounter with the small girl and her family, he produces a cheque signed by Dr Jekyll. Another clue is that later becomes apparent to us is the letter sent to Jekyll from Hyde. This letter has no envelope as Jekyll coincidentally ‘burned it’, also what is suspicious about this letter is that, the penmanship is that the same of Dr Jekyll, even though it was said to be posted by Mr. Hyde. One clue which should be blatant to the reader is that even though there is a link between Jekyll and Hyde, there is never a time when the two characters are in the same place.
Jekyll and Hyde also has two endings; the complex and the narrative. The complex ending, is at the death or disappearance of Mr. Hyde and the narrative ending is at the real ending of the novel, once the full statement and all the unanswered questions have been settled. The two sets of endings is just the start of the conclusion of the novel, the endings help to unravel the truth that is obscured from us throughout Jekyll and Hyde. If Stevenson wanted to, he may have chosen to end the novel once he had killed off Mr. Hyde, but instead decided to carry on and finish the novel and in turn unraveling the truth behind the mysteries and secrets that arise in Jekyll and Hyde.
The setting and the atmosphere, makes an immense contribution to making the truth in Jekyll and Hyde harder to see. There are a number of occurrences when there seems to be a dark of foggy setting which stops the characters in the novel from seeing things. In The Carew Murder Case, ‘a great chocolate covered pall lowered over heaven’. Pall is the cloak that is covered over a casket at a funeral. This can depict to the readers that there is a dark force covering the good which is ‘heaven’. This is another case of bad versus evil. In The Last Night, as Poole the butler and Mr. Utterson make their way back to Jeykll’s house, the weather was ‘wild’, ‘cold’ and ‘unseasonable’, ‘with a pale moon lying on her back as if the wind had tilted her’. The effects these quotes have on the novel are that, it helps enforce the idea of hiding the truth from the readers. Using personification and referring to the moon as ‘she’, personalizes the scene and makes the moon out to be a character in the novel. This also adds to the malignancy of Jekyll and Hyde. In Markheim, even the daylight is ‘faint’ and ‘foggy’, meaning it very hard to see the things that were really happening.
As the vision is obscured frequently in Jekyll and Hyde, it makes it easier for the characters to hide their actions that may not be appropriate.
The setting and atmosphere adds to the idea that the novel Jekyll and Hyde could fit into the ‘Gothic Fiction’ genre. The novel constantly refers to twisting streets and cold, foggy weather which is common. This scenery also symbolizes the dark side of human nature, which is also associated with ‘Gothic Fiction’. The hidden or darker side often accompanies depressing or distraught conditions.
The truth being hard to see isn’t nessacarly always because of the weather. The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde has point in the novel where it is physically difficult to see things they want to. In the novel, there are often locked doors, drawers and rooms, like the door in the chapter The Story of the Door, and the door which had to be broken down in the chapter The Last Night.
The truth being hard to see, may be because, there are some things that are too painful or disturbing to see. In Markheim, there are cases where truth is hard to see. An example is when Markheim chooses not to look at himself in the mirror. This is because this is the only way he can hide the truth after his encounter with the visitor; looking in the mirror means confronting the image of a killer.
In Dr Lanyon’s Narrative, this is the chapter where a number of secrets are finally revealed and questions begin to be answered. In the chapter, Lanyon says ‘what he told me in the next hour I cannot bring my mind to set on paper’. This indicates that the truth he was shown was to disturbing to show or repeat to another person. The truth also raises the idea of good and evil and what is good and what is evil. In Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case, Jekyll analyses the idea of being two and ‘that man is not truly one, but truly two’, meaning that there are two sides to everything. Jekyll, in the end realizes the truth that separating the two sides of him means releasing more evil into the world then good and this evidently causes Jekyll to become very happy with himself in the later days of his life, which lead to his suicide.
The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde is a novel of secrets. People keep these secrets for the pure benefit of themselves and rarely for others who are close to them. As each secret becomes clearer to the reader, we gain more of an insight the idea of reputation, to the life of Victorian gentlemen and Victorian society. Truth being hard to see, strengthens the secrets, as it is therefore difficult to reach a final conclusion as to what is correct, what is isn’t a secret and what isn’t hard to see.
Bibliography
- The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson(1886)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde(1890)
- Markheim – Robert Louis Stevenson(1884)
- Repression – David B. Stevenson(1996)